GuideHow many pages should my website have?

Most "how many pages" advice online says five to ten. That's fine for a business that people find by name, through word of mouth or social media. If you want new customers to find you on Google when they search for the job you do, five to ten pages usually isn't enough, and the rest of this guide explains why.

Why the number of pages matters at all

When someone needs a local business, they search for the job and the place, like "boiler service Leighton Buzzard" or "puncture repair Aylesbury". Google then looks for the page on the web that best matches that search.

A homepage that lists ten services and fifteen towns is a weak match for every one of those searches. A page all about boiler servicing, or all about working in Leighton Buzzard, is a strong match for that one search. More of the right pages means more searches you can show up for.

In Whitespark's 2026 survey of 47 local search specialists, "Dedicated Page for Each Service" came out as the number one factor for ranking in normal local results, with town and area relevance second and linking between your own pages sixth (Whitespark, 2026).

The number itself isn't the goal, though. Google's John Mueller has said "it's certainly not the case that just having more pages indexed is a sign of quality" (Search Engine Journal). The aim is a page for each search your customers make, and nothing extra.

The five pages every business needs

Whatever you do, these are the pages people expect to find. They're also the ones most likely to be visited by someone who already knows your name and wants to check you out.

You'll also need a privacy notice if your website has a contact form or collects anyone's details. The ICO says "every organisation that holds people's information needs to explain why it holds it and what it does with it" (ICO), and it has a free tool to help you write one. Limited companies also have to show their registered name, company number and registered office address on their website (legislation.gov.uk). The footer is a fine place for those.

A page for each service you offer

This is where most small business websites fall short. If every service sits in one list on the homepage, Google has very little to show for a search like "lip filler Leighton Buzzard" or "cambelt replacement Milton Keynes".

DA Aesthetics, a nurse-led clinic in Wing, had all nine treatments as a ticked list on one homepage. Each treatment now has its own page covering what it is, what recovery is like, what results to expect and the questions people ask before booking.

Give a service its own page when people search for it by name, you want more of that work, and you've got enough to say about it to fill a page that's useful to read. Questions customers ask, what's included, how long it takes and photos of that job all count.

Keep services together when they're small parts of a bigger job, or you'd struggle to write more than a paragraph about one. A painter doesn't need a separate page for "skirting boards". It can be a line on the interior decorating page.

Start with the work you want more of, then work down the list. See how DA Aesthetics went from one homepage to 23 pages.

A page for each town you want work from

If you cover more than one town, a page for each of your main ones helps Google connect you with searches there. It also tells customers in that town that you actually go there.

This is the type of page that's most often done badly. Google's spam policies list "having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" as an example of doorway abuse (Google). In practice that means pages where the only difference is the town name.

I use a simple test before writing one. If you could swap the town name for another and the page would still read as true, it isn't ready. A good town page mentions things that are only true of that place: the areas you cover within it, the jobs you do most there, roads, landmarks, how far you travel and real jobs you've done nearby.

Both of those businesses cover Wendover, and their pages are completely different, because what a cleaner and a tyre fitter need to say about the town is different. Pick the towns you want more work from, and add more once you've done jobs there you can talk about.

Pages that answer questions

People search questions as well as services: "can I drive on a flat tyre?", "how do I get limescale off a shower screen?", "how long does lip filler last?". A short guide that answers one of these is another way for a customer to find you before they know who you are.

These pages matter more now that Google shows AI answers above the results. One study across 53 business accounts found AI Overviews appear on 36% of information searches, and brands quoted inside them got 120% more clicks than brands that weren't (Seer Interactive, 2026). Start each guide with a direct answer in the first sentence, because that's the part most likely to be quoted.

These pages are optional. Add one when you notice customers asking you the same question again and again, and stop if you can't keep them accurate.

Real page counts from six websites

These are local businesses I've built websites for. The numbers are different because the businesses are different, and each one follows the same pattern of core pages, service pages and town pages.

The garage has more service pages than the cleaner because it does more distinct jobs. The tyre fitter has the most town pages because a mobile business travels further than a garage with a workshop. Your number should come from your business in the same way.

Work out your number

Here's the sum I use when planning a website:

Say you're a plumber in Leighton Buzzard who does boiler servicing, boiler installs, bathroom fitting and emergency callouts, and you want work from Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable and Milton Keynes. That's 5 core pages, 4 service pages and 3 town pages: 12 pages, plus a privacy notice. If customers keep asking why their boiler pressure keeps dropping, that's your first guide.

Not every page needs to be in your main menu. Service pages can sit under a Services menu, and town pages can be linked from an areas page and your footer. What matters is that every page is linked from somewhere, so Google and your customers can find it.

When fewer pages is better

A one-page website is fine when you do one thing in one place, when you're testing an idea, or when the site has a single job. Crown & Texture's early access page is one page on purpose: it exists to collect signups before the shop opens, and extra pages would only get in the way.

Fewer pages is also better than thin ones. Google's spam policies describe "scaled content abuse" as "when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users" (Google). Twenty near-identical town pages, or a page for every small variation of the same service, can do more harm than good.

Watch out for two pages competing for the same search too, like "Kitchen fitting" and "Kitchen installation". Merge them into one stronger page. And there's no minimum length to hit. Mueller has said the number of words on a page "is not a quality factor, not a ranking factor" (Search Engine Journal). Write enough to answer what a customer needs to know, then stop.

Checklist

• My website has a homepage, services, about, reviews or past work and contact page
• I have a privacy notice, and my company details are in the footer if I'm a limited company
• Each service I want more work for has its own page
• Each service page answers the questions customers ask me about that job
• I have a page for each main town I want work from
• Each town page would stop being true if I swapped the town name
• No two pages are trying to rank for the same search
• Every page is linked from at least one other page
• Each page has a clear way to call or get in touch

Questions people ask