What to put on your services page.
So it actually sells.

The problem with most services pages

A lot of small business websites have a services page that reads like a menu. A heading for each service, a line or two of description, maybe a bullet list. Then nothing. The visitor is expected to work out whether this business is right for them, how much it costs, how long it takes, and what to do next. Most do not bother. They go back to Google and tap the next result.

The fix is not to write more. It is to write the right things, in the right order.

One page per service, not one big list

If you offer more than one distinct service, give each one its own page rather than lumping them all into a single long one. A plumber who does boiler installation, bathroom fitting and general repairs is better served by three short pages than one sprawling one.

Here is why. A visitor who lands on your site for boiler installation is not particularly interested in your bathroom fitting prices. A separate page means they get exactly what they came for. It also means search engines can match each page to specific searches. Someone who types "boiler installation Swindon" gets taken to your boiler installation page, not a general services page where they have to scroll past things they do not need.

The same logic applies to AI tools. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini pull answers from pages where the topic is clear and focused. A page titled "Boiler Installation in Swindon" is far more likely to generate a direct answer than a page titled "Our Services" that covers a dozen things at once.

If you genuinely only do one thing, a single services page is fine. The structure below applies either way.

The six questions your services page must answer

These are the six things a visitor wants to know before they contact you. Answer all six in plain English and the page will do its job.

1. What exactly do you do?

One clear sentence. Not "we provide bespoke landscaping solutions for residential and commercial clients". Just "we design and build gardens in Oxfordshire, from a simple lawn and border to a full redesign." A stranger should be able to understand the service without reading anything else on the page.

2. Who is it for?

Say who you work with. Homeowners, small businesses, landlords, new builds, rented properties. Some services have a natural customer and some do not, so being explicit removes doubt and saves time on both sides. If there are customers you do not take on, say that too. "We do not work on commercial properties" is honest and useful.

3. What does the customer actually get?

Describe the outcome, not the process. Not "we use our proprietary methodology to deliver a comprehensive service". Just "you end up with a working boiler, the old one taken away, and a certificate for your records." If the deliverable is a document, a finished room, a functioning website, say that plainly. People buy outcomes.

4. How much does it cost?

This is the question most businesses are afraid to answer, and the one customers most want answered. If you have a fixed price, put it on the page. If you work to a day rate or a range, put that. If every job is different, say "quoted per job" and explain briefly what affects the price, for example "depends on the size of the room and materials chosen". Then give a way to get a quote.

Refusing to mention price at all leaves the visitor with nothing, and many will move on to a business that does say something. Do not invent a price just to have one there if the work genuinely varies. "Contact us for a quote" is fine as long as you make the contact route obvious straight away.

5. How long does it take?

This is especially important for anything with a wait or a booking queue. If you are three weeks booked out, say so. If the job takes a day, say that too. People are planning their lives around your service. A customer who knows you are four weeks out will either decide that works for them or will need to look elsewhere. Either way, saying it clearly is better than a surprise later on.

6. Where do you work?

Name the areas. Not just "we cover the local area" but the actual towns. If you are a tradesperson covering Swindon, Royal Wootton Bassett, Wroughton and Highworth, put that list on the page. If you work across the whole UK, say so. If you cover a radius, give an example: "we work within about an hour of our base near Faringdon, which covers most of Oxfordshire and north Wiltshire." People scan for their town name. If they do not see it, they assume you do not cover them.

Add some proof

Proof is anything that shows you have done the thing before and done it well. Photos of completed work are the most convincing form of proof for trade and hands-on services. Before and after pictures are particularly useful. If you have a customer's written permission to use their words, a short quote about their experience is worth having.

If you are just starting out and do not have reviews or photos yet, be honest about it. You can say you are new to trading independently but have relevant experience from previous employment. Do not make up quotes or invent statistics. That kind of thing tends to read as fake anyway, and on a small business site it can damage trust rather than build it.

A practical approach for a new business is to describe one job you have done. Not a name or a testimonial, just a brief account: "recently we installed a new boundary fence for a homeowner near Abingdon, with featherboard panels and a treated gravel board, completed in a single day." That is more convincing than a generic five-star rating attributed to no one in particular.

One clear action at the end

Every services page should end with one thing you want the visitor to do next. One, not three. The most common options are: call, email, fill in a contact form, or book a slot in your diary. Pick whichever one you can respond to fastest and lead with that. If your phone number is at the top of the page and you actually answer it, lead with the phone number. If you prefer enquiries by form, lead with the form link.

Do not end the page with three paragraphs about your company values and then a tiny "get in touch" link buried at the bottom. The action should be obvious before the visitor finishes reading.

Why this structure also helps with search and AI answers

Search engines, and increasingly AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, look for pages that state a topic clearly and answer the obvious questions about it. A page structured around "what is it, who is it for, how much, how long, where" is naturally the kind of content that appears as a direct answer when someone asks a relevant question.

If your page says something like "How long does a boiler installation take?" as a heading and then answers it in a sentence or two, you are more likely to appear when someone types that question into a search box. This is not a technical trick. It is simply writing for real people, and the side effect is that it also works for algorithms.

Adding a short FAQ section at the bottom of a service page, covering the three or four questions you get asked most often before someone books, pushes this further. It is useful for customers, which is reason enough to do it. The search benefit is secondary.

A quick checklist before you publish

Run through these before the page goes live.

• Can a stranger read the first two sentences and understand what you do?
• Does the page say who the service is for?
• Does the page describe what the customer actually gets at the end?
• Does the page say something honest about price, even if the answer is "quoted per job"?
• Does the page say how long the work takes, or how far out you are booked?
• Are the areas you cover named, not vague?
• Is there some proof, even a brief description of a job done?
• Is there one clear action at the end?

If you can check all eight, the page is doing its job. If you cannot, the gaps are usually where enquiries are being lost.

What if you have lots of services?

Keep your main services page as a short directory, with a paragraph for each service and a link to its own full page. The main page can say what you offer and who you are. The individual pages do the detailed work of converting visitors. This also makes it easier to appear for specific search terms because each page focuses on one thing.

A reasonable structure for a business offering five services might be: homepage, about page, a main services page acting as a directory, one page per service, and a contact page. Seven or eight pages in total, which is more than enough for most small businesses to get started and get found.