Note: This article was originally written for small business. However, many of the principles also apply to non-profit organizations.

Although a brochure site can have a multiple number of pages, they generally are 1-7 pages in size.

One Page Brochure Web Sites- Tools for Pre-selling

One page sites consist of your business name and logo (or main graphic), usually on a masthead or banner at the top of the page. The rest of the page consists of textual information about your company and services or products along with one or more graphics or photos to explain them and how they can benefit your web site visitor. You will also want to include contact information such as physical address if you have one, phone number, and email. The whole point of the page is to introduce your company and services or products and to list the benefits they provide to your prospective customer. The main thing you want to remember in writing your web page content is this: You want to "pre-sell" your visitor on your service or product so they will pick up the phone and call you or email you for more information. At that point, you can give your sales presentation to a live person who is interested in your services and products. When your prospect calls you or sends in an email request for more information, you web site has successfully fulfilled its main purpose.

Remember that the textual content of your web page is the most important. Although it has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, remember that it is words that sell. Or to put it in the parlance of Internet marketing gurus: "Content is king." Your graphics should add to and help explain your textual information.

Multi-page Sites

One page business web sites can be a quick and easy way to give your business an online web presence and for some businesses such as independent sales representatives, this may be all you need. At some point in time however, you will probably want to expand your business site to at least several pages. If you plan on expanding your one page site in the near future, it is better to take a little more time and develop the content for a multi-page site right from the start. Even if you plan on using a professional web designer to design and code your web site, you will still need to supply him with your textual content about your business and if possible, any photos or other graphics related to your business you might want to include in your web site. Types of pages for multiple page sites could include any or all of the following.

Home Page: This page is a necessity for any type of multi-page site. It should be an introduction to your visitor of your business and also a summary of the other pages of your site with links to those pages. Since it is a summary, you might want to write some of the other pages first, such as the "Services" or "Products" page where you tell about the services and/or products you offer. On the Home page, you want to grab the reader's attention quickly and interest them enough so that they will stay and browse your site. Use an eye-catching headline for first paragraph to do this. Also on the page, state a summary of your services or products and your USP. USP stands for "Unique Selling Proposition". It is what makes you better than your competitors. Why should the prospect buy from you instead of someone else? That is what your USP tells them. Also have a link on this page to your "Contact" or "Quote" page to make it easy for them to contact you. They may have visited your site before and are now returning to buy or receive more information. If possible, include one or two graphics which will show something related to your business. Keep graphics on this page to a minimum however, since pages heavy with graphics are slower to download for visitors using a dial-up connection and if it is too slow, they will simply click off and go somewhere else.

Services or Products Page: This page, as the name states, is where you tell about the services and/or products you sell. Use a few graphics or photos to describe your product or service and how they will benefit your prospective customer. Unlike e-commerce sites where you would sell numerous products and use a shopping cart on your site, the purpose of a brochure web site is simply to give your visitor an idea of the products or services you are selling. Just a sampling of your product line along with descriptions is adequate for this type of site. If you provide a service, show one or two photos of the service being performed along with the description. Bulleted lists of benefits for each service are better than long descriptions. Web surfers tend to skim web pages until they come to an item of interest before they read more fully. Make use of headings and bulleted lists interspersed with short paragraphs rather then long paragraphs of text. The exception to this of course, is if you are writing a series of articles for informational content for your reader such as "how-to" articles.
Try to strike a happy medium between providing enough content for your reader with being short and terse. Keep it informative, yet to the point.

About Us Page: On this page, tell about your company. This page is where you can give information to help build your prospect's trust and confidence in you and your services. Some of the things you can tell your visitor are:

• History- how long have you been in business?
• A short bio of you and your staff or crew.
• Your credential and expertise in your field or business. This is especially important if you are a consultant or professional.
• The location of your business if you have a physical address.
• The geographical locale of your service offerings.

Contact Us Page: Place your contact information on this page. Remember to include:

• Name of business
• Physical address if you have one
• Mailing address
• Phone number
• Cellular phone number
• Email address or Contact form

Quote Form or Contact Form Page: This is a good page to have if you are a service related business such as a contractor or sales representative. It consists of a form on the page where your visitor can type in their name, contact information, and one or more text boxes where they can type in comments or a request for more information or a quote. The form is created on the web page with special coding. After the visitor fills in the form and clicks on the submit button, the information is sent to a special script on the web site's server and processed. Most forms are sent to the web site owner's or other recipient's email account or web site mailbox. One of the advantages is that more information can be collected from the web site visitor than is normally available through regular email and can be structured as the recipient requires. (For example, it can be structured to collect the information needed to give a proper quote for services). Another advantage is that is helps eliminate spam to the web site owner's mailbox, since the email address does not reside on the web site form itself. This means that spammers' spiders cannot collect the email address of the recipient by means of the online form.
(These "spiders" or "bots" can, however, index an email address in the normal form such as " This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if it is located on the site. That's where a good spam filter comes in handy.)

There are many other types of pages, you can have for a brochure type of web site, but the ones listed above can be used to create a simple, yet very effective and economical business site for small business owners and sales representatives.