Guides · page structure
Write the page around the question, not the brand.
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A page gets quoted when its answer is easy to find and easy to lift. Here is how to reshape an ordinary small-business page so that it is, in six moves you can finish this afternoon.
Start with the question a customer would type
Every page that gets quoted answers one question well. Before you edit a word, write that question down in the customer’s own phrasing: not “our shipping policy” but “how long does delivery take”.
If you cannot name the question, the page probably tries to do three jobs. Split it. One page, one question, one clear answer is the shape that is easiest for a person to skim and for a machine to lift.
1 Customer emails and the search box on your own site are the cheapest source of real phrasing.
Put the answer in the first two sentences
Most pages open with a welcome, a company story, then the answer on the third screen. Reverse it. State the answer directly under the heading, then use the rest of the page for the reasons, the exceptions and the detail.
A good first answer is complete on its own. If someone read only those two sentences and left, they would still have what they came for.
2 Test it: cover everything but the heading and the first two sentences. Does it still make sense?
A before and after you can copy
Before. “Welcome to our studio. Since opening we have loved helping clients feel at home. Many people ask about our prices, and the truth is that it depends on a number of factors.”
After. “A standard room design costs $1,200 and takes three weeks. Larger rooms and custom furniture add to the price; the factors are listed below.”
The second version names the number, the timeframe and what changes them, in the order a reader wants them. Nothing was invented, only reordered and made specific.
3 Use your real figures. A vague answer is not quotable, and an invented one is worse.
Twelve yes-or-no checks, instant result.
Make headings do the work
Headings are signposts. Write each subheading as the question it answers, and keep the answer directly beneath it. A visitor scanning the page, and a crawler reading its structure, should be able to find any answer from the headings alone.
Keep one H1 for the page’s topic and use H2s for the questions. Avoid clever headings; a plain heading that matches a plain question wins.
4 Clever headings read well in a brochure and badly in an answer.
Keep facts next to their subject
Prices, opening hours, sizes and dates should sit in the text right beside the thing they describe, not in a footer or a screenshot. Text that is separated from its subject is easy to misread and easy to skip.
The same goes for images and PDFs. If a fact only exists inside a picture or a downloadable file, repeat it as plain text on the page.
5 Use a table for comparisons; it keeps each fact attached to its label.
Finish by saying where it came from
Where a claim rests on a document, a standard or a published number, link to that original rather than to another summary of it. A reader can then check you in one click, and a page that shows its sources is a safer one to quote.
Then give the page a signature and an honest updated date. Our guide to trust signals covers how.
6 Primary sources age better than commentary about them.
Keep reading: Show who stands behind the page
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