Clear services a stranger can understand
A stranger should be able to say what you do after one page. If the services are a label with no body, they cannot.
What this is
A clear service is a named offer a stranger can understand without a call: who it is for, what you actually do, and how an engagement starts. A services hub can hold several of those offers on one page. Separate service pages are better when each offer needs its own explanation.
Substance means real paragraphs, not a headline and a button. A page under about 80 words is a stub. It names the work and then stops. Aim for enough prose that someone could repeat the offer to a colleague. Around 150 words on the services page is a practical amount of substance. More is fine when it stays specific.
Two real service links, or one services page that loads, is the minimum shape. “What we do” in the menu counts when it goes to that explanation. A single word in the footer, with no page behind it, does not. The contact path is a different page. People still need to know what they would be contacting you about.
Why it matters for trust
Most strangers arrive with a job in mind and a fear of hiring the wrong kind of firm. A clear service page lets them sort themselves. They can see that you do this work, and they can see the work you do not claim.
Thin pages create the opposite feeling. The menu promised an explanation. The body is a slogan. They assume the firm has not decided what it sells, or that the site was left unfinished. Either reading costs you the visit.
Write the service the way you would say it on a first call. Name the client, the work, and the boundary. “Tax planning for owners of one company” is clear. “Holistic solutions” is not. If you offer three services, give each one a heading and a paragraph. Do not merge them into a list of six nouns. A stranger should leave the page able to tell a partner what you do.
Do this
- List the offers you want a stranger to hire. Keep the list short enough that each one can have a paragraph.
- Give each offer a page, or a clear section on a services hub. Say who it is for and what the work includes.
- Write more than a stub. If the services page is under about 80 words, add the real description before you link it in the menu.
- Use link text a stranger understands: the name of the service, or “Services,” or “What we do.” Point those links at the pages you just wrote.
- Link at least two services from the home page when you have two. If you truly sell one thing, one strong services page is the hub.
- Read the page aloud. Cut any sentence that could sit on a competitor’s site unchanged. Leave the sentences that name your work.
How Free Trust Score treats this
Free Trust Score helps when it finds two or more links whose text or address mentions services or “what we do,” or when a services page loads. It hurts when there is no such link and no services page. A services page that loads with fewer than about 80 words hurts as a thin page.
A services page with enough words, about 150 or more, is a separate helpful mark for substance. The scan counts words and links. It does not grade whether the offer is clever. Empty or coming-soon key pages are covered on the empty-pages article.
Related
See what a stranger can already see.
Run a Free Trust Score, or book a short fit call if you want help reading it.