The “More Is More” Trap
When people first build a website, the instinct is to put everything on it. Every service. Every accolade. Every paragraph about the company history. A testimonial for every happy customer. It feels thorough.
To the person actually visiting? It’s a wall.
What Visitors Actually Do
Here’s what the research on how people read websites keeps saying: they don’t. They scan. They’re looking for the answer to one question. Can this business help me with my problem? If they can’t find that answer fast, they’re gone.
A site packed with content doesn’t give anyone more reason to stay. It just gives them more to dig through before they give up.
The Pages That Actually Matter
For most small business sites, you need:
A homepage that answers “what do you do and who do you do it for” in the first 5 seconds of loading.
A services page (or individual service pages) that say what you offer in plain terms. Benefits, not just features.
An about page that builds trust with real information about your background and how you work. Not a mission statement. Actual information.
A contact page with a form that works, a phone number, and ideally a location.
A blog for SEO and credibility.
That’s the foundation. Everything else stays optional until the data says you need it.
What Decluttering Does for Performance
Fewer pages means cleaner site architecture. And clean architecture means search engines can actually understand what each page is about. That clarity helps rankings. It matters most for smaller sites that are never going to out-content a major competitor.
Less also loads faster. Fewer elements, lighter media, cleaner code. That’s less time to load. Which lands us right back at Core Web Vitals and bounce rates.
Simplicity Is a Design Decision
Building something simple takes more discipline than building something complex. Every site we rebuild during a migration, we treat as a chance to make a deliberate call about what belongs and what doesn’t.
Thinking about a site refresh or a cleanup? Let’s talk about your web design →