Stop Thinking in Pages: A Web Developer’s Perspective


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In the early days of the web, when it consisted mostly of academic papers and newsletters, it made sense to call the things we built “pages”. It was a much simpler time, but those days are long past and, frankly, that’s outdated thinking.

Today’s web is much more dynamic than the big online filing cabinet envisioned twenty years ago. The content management systems we use to build sites now can twist our content into all manner of shapes, limited only by our imagination.

I need a web site for my company. Just something simple…” the email began.

I took a deep breath. Here it comes.

Only four pages. How much?

Yet, it amazes me that I still see requests from prospects defining a site by the number of pages. That sort of thinking can cause serious problems:

  • It doesn’t tell the whole story
  • It artificially limits the site’s scope
  • It could hurt your search engine ranking

It doesn’t tell the whole story

Your web developer’s first response to that email should be “What’s on those pages? What do they need to do?” I’ve found there’s usually a disconnect between what a developer considers a “page” and what their client expects.

To many people, the home page, “about us”, and a searchable product catalog are all “pages”. To your developer, a “page” probably means an unchanging piece of content, lacking any interactivity — like the pages of a book. Anything else is “functionality”.

If you’re concerned about your budget, it’s better to spend a few extra minutes clarifying your requirements to prevent a costly misunderstanding down the road. Let’s revise that email to be clearer:

“I need a web site for my company. I’m looking for four pages: a home page describing us, an “about us” page with more details, and a searchable product catalog. No e-commerce, but I do need a form for people to contact our sales team for more information.”

It’s a good start, but still thinking small. Let’s look at another way thinking in “pages” affects your site.

It artificially limits the site’s scope

If you think of your site in terms of four pages, it will only ever be a four-page site. Why limit yourself like that? Instead, think in terms of content. “About Us?” Content. Products? Those are content. Blog entries? You bet those are content. And today’s content management systems make it easy to create and manage it all.

Think of your content like a stack of children’s building blocks. Some blocks are red; some blocks are blue. They can be stacked on top of each other like a wall, or used to build a pyramid or even a castle. And if you prefer, you can make your masterpiece with just the red blocks alone.

Likewise, your developer just needs to build a few basic “content types” and displays, and you’ll be free to add five, fifty, or even five thousand more “pages” yourself whenever inspiration strikes. Your content is the building block used to grow your website.

And, that same content can drive a mobile site for smartphones, feed inventory & prices into Google’s Product Search database, or even automatically post updates to Twitter.

Instead of asking your developer for four pages, ask them to build you a site that can grow with your business:

“I need a web site for my company. We currently have a handful of products and need a searchable product listing of them. But, we need the flexibility to grow anywhere up to 5,000 products as needed.

We’d also like a blog for daily updates, and the ability to add basic content like an “about us” page. No e-commerce, but I need a form for people to contact our sales team for more information, and we should be able to add new fields and options to that form as our business needs change.

We’re also interested in a Google Product Search feed and would like Twitter updates sent out for every new blog post. Please feel free to suggest other ways we can leverage our content to drive sales.”

Your humble “four pages” have blossomed into a more modern, dynamic web experience! And, by being more up-front about your requirements, you’ve enabled your developer to provide a more accurate estimate of the work involved.

If they can’t build the site to meet your budget, your new content-centric approach lets them build a basic site now and add features around your content later as your budget allows.

There’s another way a “simple” four-page site could cause problems:

It could hurt your search engine ranking

Everyone’s always talking about SEO these days, and for a good reason. Every day, Google makes little changes to how it does things so the best, more relevant websites rise to the top of their search results. Their business depends on it, and your business depends on it.

The best way to tell Google you’re more important than your competitors and the pretenders is to give them lots of relevant, changing content to chew on. In a lot of ways, Google is like your customers: if you don’t keep things interesting, they won’t visit as often and it’ll take longer for them to see your latest changes.

If your site is built in a content management system, you have an easy way to create fresh content for all of your visitors: people and search engines alike. Commit yourself to regular updates. If you don’t think you can post something new every day, try every week or even every month.

Also, talk to your web developer about options for displaying your Twitter or Facebook feeds on the various “pages” of your site. Use these opportunities to highlight trends in your industry and keywords you want Google to see.

Let’s take one more look at that email:

“I need a web site for my company that communicates with Google as clearly and powerfully as it does with people. When people need my products or services, they should be able to find me.”

We currently have a handful of products and need a searchable product listing of them. But, we need the flexibility to grow anywhere up to 5,000 products as needed.

We’d also like a blog for daily updates, and the ability to add basic content like an “about us” page. No e-commerce, but I need a form for people to contact our sales team for more information, and we should be able to add new fields and options to that form as our business needs change.

We’re also interested in a Google Product Search feed and would like Twitter updates sent out for every new blog post. These might be beyond our budget right now, but please make it possible to add these features in the future.

How much? Also, please feel free to suggest other ways we can leverage our content to drive sales.

This new message gives your developer a lot more to work with and will help them better estimate the work involved. It also sets an expectation for how you plan to grow the site over time, and makes it clear you want the content and features to expand with it.

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