A designer is redoing her website. She has strong photography, a clean layout, and a bio that actually sounds like her. But the services page is giving her pause.
How much should go there? Does she spell out every deliverable, every phase, every item included or excluded? Or does she keep it high-level and let the discovery call fill in the gaps?
This feels like a formatting question. It is actually a business strategy question. What lives on your services page shapes which potential clients reach out, how well-prepared they are when they do, and whether they arrive already aligned with the value of what you offer.
Interior Design Community put this to its members, and the responses reveal something worth sitting with: the answer is not simply “yes, define your packages” or “no, keep it vague.” It is about understanding what a website visitor actually needs at the moment they are reading your page, and what you need them to do next.
Your Services Page Is a Filter, Not a Brochure
Most designers approach their website services copy as a description of what they do. A list of offerings, maybe some bullet points about deliverables, sometimes a paragraph about their process. That is not wrong. But it misses the actual job the page is doing.
When a potential client lands on your services page, they are not in buying mode. They are in dreaming mode. They are gathering enough information to decide whether you might be the right fit, not to sign a contract. They want to know you understand their kind of project, that you have solved problems like theirs before, and what would happen next if they reached out.
This is a small but important distinction. A page that leads with your process (“we start with a discovery call, then a site measure, then floor plans…”) is describing how you work. A page that leads with what the client ends up with is telling them why they should care. Most clients who are not designers do not know what a site measure or a space plan means to their life. But they do understand “you will have a home that works the way your life actually works and looks the way you have always imagined it.”
That same instinct- give visitors only what they need for this stage- carries into the next interaction too. For a closer look at how much to share once someone actually reaches out, see What to Say on an Initial Design Inquiry Call (and What to Save for Later).
The practical result: your services page is a filter. When done well, it sends the right clients to your inquiry form and quietly disqualifies those who are not a fit before they ever book a call. Done poorly, it generates confusion or, worse, attracts clients who misunderstand the scope, the investment, or the kind of collaboration your business requires.
Being Vague Has a Real Cost
There is a version of “keeping it simple” that is strategic. There is also a version that is just a failure to make a decision. If your services page is vague enough that a visitor finishes reading and still does not know which service to inquire about, that vagueness is working against you.
“Services: Clear and concise but keep it simple so people understand how you’re able to help them. If prospects are reaching out to you after viewing your website services page / content saying, ‘I’m not sure which service or how you can help’ then you need to revamp your copy. Being vague is like throwing a net and hoping to catch something/anything but when your copy is clear on your services, it will speak to your client.”
@marsha_sefcik
The test she is describing is worth applying to your own page right now. Read it as if you are a homeowner who has never worked with a designer. Do you know what to do next? Do you understand whether this firm handles projects like yours? Do you have a sense of the level of investment involved?
If the answer to any of those is no, the page is generating confusion rather than confidence. Confused prospects do not reach out. They move on to the designer whose page made it easy to understand what working together would look like.
Clarity on a services page is not about listing every detail of every service tier. It is about providing enough information for the right client to recognize themselves in what you offer and know immediately what step to take next.
Show Project Value, Not Your Process
The most useful reframe for this question comes from designers who have worked in or around marketing. The distinction they draw between describing what you do and describing what you produce for the client is the heart of effective services copy.
“This is a great question, and I have a lot to say about this. First, to give you some background, I’m a designer (and I mentor other designers) but my first career was in marketing. So… here’s what you need to consider: When potential clients are looking at your site, they are in the dreaming phase, but they are also gathering information. You need to give them the right kind of information for the stage they are in. What they really need to know is how you are going to solve their problems and make their dreams come true. Why you are the right fit. So it’s a balance. You need to tell them what you do, but your website isn’t the place to list every little detail. Too much information becomes overwhelming and confusing. And people don’t read more than a few sentences at a time. They look at pictures and skim. If you do renovations, for example, you need to tell people that, but you don’t need to list that you do a walk-through then a site measure then floor plans then…. If you explain how your process addresses their needs they’ll know you are an expert and you have a process that gets them to the finish line. How you get them there doesn’t really matter at this stage, and they probably don’t know what half of it means anyway. Show them your project value, not your project to-do list.”
@lsi_workshop
The practical version of this: instead of “our process includes a site survey, space planning, furniture selection, and final installation,” try something like “we take your space from a room that does not work to one that fits your life, and you will have a clear plan, a trusted team, and someone managing the details from the first meeting through install day.”
Both describe the same service. One of them speaks to the client. The other describes your workflow to people who do not know what your workflow means to them.
This does not mean hiding your process. It means leading with outcomes and letting process support that story rather than lead it. A short paragraph about your approach, framed around what it produces for the client, does more work than a bulleted checklist of deliverables. It also positions you as someone who thinks about the project from the client’s perspective, which is the first thing a potential client actually wants to know about you.
The Starting Fee Question
One concrete decision comes up for almost every designer redesigning a services page: whether to include pricing.
Most designers do not show exact fees. Starting rates are a different question, and the case for including them is practical.
“Yes! I also include the starting fee for each level of service.”
@jennifertaylordesign
Starting fees do several things at once. They pre-qualify inquiries, which means fewer discovery calls with clients whose budgets are incompatible with your fees. They signal positioning. A designer who lists “starting at $8,000” is communicating something different from one who lists nothing at all. And for clients comparing multiple designers, knowing your approximate investment threshold is the information they need to make an informed decision about whether to reach out.
The argument against pricing on a website (that it drives people away before they understand your value) deserves a clear-eyed look. In practice, the clients who leave when they see a starting fee were unlikely to be the right clients anyway. Your services page cannot close the deal. But it can make sure the right people are the ones picking up the phone.
For a deeper look at how much pricing detail makes sense on a public-facing page, see Interior Design Rates on Your Website, How to Share Pricing Without Boxing Yourself In.
How much to show is a business decision, not a universal standard. Some designers list a range. Some list a minimum project size or budget. Some show starting fees by service tier. Any of these approaches gives a prospective client enough context to self-select before reaching out, and gives you a better-qualified inquiry when they do.
What to Leave for the Discovery Call
There is a version of service clarity that goes too far. Listing every deliverable, every revision policy, every item included and excluded turns a services page into a contract. That level of detail is exhausting to read and, more importantly, it trains clients to approach the project as a line-item negotiation before they have ever had a conversation with you.
“On my website I define it a bit but not all the details. Most details are discussed during our 20 mins discovery phone call.”
@interiordesignsbytracy
The discovery call is doing real work here. It is where you understand the client’s specific situation, explain how you work within the context of their project, and provide both parties with enough information to decide whether the fit is right. The services page should get them to that call. It should not replace it.
In practical terms: define your service offerings (and tiers, if you have them), describe what each is designed for, include starting fees if you choose, and make the call to action clear. The details about how many revisions are included, what happens if scope changes, or what the procurement markup is: those conversations belong in the discovery call and the signed contract, not in public-facing marketing copy.
This also protects you as a business. Scope clarity in writing belongs in your contract. Putting granular scope details on your website does not make them binding or reduce clients’ likelihood of pushing the edges of what’s included. The more useful places to be explicit are the proposal and the contract. @joseph.bellone made that point directly:
“Omissions section in our proposals. Better that it is clear than vague. People will run with it otherwise.”
@joseph.bellone
The logic applies differently to a proposal than to a website. On a proposal, explicit is better. On a website, clear is better than comprehensive.
Educational content, not legal advice.
Clear Next Steps Are the Point
Read enough services pages and a pattern emerges. The ones that work have something in common. They do not describe a designer’s process in detail or list every item in every package. They make the reader feel understood and make it clear what to do next.
“Yes, frame it around the problem it solves and who it helps. The biggest thing is clear next steps!”
@thecollectivefordesigners
“Clear next steps” is worth sitting with as a design principle for the page itself. A potential client who reads your services page should know, without any ambiguity, what to do if they are interested. Book a discovery call. Fill out an inquiry form. Start a project conversation. Whatever your intake process is, the page should point directly and unmistakably toward it.
A services page with clear next steps, copy framed around client outcomes, and just enough detail to qualify the right inquiries does not just generate more leads. It generates leads that are already aligned with how you work, what you charge, and what they can expect.
For a closer look at building intake questions and discovery calls that filter for genuine fit, the To-The-Trade episode Design Entrepreneurship, From Corporate AVP to Studio Owner with Rasheeda Gray is worth a listen.
The designers in this conversation arrived at the same conclusion from several different angles. Frame it around the problem you solve. Lead with value, not process. Include enough detail that the right client recognizes themselves. Leave the rest for the conversation that actually starts the relationship.
The services page does not close the project. It earns the call.
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