Best Practices for Consulting Websites
As a consultant, you want a professional-looking site that builds legitimacy and clearly communicates what you provide. But it’s easy to get stuck with all the options when creating your site.
We’ve had the pleasure of building lots of websites for consultants, so we’ve compiled a list of commonly asked questions (and answers) to get you started!
What platform should I use?
We find that Squarespace is a great fit for most consultants. It’s drag-and-drop platform is intuitive and user-friendly, which means you’ll be able to easily edit your site yourself. It’s also an all-in-one platform which means you won’t have to worry about plugins breaking or expiring.
A common question we get asked is why we recommend Squarespace over Wordpress. In short, we find Squarespace’s ease of use and smoother learning curve is better for our clients. If you’re curious to know more, here’s an in-depth comparison from Site Builder Report.
What pages should I have?
Here’s a sample sitemap that includes pages commonly used on successful consulting websites. Most consultants won’t need all of these pages, but we included them to spark some ideas!
Homepage
Your homepage should clearly and quickly communicate what you do, who you serve, how you make your client’s lives better, and how to hire you.
Services
For your services page, you’ll want to break down what’s included with each of your services and how they help your client. It’s also good idea to provide a clear call-to-action for each service to encourage visitors to take the next step.
Workshops
A lot of consultants use online or in-person workshops as a way to generate leads or provide a less expensive option than one-on-one consulting. If you offer this, you may want to provide the details and a sign-up form on this page.
Online Courses
Offering an online course is a great way to build authority with your potential clients, generate semi-passive income, and offer a lower-cost entry point for clients. On this page you can talk about what’s included in your course and link out to your online course platform (e.g. Teachable).
Blog
Writing blog posts that answer common questions related to your expertise can improve SEO, drive more traffic to your site, and build trust with potential clients. Your blog can be a simple grid of posts with a title and thumbnail image for each.
Podcast
Podcasting can be a lot of work, but it can also be a fun way to build your authority on a specific topic. Your podcast page can simply be a list of the latest episodes, an embedded player, and a link to subscribe.
About
Use your about page to explain why you’re a consultant, your philosophy or approach, and share your values. This is a great spot for a headshot or other photos of you to add some personality.
Contact
Your contact page needs to provide a clear next step, whether that’s “schedule a call” or “book a consultation”, we recommend providing a call-to-action you want people to take. This can be achieved through a form on the page, an email address, or even a phone number to call.
Should I use stock photos?
Professional, custom photography of you working with your clients will always be better than stock photos, but we know that hiring a photographer isn’t always in the budget.
At Knapsack, we often use stock photos from Adobe Stock or Unsplash to add imagery to our client’s websites.
Here are a few do’s and don’ts to follow when choosing stock photos:
Don’t use obviously posed photos
Do choose photos of things that could happen in real life
Don’t use busy or complex photos behind text
Do use photos with simple, clean composition
Don’t use the first photo that comes up in your search
Do take the time to find a photo off the beaten path
AI-Generated Photos (the next option in your image toolkit)
Need visuals that look custom but don’t have the budget—or time—for a full photo shoot? Modern AI image tools (e.g., Midjourney, DALL-E, Firefly) let you describe the scene you want and instantly create royalty-free, high-resolution photos that match your brand palette and style. They’re perfect for illustrating abstract concepts, filling in “gaps” between stock shots, or testing different visual directions before hiring a photographer. Just refine the prompt until the lighting, mood, and subject feel authentic—and always give each image a quick reality-check for odd details (AI still gets fingers wrong!).
What functionality do I need?
Beyond displaying text, images, and videos, some consultants will need additional functionality built into their website.
Online Scheduling
Calendly is an awesome scheduling app which lets people choose a date/time, so you don’t have to email back and forth. The calendar can be embedded right onto your contact page.
Email List Signup
Another type of functionality we recommend is MailChimp, a tool for email marketing, if you’re wanting to grow your email list. You can connect a form on your site to MailChimp, then easily create email campaigns and manage your list.
Online Courses
If you are offering an online course, you may want to consider using a platform like Teachable to host it.
Podcasting
If you are going to host a podcast, you can use Squarespace’s built-in podcast hosting. Or if you’re looking for something more robust with additional analytics, try Transistor.
Should I build my website myself?
The short answer: Not unless you’re on a very tight budget.
While doing it yourself would save you money up front, you’ll likely be outside of your area of expertise, which can ultimately deliver a subpar product and cost you money later on.
If your budget allows, we recommend that you hire an expert to build a website that does you justice.
However, if you’re up for a challenge, and have some extra time, then start a new Squarespace site and go for it. We hope these best practices help guide you on your journey!
Well there you have it, consultants!
If you’re looking for more inspiration, you can see some of our favorite consulting sites in the gallery below.
If you’re interested in hiring an expert to build your site, feel free to contact us and we’ll talk with you soon!
