The 10 Most Important Parts of a Website

So, you've decided to create a website to get your blog out there or to assist you with your online business. You're brimming with content ideas and what you want to write, but a website seems a bit odd just showing a blog page, a bit bare? What other pages do you need and what's going to make it look professional and seamless? Here I will be discussing the 10 most important parts of a website, from what pages to include, to some of the small details which help to make your website look the bees knees!

Here I Will Cover:

• Home page

• Header and Footer

• About page

• Contact page

• Privacy Policy

• Logo and Images

• Blog

• Landing page

• Thank you page

• Call to Action

Of course this is not an exhaustive list, but these are a good starting place when you are first getting up and running with your website or business!

1. Homepage

Number 1 of the 10 most important parts of a website is of course your home page. This is the page that more often than not, people will first land on if they type in the URL or click a link to your website.

On this page of your website you will want to give the visitor an overall idea of what to expect from your site and allow them to easily navigate around to other parts of your site. This page doesnt need to be complicated, in fact the cleaner the better, let's entice people in to find out more!

Pretty much all hosting sites and website builders will offer home page templates and these can be used to help you get up and running. You will often be able to choose from a number of templates depending on how you want your overall website to look and you can adapt text and images on the templates to involve your own content.

2. Header and Footer

Your header and footer will appear on pretty much every page (with the exception of your landing page).

Your header will appear at the top of each of your pages and generally speaking will include your logo and a menu for the visitor to be able to navigate to other pages on your site. Depending on the style and purpose of your site, you may also have a search bar or a log in element. You can choose which pages are visible here and they may appear in a dropdown menu on a smaller screen like a mobile device so make sure you check your settings in mobile view as well as desktop to make sure you are happy with how it looks!

Your footer will appear at the bottom of each page on your site and acts as a secondary menu. The footer may include links to other pages on your site as well as any social media icons and most importantly your privacy policy or disclaimer - read a bit more about why your privacy policy is one of the 10 most important parts of a website here. You should also include your copyright here.

Once you create your header and footer and set design elements such such as fonts, colours and backgrounds, these will remain the same on each page. This helps to keep your website looking neat and consistent throughout, as well as allowing visitors to easily navigate around your site. This is really key to creating a good user experience.

3. About Page

Next up in the 10 most important parts of a website is your about page. This could be a personal about me page for a small business or blog like mine, or it might be a more generic about us page for a bigger business.

The content on this page should give the visitor a more in depth understanding of what you and your website or business is about. Think of it as more of a deep dive on some of the information you may have touched upon on your home page.

This page may include some information about the history of your business or blog so that visitors can understand how you got to where you are now and your vision going forward! People who are within your niche and align with you, will have the same desires and pain points so don't be afraid to get a little vulnerable here - especially if you are a personal or lifestyle brand. This is a really nice page to start building a relationship with the reader. Remember that a majority of interactions people have with businesses these days is online, through a screen. It's nice to feel the personal element behind a business to remind your readers and customers that there is a person behind the content they are reading!

4. Contact Page

It is important for any business to have a contact page so that your visitors or customers can get in touch with you if they have any queries or need customer support.

Again this doesn’t have to be complex. You will already have your header and footer set up which will bulk out the page and as you will see from my contact page it simply has a form to fill in name, email address and write a message. Many templates have a simple contact page you can use with a form already embedded on them. You will just need to make sure that you adjust the destination email address where these messages will be sent to.

With Hostinger, there is a drag and drop element which is a contact form making this kind of page super easy to create even without a template. Watch out for my blog post about how easy it is to create a website using Hostinger website builder, including how to create and edit a contact form.

The contact page can also be a good place to pop your social media icons again. Some people may prefer to message on facebook or instagram rather than email so its nice to give people ALL of the options!

5. Privacy Policy

Coming in hot in the top 10 most important parts of a website... its your privacy policy! This is especially important as you have a contact page in which people will be putting in their email address. This is where you will therefore be collecting visitors personal information and it is HIGHLY important (by law!) that you explain your data handling practices. Personal information can be anything from someone's name and email address to card details for purchases and even someone's IP address or 'ID cookies'.

Visitors to your site need to be able to trust that their information won't be passed on to third parties and will be stored securely. No one wants their information used without permission. We're all aware of the danger of hacking and I'm sure most of you will have been or at least know someone that has been a victim of hacking and information compromise. NOT NICE!

Generally a privacy policy should state what information you may be collecting from your site visitor, how this information is collected, what the purpose is for collecting this information and how the information is shared.

You may also need to include a disclaimer, particularly if you are going to be including affiliate links on your site or blog. It is good practice to have this disclaimer alongside your privacy policy, but it is also really important to include it at the start of any post or page which has an affiliate link within it. This is to ensure your reader is well informed that you are affiliated with the product you are discussing or recommending BEFORE they click the link!

Whilst we are talking about security - it is also really important to have an SSL certificate and you can read more about what an SSL certificate is and why its important in this blog post here.

6. Logo and Images

If you have a logo for your website, brand or business, show it off! A Logo gives you a professional look and can help to tie your content and products together nicely. It makes your brand recognisable.

Your header is the best placement for your logo ensuring that it is seen at the top of every page but of course you can place it anywhere you like - I also have mine in the footer. A good tip is to make sure your logo links back to your home page. This supports a good user experience so that if visitors get lost on your site at any point they can easily navigate back to you home page!

I used Canva to create my logo. They have lots of templates you can use (although i didn't like any and ended up making mine from scratch) and there are also loads of other AI style logo creators out there. Hostinger actually has an AI logo creator integrated into their website builder so that could be a great place to start if you are using the Hostinger web hosting platform and website builder! Take a look below to see the Logos Hostinger's AI created for me. Maybe I would have used one f I hadn't already created mine on Canva!

Images other than your logo are also important to improve your users experience. The major bulk of most websites and in particular blogs, is written text. However there is nothing more daunting when scrolling the world wide web than being met with a gigantic block of black and white text. Using images across your website can help break your content down into more manageable chunks making them more engaging for your reader. This might be really obvious if you're writing about food or travel for example, but it is also really important when talking about business, IT, accounting or anything that seems less visual on the surface!

Of course the best images to use are your own, add your own personal flair and be unique! However, there are plenty of options for stock images you can use, both within website building platforms such as Hostinger, as well as on stock image websites such as canva, shutterstock and pixabay.

When you add your images, be sure to include an alt description for each one to help google rank your site and assist with SEO (search engine optimisation).

7. Blog

Most websites are blogs. A blog is simply a log, on a website! A lot of businesses will include a blog on their website to keep customers up to date with what is occurring within the business or in fields closely related to their business. Other websites might solely be blogs - like the ones you may read to get advice on the best backpack to buy, or the best places to visit in Thailand.

A blog is a great place to share your experiences, advice and expertise in certain areas. Here within my blogs you will see that I share my experiences with creating an online income including all the technical aspects that I am learning along the way. A blog is a great way of getting your content out there and if done correctly can get the right eyes on your content to help others who are seeking information.

It is important to keep your blog updated to make sure that the information your are providing is correct as well as continuing to add fresh content regularly. This will help with SEO as I explain here. A blog should be able to provide quality information of value to your reader, oftentimes it will assist in solving their problem in the way of advice or recommendations.

A blog also gives you the chance to give your brand a voice. As mentioned previously, business can often be interactions with a screen, and though a blog is exactly this, an interaction with a screen, it also gives you a chance to show off your brands personality a little more! Take advantage of this!

8. Landing Page

Number 8 in the 10 most important parts of a website is your landing page, which should link onto your thank you page. But what is a landing page? And how is it different to your homepage which people will 'land on' when they specifically visit your website.

A landing page is part of a website, but can also act as a stand alone page and is used as part of a marketing or advertising campaign. The biggest difference between a landing page and a homepage is that a landing page's most important feature is a CTA (call to action) which you can read about below. The landing page is designed around the CTA and this is the main focus of the page. A homepage on the other hand introduces a visitor to the website and brand. There may be a CTA on the homepage but it is not the primary focus of the page.

Depending on the focus of your business there are different types of landing page. You may have a landing page which collects visitors personal information such as a name and email in exchange for your newsletter or a free download. This would be a lead generating landing page which provides you with the information of someone interested in the products you are offering. This landing page is part of your sales funnel and it is then your job to convert this lead into a paying customer. Find out more about sales funnels in an upcoming blog post - keep your eyes peeled!

Other types of landing pages may direct the visitor directly to a product and information about the product to entice an immediate sale or provide an offer or discount.

A landing page may be accessible through your website like my 'start here' page, but more often than not this page will be reached through a link on an ad, email or through social media. As you can see on my start here page, once you are on the landing page, there is no navigation back to the main website - hence it being a standalone page. There is simply on CTA which is to 'send me the free masterclass now' in this example. Having just one link to click removes potential distractions and helps bring focus to improve conversion rates of your marketing.

If you are reading this blog because you are researching how to set up a website to earn an online income, then click the image below to view my landing page and sign up for the free masterclass to see how affiliate marketing can get you there!

9. Thank you Page

If someone decides to give you their personal info such as a name or email through your landing page, it is a good idea for them to then be directed to a thank you page. This continues to build a relationship with a reader or potential customer. Showing a message such as 'thanks for signing up' can feel quite dismissive and usually lead someone to then close the page and move away from your website. A thank you page however, can be used to reinforce your relationship and encourage the reader to view other parts of your website. It can also helpful to include any next steps they may need to take - like checking their inbox, or clicking a link which leads directly to what they have signed up for - be that a newsletter or a free video/download. You could also share links to your blog or to your social media pages so they can continue to explore your business and brand.

If the landing page is the first part of your conversation with a potential customer the thank you page helps to continue the conversation and provide a good user experience.

10. Call To Action (CTA)

Finishing up this, (non-exhaustive), list of the 10 most important parts of a website, is your call to action (CTA). These can be positioned all over your website, from your home page, landing page and even on your blog.

A CTA is exactly what is says on the tin. It is content designed to get your viewer to perform a particular act. It is an instruction. This includes any enticements to 'click here' and buttons on your site instructing viewers to 'sign up here' or 'read more here'.

Your CTA elements have multiple functions from driving traffic to different areas of your website, to collecting leads for potential customers. Without these CTAs you risk not capturing customer details or traffic leaving your site. The latter will have a negative impact on your SEO results as google likes to see a high 'click through rate' in order to rank your site highly and therefore reach more of your audience. By providing CTAs for readers to click through to other pages on your site, it is more likely that people will continue exploring your site and remain on it for longer, by finding information of interest and value to them. This will in turn give you better ratings with google, which will then help google get your content in front of the right people who need/want it!

SEO seems to crop up often in why parts of your website are important, you can read more about SEO in my blog by clicking this link. And that, is also an example of a CTA which is helpful to both the reader and the website!

If creating an online income is of interest to you, you will likely need to create a website. Perhaps this is why you have landed on this website and subsequently this blog. I would like to therefore use this opportunity to show you another example of a call to action by directing you to the button below, so that you too can start to create an online income and give yourself time and location freedom!