When people hear about a company for the first time, they usually look at its website first. The procurement manager checking you out before asking for a quote and the prospect who types your name into Google are looking for the same answers within seconds: What does this company do, can I trust it, and how do I reach the right person?
In this guide we group what a corporate website needs in 2026 under five headings: content and structure, trust signals, technical foundations, privacy and security, and measurement and ownership. It is the list we set up at the start of every web project, and you will find a one-table checklist at the end. If you are wondering about costs, see our guide to how much a website costs.
What is a corporate website?
A corporate website is a company's official home on the web: where it describes itself, its services and how to get in touch. Unlike a social media account, it belongs entirely to you, and no other platform sets its rules. Google, business directories and AI-powered search tools also look at your website, and at sources consistent with it, when they answer questions about your company. That is why your corporate website should be the main source of accurate, up-to-date information about you.
A small brochure site says "here we are". A corporate website explains each service separately, builds trust, can be found in search and guides visitors towards getting in touch.
Content and structure
Content comes before design. Projects that start before the pages and the visitor's path to the contact form are clear usually take longer.
The first screen of the home page
Without scrolling, visitors should see what you do, who you serve and what to do next. One clear sentence, your main services and a visible contact button work better than rotating sliders and generic slogans.
A separate page for each service
Listing every service on one page tires visitors and makes it harder to be found in search. When each service has its own page, people searching for that service land directly on it. A service page should cover the scope, how the work is done, frequently asked questions and a call to action.
About us and the team
Founding year, team, way of working and real photos build trust. The names and short profiles of the founders or managers answer the question "who is behind this company?", which matters especially when you sell to other businesses.
Contact page
Email, a contact form, address and map, business hours. Keep the form short: name, email and message are usually enough. After sending, visitors should see a clear confirmation that their message has arrived.
References, case studies and a blog
Client logos and project stories are the strongest trust signals, but publish them only with your clients' permission. A regularly updated blog shows your expertise and helps the site appear in more searches.
Trust signals
- Consistent company details: Company name, address and email should be written the same way on the website, on your Google Business Profile and in directories. Different addresses confuse both visitors and search engines.
- Freshness: A three-year-old announcement or an outdated copyright year makes a site look abandoned.
- Real images: Photos of your office, team and work are more convincing than stock images.
- Working links: Broken links cost trust. Social media icons should not lead to empty or abandoned accounts.
- Easy-to-find legal information: Your legal company name, contact details and privacy policy should be reachable from every page.
Technical foundations: speed, mobile and search engines
Visitors never see the technical setup, but they feel its effects. A site that loads slowly, breaks on phones or cannot be found on Google will not bring in business, however good its design.
Speed: Core Web Vitals
Google uses three measurements, called Core Web Vitals, when it assesses page experience:
| Metric | What it measures | Good value |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | How long the main content takes to appear | 2.5 seconds or less |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | How quickly the page responds to clicks and taps | 200 milliseconds or less |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | How much the content jumps around while loading | 0.1 or less |
These values should be met for at least 75 percent of real visits. Serving images in modern formats such as WebP at the right size, avoiding unnecessary plugins and hosting fonts on your own server are the most effective steps.
Mobile
Google indexes websites based on their mobile version. Test the menu, forms and tables on a phone one by one; a shrunken desktop design is not enough.
Search engine basics
- A unique title and meta description on every page
- One main heading (H1) per page and a logical heading order
- An XML sitemap and a robots.txt file
- Structured data that describes your company (Organization)
- On multilingual sites, hreflang links that tell search engines which pages are language versions of each other
- Readable URLs: words that describe the page instead of random numbers
These basics will not bring rankings on their own, but without them even the best content stays hidden. Add the site to Google Search Console as soon as it goes live and keep an eye on how it is indexed.
Accessibility
Enough colour contrast, keyboard navigation, alternative text for images and clear form labels. Level AA of the W3C's WCAG 2.2 guidelines is a good target. If you sell to consumers in the EU, note that the European Accessibility Act has applied to many e-commerce services since June 28, 2025; micro-enterprises providing services (fewer than 10 staff and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of up to EUR 2 million) are exempt. An accessible site is easier for everyone to use, and search engines learn what an image shows from its alternative text.
Privacy, cookies and security
Contact forms, newsletter sign-ups and analytics tools all process personal data. Set these up from the start:
- Privacy notice: Under Article 13 of the GDPR, people must be told who processes their data, for what purpose and on what legal basis when the data is collected. Turkey's data protection law (KVKK, Article 10) sets a similar duty to inform. Put a link to the notice next to your form.
- Cookie consent: In the EU, storing or reading non-essential cookies requires the visitor's consent under Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive, as implemented in national law, and the Turkish data protection authority's cookie guide takes a similar approach. In practice, this usually means analytics and advertising code should not run until the visitor agrees.
- Privacy policy: If you use third-party services such as reCAPTCHA on your form or embedded maps and videos, describe them in your privacy policy too.
- HTTPS and up-to-date software: The site should open only over HTTPS; browsers label unencrypted sites "Not secure". Keep the content management system and its plugins up to date.
- Form security: Spam protection and server-side validation; keep form data only as long as you need it.
- Backups: Daily backups and an occasional test restore. If something goes wrong, the site should be back within minutes.
This section is general information as of November 4, 2026, not legal advice, and the rules differ between countries. We recommend preparing your privacy notice and cookie policy with your legal adviser.
Measurement and ownership
- Search Console and analytics: Connect the site to Google Search Console and to a consent-based analytics tool on launch day. Track goals such as form submissions and email clicks separately: knowing how many people got in touch matters as much as knowing how many came.
- The domain in your name: Your domain should be registered to your company, not to your agency.
- Access and source code: You should have access to the admin panel, the hosting account and the site files, so you can take your website with you if you change providers.
- An update plan: Who will update the content, and how often? Put the maintenance and support scope in writing from the start.
Corporate website checklist
| Area | What it needs |
|---|---|
| Content | A clear statement and contact button on the first screen; a page for each service; About, Contact and references |
| Trust | The same company details on the site, your Business Profile and in directories; fresh content; real images |
| Speed | LCP of 2.5 seconds or less, INP of 200 milliseconds or less and CLS of 0.1 or less; images in modern formats |
| Mobile | Menu, forms and tables tested on a phone one by one |
| Search engines | Unique titles and descriptions, one H1, sitemap, structured data, hreflang where needed |
| Accessibility | Contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text; WCAG 2.2 AA as the target |
| Privacy | Privacy notice, cookie consent, an up-to-date privacy policy |
| Security | HTTPS, up-to-date software, form protection, daily backups |
| Measurement | Search Console, consent-based analytics, form and email goals |
| Ownership | Domain in your company's name, access to panel and files, maintenance scope in writing |
Frequently asked questions
How many pages should a corporate website have?
There is no fixed number. A home page, About, Contact and one page per service are a good start; for most businesses that means 6 to 15 pages. More important than the number is that each page answers one question clearly.
Template or custom design?
A template is quick and cheap; a custom design is built around your brand and what visitors need to do on your site. We explain the difference and its effect on price in our guide to how much a website costs.
How long does it take to build a corporate website?
It depends on the scope; corporate sites usually go live in 4 to 8 weeks. Preparing the content is what most often sets the pace.
How can we check our current website against this list?
Google's free PageSpeed Insights shows speed and mobile issues, and Search Console shows indexing problems. For the rest of the list, open your site on a phone and browse it the way a client would.
If you would like to go through your website with us using this list, get in touch; the first meeting is free. You can find the details of our corporate web design service on our web design page.
Sources
- web.dev: Web Vitals and their thresholds
- Google Search Central: Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results
- Google Search Central: Mobile-first indexing best practices
- Google Search Central: Organization structured data
- W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
- EUR-Lex: General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679
- EUR-Lex: ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC (consolidated)
- EUR-Lex: European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882
- Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data, KVKK (mevzuat.gov.tr, in Turkish)
- KVKK: Guide on Cookie Practices (in Turkish)