Services page optimisation checklist: 44 checks for B2B service and solution pages

Why services pages deserve the attention

For a B2B company that sells a service, the service and solution pages are where a researching buyer decides whether to get in touch. Buyers now do most of that deciding before they speak to anyone. In 6sense's 2024 Buyer Experience Report, B2B buyers were nearly 70% through their purchasing process before engaging with sellers, initiated first contact more than 80% of the time, and 81% already had a preferred vendor when they did¹. The same report put the average buying group at 11 people¹. Your services page has to make the case to all of them while you are not in the room.

It also has to make that case quickly. Jakob Nielsen's analysis of Microsoft Research data on more than 2 billion page visits found that the first 10 seconds decide whether people stay, and advised communicating the value proposition within that time². That is the test the first section of the checklist applies.

How to use the checklist

1. Pick one page. Choose the service page with the most search impressions or visits that is closest to revenue. Google Search Console's Performance report, filtered by page, shows which pages people actually find.
2. Score every check as pass, partial or fail. Be strict: "partial" means a buyer would still need to ask.
3. Read it on a phone first. Many buyers will meet the page there, and problems with length, layout and buttons show up faster on a small screen.
4. Fix failures from the top of the list down, because a visitor who leaves at the first screen never reaches your case studies.
5. Note the date of every change, so you can measure it (see the last section).

1. The first screen

• The H1 names the service and who it is for, in the words buyers use. "Managed Microsoft 365 support for UK law firms" passes; "Empowering your digital journey" fails.
• One sentence states the outcome the buyer gets, without superlatives. A good test: could a competitor use the same sentence unchanged? If so, it is not specific enough.
• The primary call to action is visible without scrolling on a laptop and on a phone, and says what happens next ("Book a 30-minute scoping call").
• One credible proof point sits near the top: a relevant client (with permission), an accreditation, or a specific fact such as how long you have delivered this service.
• Nothing moves. No carousel or auto-rotating banner: a visitor who scrolls on quickly sees one slide at most, and the message can change before they finish reading it.

2. Fit: who it is for, and who it is not

• The page names the buyers it suits: sector, size, situation. For example, "for firms of 20 to 200 people without an in-house IT team".
• It says who it is not for. This feels risky, but it saves both sides a wasted call and makes the rest of the page more believable.
• It describes the problems in the buyer's language, taken from sales calls and enquiry emails rather than from your internal service catalogue.
• It names the triggers that usually lead someone to look for this service: a failed audit, a new regulation, a key person leaving, a system reaching end of life.

3. Scope: what you actually do

• Deliverables are listed concretely: what the client receives, in what form, and how often.
• The process is shown as steps, three to six of them, with a rough timeline for each.
• The client's side of the work is explicit: the access, people and time you need from them.
• What is excluded is stated, or linked to, so procurement does not have to discover it in the contract.
• The first 30 days are described. Buyers want to picture the start, and "onboarding" alone does not let them.

4. Proof

• Case studies are specific: the client's situation, what you did, and what changed, with numbers only where they are real and attributable.
• Proof matches the page. A case study about a different service or a different kind of client persuades less than one close to the reader's situation.
• Testimonials name a person and a role, with permission. An anonymous quote reads as invented, even when it is not.
• Accreditations and certifications link to something verifiable, such as the certifying body's register.
• Team members who would do the work are shown, with real photographs and a line on their experience.

5. Price and commercial terms

• The page says something useful about price: a fixed price, a starting price, typical ranges, or at least what drives the cost.
• Engagement models are explained: project, retainer, day rate, or per user, and the minimum commitment.
• Contract basics are answered: length, notice period, and what happens to the client's data or work if they leave.
• The value is framed honestly. If you mention return on investment, show the assumptions rather than a headline number.

6. Every member of the buying group

With buying groups of around 11 people¹, the person who finds your page is rarely the only one who reads it. Give each common role what it needs, in a section or a linked page:

• The sponsor: the business outcome, the timeline and the risk of doing nothing.
• The technical evaluator: integrations, methods, tools and standards.
• Finance: price, payment terms and how the cost compares with the alternatives, including hiring.
• Procurement, legal and security: insurance, data protection (UK GDPR, where data is processed), security certifications and standard contract terms. A short "for procurement" section with downloadable documents saves days.

7. The next step

• One primary call to action, repeated after the main sections, with the same wording each time.
• The offer is specific: "a 30-minute call with a consultant, not a salesperson" says more than "Get in touch".
• The page explains what happens after someone clicks: who replies, how fast, and what the first conversation covers. Only promise a response time you can keep.
• The form is short, with only the fields you use to respond. Our demo request form guide goes through it field by field.
• A lower-commitment option exists for buyers who are not ready: a pricing guide, a sample deliverable or a checklist, without a forced form.

8. Search and AI answers

• The page targets one primary search phrase that has commercial intent, such as "managed IT support for law firms", and the title tag, H1 and first paragraph use it naturally.
• The title tag is unique and specific, about 50 to 60 characters, and the meta description says who the service is for and what happens next.
• The page matches what ranks. Search the phrase yourself. If the results are guides, a thin sales page will struggle; if they are service pages, a guide will.
• Key questions get direct, self-contained answers of two or three sentences, which both readers and AI assistants can quote. Google's guidance is to write people-first content that demonstrates first-hand expertise³.
• Related guides and case studies link to the page with descriptive anchor text, and the page links back to them.

9. Mobile, speed and accessibility

• The main content appears quickly on a phone, and the page does not shift as it loads. Check Core Web Vitals in Search Console or PageSpeed Insights.
• Buttons and links are easy to tap. WCAG 2.2 sets a minimum target size of 24 by 24 CSS pixels at level AA, with some exceptions⁴.
• Headings form a logical outline (one H1, then H2 and H3 in order), so screen reader users and skimmers can both navigate.
• Text contrast and size are comfortable, and diagrams have text alternatives.

10. Measurement

• A baseline is recorded before any change: visits, search clicks and impressions, and enquiries from the page, over at least 28 days.
• Enquiries are attributed to the page they came from, so you can tell which service page produced a lead.
• One change at a time on a given page, each dated, so you know which one to credit or blame.

Most services pages have too little traffic for a conventional A/B test. Our guide to CRO for low-traffic B2B websites explains what to do instead, and how to measure the impact of a website change covers the before-and-after method in detail.

A scoring sheet you can copy

Score 2 for a pass, 1 for partial and 0 for a fail, out of 88. The total is useful for comparing your own pages with each other over time; it is not a benchmark against other companies.

A worked example

This example is illustrative, not a client. A consultancy's cyber security page opens with "Securing tomorrow, today" over a stock photograph, a carousel of three messages and a "Contact us" button. Scored against the checklist, the first screen fails four of five checks, and the call to action is only a partial pass.

A rewrite based on the checklist might read: "Cyber Essentials Plus certification for UK firms of 10 to 250 people", followed by "We prepare you for the assessment, fix what fails and stay with you until you pass. Fixed price from the first call." The call to action becomes "Book a 20-minute readiness check", next to the consultancy's own certification. Further down, the page adds a five-step process, what the client must provide, a price range, a short section for whoever signs the contract, and one relevant case study.

None of that guarantees more enquiries. It does mean a buyer can decide whether to call without having to call first, which is the job of the page.

Common mistakes

• Writing about the company instead of the buyer. Count the sentences that start with "We". If they outnumber those about the client's situation, rewrite.
• Proof without context. A logo wall with no story says less than one specific case study.

For the wider process of finding and prioritising changes, see our B2B CRO guide.

Where Artiweave fits

Artiweave reviews the pages you already have, including services and solution pages, against evidence from crawls, Search Console and performance data, and proposes specific changes, such as a clearer H1 or a rewritten title tag. Your team approves, edits or rejects each one; approved changes are published with automatic rollback, and outcomes are reported with the strength of the evidence, including "inconclusive". It is in private beta.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a B2B services page be?

As long as it takes to answer the questions a buyer would otherwise ask on a sales call, and no longer. For most services that means a clear first screen, then sections on fit, scope, process, proof, price and the next step. Length matters less than whether each section answers a real question.

Should a services page show prices?

Show as much as you honestly can. A fixed price or a starting price is most useful; if neither is possible, explain what drives the cost and give typical ranges or engagement models. A page that says nothing about price leaves a question almost every buyer has unanswered.

One page for all services, or one page per service?

One page per distinct service that buyers search for and buy separately, with a short overview page linking to them. A single page covering everything cannot match each search, and it cannot answer each service's questions in enough depth.

How do I know whether a change to a services page worked?

Record a baseline before the change, change one thing at a time, and compare equal periods afterwards against similar pages you did not change. On low-traffic pages many results will be inconclusive, and they should be reported that way.

Sources

1. 6sense: 2024 Buyer Experience Report, press release (9 October 2024), as republished by Silicon UK
2. Nielsen Norman Group: How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages? (Jakob Nielsen, September 2011), drawing on Liu, White and Dumais, Microsoft Research, SIGIR 2010
3. Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
4. W3C: Understanding WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.5.8, Target Size (Minimum)

Improve the services pages you already have, one approved change at a time.

Artiweave proposes specific changes from evidence, your team decides what is published, and every outcome is measured honestly. It is in private beta.

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