How to Write a Services Page
If you’ve been working on writing your own website, you’ve probably already written your home page (or primary landing page) and your About page. So the next thing you’ll want to work on is your services page. This page – or more likely pages – will be the place where you describe what you do, how you do it and, most importantly, why someone should choose to work with you over your competitors.
This is the place for you to wow your visitors. You don’t want bland, vanilla descriptions or forgettable offerings indistinguishable from your competitors. Make your website real estate count by making it shine and stand out from the competition. Here’s how to do that.
How to Write a Services Page
Draw Out Your Site Map
The first step is to figure out your site map. This is a step that many of us like to skip – after all, we know our own services so well that it doesn’t always feel necessary. But how you split out your services pages plays into your SEO and your marketing. (That’s how you sell yourself to the reader and Google.) So, it’s a vital part of your prep work for your website.
When you’re working to figure out how to split out your services, it might be obvious. Or it might not. But at its most basic level, you want to split them out in a way that makes sense but doesn’t overwhelm the user. And gives them plenty of roadmap to follow to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Example – NHL
This law firm has divided their work into six main categories – litigation, bankruptcy and insolvency law, building and construction, commercial law, wills and estates and legal services.
While it might not be completely clear to the layperson what area they fall into on a first read, their content will explain that (as will yours). But what this site map does well is give users a clear place to start.
Choose Your Title
Unlike the rest of your page, when crafting your main services page title, it’s best not to get too clever. Remember that the title is essentially a navigation tool, and no one wants to follow a map that’s hard to read.
It’s better to stick with a straightforward approach when it comes to the title – Services, Our Services, What We Do, What We Offer – all good choices. Of course, if you offer only one service, it can also work very well to create a main service page based off that service. So, for example, if you’re a book editor (and only a book editor), you can call your service page ‘Book Editing’ or ‘Editing’. But in most cases, straight up ‘Services’ is the best way to go.
Subservices Page Titles
Of course, services subpages will have their own titles. And these should be based on the name of the service itself.
If our book editor (for example) also works on magazines and writes LinkedIn profiles, each of these should have a title that reflects that work. In that case, our book editor would have a main ‘Services’ page, with three subservices pages with the titles ‘Book Editing’, ‘Magazine Editing’ and ‘LinkedIn Profiles’.
In the same way, your specific offerings will determine your page titles. Just keep them clean (and directional!) and you’ll be good to go.
What About the Single Services Page
Having a single services page that lays out all your offerings in the one space can work well from a strictly informational perspective. But from an SEO and marketing perspective they simply don’t.
Let’s take the book editor example again. If a potential client is looking for a book editor, they’ll search for ‘book editor’ (or something similar). But if they want one of the editor’s other services (such as help with a LinkedIn profile), searching for ‘book editor’ is not the first thing that comes to mind.
When you only have a single services page, you’re only able to focus (and optimise) that page on a single idea (and a single keyword). In the book editor’s case, that would likely be ‘book editing’. Because of that, they’d be unlikely to be put forward as a good search result by Google when someone searches for help with their LinkedIn profile, for example.
On the other hand, if the book editor had a separate LinkedIn services page, they’d be far more likely to be a result of that search. And that means they’d be far more likely to bring in clients that need that work done.
Name and Frame the Problem
Now that you’ve completed your background work, it’s time to get started writing. But before you write your first word, you have to first identify the problem. This is not your problem – it’s the reader’s problem.
Ask yourself, ‘Why have they come to this page? What problems are they facing? What solutions are they looking for?’ The answers to these questions will guide the very first words that you write, because before you do anything else you must respond to that problem.
To do it well, avoid words like ‘I’ or ‘we’, at least in the beginning. Instead, name and frame the problem. What’s gone wrong, and why are you the person to help.
Example: Konnect Agency
Konnect Agency does this very well. Their copy names the problem – the traditional narrative won’t cut it. Then they frame it – instead you need someone to help you go beyond the traditional and anticipate the future.
You, As the Solution
Next you need to offer how you – your business or practice in particular – solves that problem for the reader. What do you do that is different, better or unique from your competitors. This is often called your USP (unique selling proposition). And this is where you can talk about yourself (and use ‘I’ and ‘we’!).
The Konnect Agency does this by focusing on their similarities to their client.
Whether you do this as the next step, or somewhere further along the page, is really less important than you actually doing it.
Laying Out Your Capabilities
Of course, you’ll also need to lay out your specific capabilities. This is the ‘what you do’ section.
Here you are focusing on precisely what you do to answer the reader’s problem. If you’re the book editor, you’d lay out the elements of your book editing work. This might be a developmental edit, a copyedit and proofreading.
If you’re a lawyer, you’d lay out the capabilities you have for each of your separate pages. So, for conveyancing, you might lay out how you review the contract for sale and purchase, walk through legal obligations and review strata, building and pest reports, among other things.
Explaining Your Processes
In this section, you’ll want to set out your processes. This is less the ‘what you do’ and more of the ‘how you do it’. If, for example, you offer a free initial consultation, this is where you want to explain that process. If you have a service that has a regular set of steps to work through, it’s a great idea to lay those out.
The more the reader understands how you do what you do, the more confident they’ll feel in working with you.
Drafting Your CTA
Importantly, you want to make sure that your reader always understands what’s next – in other words, what’s the next step in working with you. This could come directly out of your processes. If you offer a free initial consultation, this should be your CTA. Or if you just want people to call you, then a Get in Touch button might be the right next step.
It’s important to remember that when it comes to CTAs, they need to be short, succinct and action-based. Think ‘Call Now’, ‘Book Now’ and ‘Get My Free Initial Consultation’. Research also shows that putting the CTA in the reader’s point of view results in a 99% increase in conversion. So, rather than ‘Book Your Free Consultation’ it’s ‘Book My Free Consultation’.
Use Social Proof
If your potential customers are already on your services page (and especially your subservices pages) they’re ready to be convinced. Using social proof is the icing on the cake that helps you to bring them over from warm lead to loyal customer.
Social proof is simple – it’s an endorsement from a third-party person or business. They include:
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Awards
- Rolling counters that show number of customers or number of services performed
So, when you’re asking yourself how to write your services page, you should also ask yourself how you could include social proof. It’s this social proof that gives your customers the extra oomph they need to give your business a go.
Example – Bella Vie Interiors
Putting It All Together
When it comes to how to write a services page, your most important focus is to showcase how you solve the reader’s problem. Once you do that, then you can focus on what makes you, your business and (of course!) your service, great too.
And when writing your content be you first and foremost, don’t make things too formal (yes, even if you are in a professional context!), speak to the reader and make it all about them. This will give you a great start!
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If you’ve read How to Write a Services Page and you’re thinking, this is all well and good, but I’m just too busy to write my own website (or maybe, ‘I just don’t want to!’) then get in touch. I’d love to help you out.
