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After auditing close to 50 service-provider websites, there’s one page that consistently causes problems: the Services overview page.
Some look like a second homepage.
Some are super thin and leave you wondering what the point is.
Many accidentally compete with their own service pages.
And almost every business owner I talk to feels unsure about it.
That confusion makes sense. This page sits in an awkward middle space.
It isn’t your homepage. It isn’t a sales page. But a lot of established business owners have one because they think they should.
So people wing it. They guess. They copy sections from other pages. Or they add content without a clear strategy.
This post is here to give you a clear, strategic way to handle SEO for your services overview page. One that helps real people understand what you offer, supports your site structure, and stops this page from working against the rest of your site.
One quick clarification before we go further.
This post is about services overview pages that sit alongside individual service-specific pages. In other words, a site where each core service has its own page, and the Services page acts as a gateway, not the only place the information lives.
If you’re running a small website with a single Services page that lists everything you offer and that’s it, the strategy looks different. In that case, your Services Overview page is the Service page.
What we’re talking about here is the more common setup for established service providers, where the overview page supports a larger service ecosystem.
What Is a Services Overview Page (and What Is It Not)?
A services overview page serves a distinct role within a multi-service website by orienting visitors and framing how individual services fit together.
What Is a Services Overview Page?
A services overview page is a hub page that explains the scope of your offers, helps visitors orient themselves, and routes traffic to the right service-specific pages.
From an SEO perspective, this page gives search engines a big-picture view of how your services relate to each other. It connects individual service pages into a clear structure and reinforces what your business actually does.
From a human perspective, it helps someone quickly answer a few important questions: what you offer, who it’s for, and where to go next.
What a Services Overview Page Is Not
This page is not where you sell each service in depth.
It’s not the place to target high-intent keywords tied to individual offers.
And it’s not meant to rank as a primary entry point for people ready to hire.
That job belongs to your individual service pages. The overview page exists to support them, not replace them.
The SEO Role of a Services Overview Page
The services overview page supports SEO by strengthening site structure, clarifying relationships between services, and reinforcing topical focus.
How Does a Services Overview Page Support SEO Structure?
A services overview page functions as a structural hub that helps search engines understand how your individual service pages fit together.
This is where site architecture does a lot of behind-the-scenes work. By linking out to each core service from one central page, you create a clear, intentional pathway for search engines to crawl your site. Google doesn’t have to guess which services matter most or how they relate. The relationships are spelled out through structure and internal linking.
This setup also supports topical clustering. Each service page can go deep on its own topic, while the overview page connects them into a cohesive system. That clarity helps distribute internal link equity and makes it easier for search engines to evaluate the full scope of what you offer.
In plain terms: this page helps your service pages perform better by giving them context and connection.
How Does a Services Overview Page Support AI Search?
A services overview page provides large language models with a clear, consolidated menu of what your business offers.
AI-driven search tools rely on structured, easily understood information to summarize businesses and cite sources. When your services are clearly listed, named, and linked from a single page, it becomes much easier for these systems to understand what you do and reference your site accurately in responses about your business or your category.
This doesn’t mean you need to write for AI. It means you benefit from being clear, organized, and consistent. The same structure that helps humans choose the right service also helps AI systems interpret your offerings correctly.
Should a Services Overview Page Compete for Keywords?
A services overview page works best when it avoids competing with your homepage or individual service pages for rankings.
Your homepage usually targets your core positioning and audience. Your service pages target specific, high-intent queries tied to hiring decisions. When the overview page tries to do the same, it blurs intent and weakens the signals you’re sending to search engines.
Instead, the overview page should focus on broad category signaling and internal support. Its SEO value comes from structure, clarity, and connection, not from ranking for competitive or conversion-focused keywords.
Why Does Assigning a Keyword to a Services Overview Page Feel Impossible?
Assigning a single SEO keyword to a services overview page feels impossible because the page supports multiple services with different intents.
A services overview page usually touches several offers at once. Each service has its own audience, its own problem set, and its own search behavior. Trying to compress all of that into one keyword creates conflict fast.
Your homepage already handles broad positioning. Your individual service pages are built for specific, high-intent searches tied to hiring decisions.
That leaves the overview page in the middle.
It’s too broad to target one service keyword, and it’s the wrong place to compete with your homepage. When you try, the signals blur, pages cannibalize each other, and it becomes harder for search engines to understand which page should rank.
That friction is the clue. This page isn’t necessarily meant to rank on its own.
Its job is to support your site’s structure, not to win a keyword.
So, What Keyword Should a Services Overview Page Target?
A services overview page should prioritize clarity and structural alignment over ranking for a single, high-intent keyword.
Once you accept that this page isn’t meant to compete with your homepage or individual service pages, the targeting question becomes more practical. You’re choosing a framing signal that supports your site architecture, not a keyword that carries the full weight of conversion intent.
Option 1: Should You Use an Umbrella Term?
An umbrella term is a broad category phrase that describes your collection of services without duplicating your homepage’s primary positioning.
The key distinction here is that the Services overview page serves a different purpose than the homepage, so its language should reflect that different job. An umbrella term should sit adjacent to your homepage language, not mirror it. If the Services overview page uses the same primary language as the homepage, it usually creates internal competition.
Instead, umbrella terms often introduce a slightly different framing that still makes sense to both people and search engines. For example, descriptive framing phrases such as “service packages,” “offerings and pricing,” or “how our services work” can work when they accurately reflect the role of the page and how someone is meant to use it.
Used this way, an umbrella term helps search engines understand the category you operate in while keeping clear boundaries between your homepage, your service pages, and this overview page.
Example #1: How I Handle My Website
Here’s a simplified example of how different pages can use related language without competing, when each page has a distinct job:
- Homepage
SEO Keyword: Small Business SEO Strategy
This page focuses on positioning, audience, and overall approach. - Services Overview Page
SEO Keyword: Small Business SEO Packages and Pricing
This page orients visitors to the available ways to work together and routes them to the right service. - Individual Service Pages
SEO Keywords: Done-For-You SEO Services, SEO Site Review
These pages handle specific offers and high-intent searches tied to hiring decisions.
Notice how the phrasing stays related, but each page reflects a different purpose. That separation is what prevents keyword overlap while keeping the site’s structure clear.
Example #2: A Website Designer
Here’s the same concept applied to a different type of service business, using a website designer as the example:
- Homepage
SEO Keyword: Website Design for Small Businesses
This page focuses on positioning, audience, and overall design philosophy. - Services Overview Page
SEO Keyword: Small Business Website Design Services
This page introduces the different ways clients can work together and helps visitors choose the right path. - Individual Service Pages
SEO Keywords: Custom Website Design, Website Redesign Services
These pages focus on specific offers and capture high-intent searches tied to hiring.
The phrasing overlaps conceptually, but each page has a different job. That separation keeps the site organized, prevents internal competition, and makes it easier for both people and search engines to understand where to go next.
Option 2: Can a Services Overview Page Skip Keyword Targeting Altogether?
A services overview page can skip direct keyword targeting because its primary SEO value comes from structure, not rankings.
When this page clearly lists your services, links to well-optimized service pages, and uses consistent naming across your site, it supports SEO without needing to perform as a standalone search result.
If every keyword option feels forced or duplicative, that’s often the signal that the page doesn’t need a traditional target keyword at all.
Should Your Services Overview Page Be in the Main Navigation?
A services overview page should almost always live in the main navigation because it provides a predictable entry point into your services.
When someone interacts with the “Services” label in your navigation, they should be able to access both the services overview page and the individual service pages. That structure supports two different types of visitors at the same time: people who already know exactly what they need, and people who are still comparing options and figuring out which service is the right fit.
From an SEO and site-structure perspective, main navigation placement also reinforces importance. Pages linked from the primary menu tend to be crawled more frequently and understood as core parts of the site. That visibility supports the overview page’s role as a hub, without forcing it to carry the full weight of rankings or conversion.
How Do You Optimize a Services Overview Page Without Competing With Your Service Pages?
A services overview page should be optimized for clarity, orientation, and internal linking rather than depth or persuasion.
This page does its best work when it stays top-of-funnel and intentionally restrained.
The goal is not to convert or make a sale. It’s to help someone quickly understand what’s available, see where they fit, and move to the right next page.
Help Visitors Compare Options Without Over-Explaining
A services overview page should help visitors self-identify the right service without duplicating your service pages.
For each service, briefly answer three questions:
- Who this service is for
- The core problem it helps solve
- A simple “this is a good fit if…” qualifier
This level of guidance reduces friction without overwhelming someone who is still early in their decision process.
Use Strong, Intentional Internal Linking
Internal links are one of the primary SEO functions of a services overview page.
Each service listed should link directly to its corresponding service page using clear, descriptive anchor text. Avoid generic button text like “learn more,” leverage your keywords and say “Learn More About [Service]” or “Get Started with [Service].”
Just as important, don’t duplicate content from the service pages themselves. The overview page should introduce, not replicate.
Use FAQs to Support Comparison Without Competing With Service Pages
FAQs on a services overview page exist to help visitors compare options and choose a direction, not to explain the details of each service.
This is an important distinction. The overview page FAQs should answer relationship and fit questions that span multiple services. They should not explain features, deliverables, pricing specifics, or process details. That level of depth belongs on the individual service pages.
When overview FAQs overlap with service-page FAQs, the overview page starts competing for intent it shouldn’t own. When they stay high-level and comparative, they reduce confusion and support clearer internal linking.
Good services overview FAQs tend to sound like questions someone would ask before they know which page to click next.
Here are three examples that work well on an overview page:
- What’s the difference between [Service A] and [Service B]?
This question helps visitors understand how your services relate to each other without diving into how each one works. - Can I start with [Service A] and move to [Service B] later?
This addresses sequencing and flexibility, which often matters more at this stage than scope or features. - How do I know which service is right for me? Can you help me decide which service is the best fit?
This reassures visitors that they don’t need perfect clarity before taking the next step.
If a question requires you to explain how a service works, what’s included, or how it’s delivered, it’s usually better suited for the individual service page instead.
Add Trust and Context Without Turning It Into a Sales Page
A services overview page can include light trust signals without becoming a conversion-focused page.
This might look like a single general testimonial, a short explanation of what it’s like to work together, or a brief note about how to get started.
The goal isn’t to close the deal. It’s to reduce uncertainty and make the next click feel like the right one.
[ADVANCED TOPIC] How Should You Use Schema on a Services Overview Page?
A services overview page should use WebPage and CollectionPage schema together to clarify page purpose and service relationships.
For a high-level overview of basic website schema, check out:
How to Use ChatGPT to Write Schema Markup
This page is both a normal web page and a list of your services. The schema should say exactly that. Using WebPage and CollectionPage together simply mirrors how the page actually works.
Recommended Schema Approach
For a services overview page that links out to individual service pages:
- Use WebPage schema to define the page itself
- Use CollectionPage schema to signal that the page represents a grouped set of offerings
- Include an ItemList that points to each individual service page URL
This combination helps search engines and AI systems understand that this page is a hub, not a standalone service or a sales page.
Generic Example (JSON-LD)
Here’s a simplified example of what this can look like in code using JSON-LD. This is not meant to be copied blindly, but to show the structure you’re aiming for.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": ["WebPage", "CollectionPage"],
"name": "Services",
"url": "https://example.com/services/",
"mainEntity": {
"@type": "ItemList",
"itemListElement": [
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 1,
"url": "https://example.com/services/service-a/"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 2,
"url": "https://example.com/services/service-b/"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 3,
"url": "https://example.com/services/service-c/"
}
]
}
</script>
This markup tells search engines that:
- The page is a standard web page
- It also functions as a collection of related services
- Each service has its own dedicated URL
You’re not using schema to push keywords or rankings here. You’re using it to make the hierarchy you’ve already built explicit and machine-readable.
When schema mirrors your actual site structure, it supports SEO quietly and consistently, without adding complexity or confusion.
How Do You Pull a Services Overview Page Together?
A services overview page works when it explains your offerings, helps visitors self-identify, supports site architecture, and guides the next step without trying to convert.
When all the pieces are doing their intended jobs, this page becomes connective tissue rather than a bottleneck. It gives context without depth, direction without pressure, and structure without competition.
At a minimum, a strong services overview page:
- Explains the range of services you offer at a high level
- Helps visitors understand which service is most relevant to them
- Links clearly and directly to individual service pages
- Reinforces your internal site structure and topical organization
- Adds just enough trust and context to reduce uncertainty
If the page is doing those things, it’s succeeding. It doesn’t need to rank on its own, persuade aggressively, or act like a sales page.
Its value shows up indirectly: clearer user paths, stronger service pages, and a site structure that search engines can understand without guesswork.
Why This Page Matters More Than You Think
A services overview page sits at the intersection of user experience and SEO, whether you intend it to or not.
It’s one of the first places potential clients go when they’re trying to understand how to work with you. It’s also one of the pages search engines use to make sense of how your services fit together.
That’s why this page is so often misused. When it’s treated like a second homepage, it competes with your positioning. When it’s treated like a sales page, it duplicates your service pages. When it’s ignored, it leaves visitors and search engines without a clear map.
When it’s structured correctly, the opposite happens. Visitors can quickly orient, service pages get cleaner signals, and your site as a whole becomes easier to understand and navigate.
If you want a quick gut check, look at your Services overview page and ask:
Does this page help someone choose the right service, or does it leave them unsure where to go next?
If it’s doing the first, it’s pulling its weight. If it’s doing the second, this is one of the highest-leverage pages on your site to revisit.
Want Help Applying This to Your Own Website?
If this post clarified how a services overview page should work, but you’re still unsure whether yours is doing that job, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
I offer SEO Site Reviews and Done-For-You SEO for service-based businesses that want their website structure to actually make sense. We’ll look at how your Services overview page fits into your wider service ecosystem, where things might be competing or overlapping, and what to adjust so each page is doing the right work.
If you want a second set of eyes on your site, contact me to book a free Chemistry Call. We’ll talk through what you’re working with, what’s feeling unclear, and whether this is something I can help with.
