Service pages: one page per service, or one page for all?

One page per service, if you offer more than one distinct service and can write at least 400 specific words about each. One combined services page if your services are variations of the same thing, or if you cannot yet say anything different about them. The wrong answer is the common one: ten pages of 120 words each, built because "more pages is better for SEO". It is not; Google ranks pages on whether they answer a query well, and a thin page answers nothing.

When does one page per service win?

When each service is a thing people search for separately and buy separately. A law firm offering employment law, property conveyancing and company formation has three audiences with three questions. A page per service lets each page rank for its query, answer that buyer's specific concerns, show the relevant proof and ask for the relevant action.

The test: can you write, for each service, a page with a different headline, different buyer questions, different proof and a different price range? If yes, split. If you would be writing the same page with a different noun, do not.

Splitting also helps navigation and advertising. A visitor who clicked "property conveyancing" lands on a page about that; one who searched for it does too. On the company websites we build, the service pages are usually the pages that bring in enquiries from search, and the homepage is the page that brings in enquiries from referrals.

When is a single services page better?

• You offer one service with variations. A plumber who does repairs, installations and maintenance can cover them on one page with sections. Three pages would compete with each other for the same local search.
• The services are bought together. An accountant's bookkeeping, payroll and year-end filing are usually one engagement. One page with sections, and perhaps a separate page for a service that is sold on its own.
• You cannot write the content yet. A single strong page beats five weak ones. Split later when you have the words and the proof.
• The site is small and the business is local. A homepage, one services page, About and contact can rank well for a local business with a good Google Business Profile. Adding six service pages of generic text will not improve on that.

How do the three options compare?

The hybrid is what most companies with four or more services end up with, and it is a good answer: full pages for the services that bring in work, a section each on the listing page for the rest, and the discipline to promote a section to a page only when it has earned it.

What goes on a service page?

In order:

1. Headline: the service, for whom, with the detail that matters. "Office fit-out for companies moving in Bengaluru, from design to handover in 4 to 8 weeks."
2. Who it is for and the problem it solves. Two or three sentences in the buyer's words.
3. What you deliver. A specific list: the steps, the deliverables, what is included and what is not.
4. How it works. Enquiry to delivery in three to five steps, with timings.
5. Proof for this service. A case study, a testimonial, numbers, photos. The proof on the fit-out page should be fit-out proof, not a general client logo row.
6. Pricing or a starting price. More on this below.
7. Two to four FAQs that buyers of this service ask.
8. The call to action. Specific to the service: "Get a fit-out quote", not "Contact us".

Our website copywriting guide covers how to write each part. Four hundred to nine hundred words is the usual range; a page much shorter is thin, and one much longer usually contains a blog post trying to get out.

Should you show prices on service pages?

If you can, yes. Buyers who find no price assume the worst or go to the competitor who published one. Options, from most to least useful to the buyer:

• Fixed prices, if the service is standard.
• "From" prices or ranges, if jobs vary. "Most office fit-outs we do cost between X and Y per square foot", with your real figures, tells a buyer whether to call.
• What drives the price, if you cannot give a number. "Priced on floor area, the level of finish and whether we handle approvals." Still better than silence.

Prices shown on a page need a date beside them and a review every six months. Skip prices only if the range is so wide that it says nothing, or if your market is one where publishing invites a race to the bottom and you have seen that happen.

When do service and location pages become spam?

A tempting extension of "one page per service" is "one page per service per city": "Web design in Pune", "Web design in Mumbai", "Web design in Nagpur", each a copy with the city swapped. Google's spam policies describe these as doorway pages, and sites that build them can lose rankings across the board, not just on those pages.

A location page is legitimate when there is something specific to say: an office at that address, staff based there, projects done there, local regulations that differ. One page per office you actually have, with local proof, is fine. A page per city in the state is not. The same test applies to industry pages: "Web design for dentists" is a real page if you have dental clients and dental-specific content, and a doorway page if it is the generic page with "dentists" pasted in.

How should you name and link service pages?

URLs. /services/office-fit-out, not /services/service-2 or /our-services/office-fit-out-services-bengaluru-best. Short, with the main words. The URL slug generator turns a service name into a clean slug. Keep every service under /services/ so the structure is visible to visitors and search engines.

Titles and descriptions. Each page gets its own title tag, leading with the service and ending with the company name, and a meta description that says who the service is for and what it includes. The meta length checker shows whether each fits in a search result.

Navigation. A "Services" menu item that opens a dropdown listing the pages, plus a /services listing page with one paragraph per service for visitors who want the overview. Our post on website navigation covers how to keep the dropdown short when you have many services.

Internal links. Each service page links to its proof (case studies, portfolio entries), to related services, and to the contact page with a service-specific message. The homepage links to each service page with one line. Blog posts about a topic link to the service page for it.

Deciding the service page structure is step 3 of our guide to planning a company website. If you are weighing the cost of more pages, how much a website costs covers how page count affects price; the short answer is that the writing, not the build, is where the cost sits.