Apply the Page Jobs Framework
Give every page a clear job to do.
What this covers: A framework for categorizing every page on your website by the job it does—Attract, Educate, Convert, Support, Navigate, or Comply.
Who it’s for: Website owners, marketers, and content strategists who want to audit their existing site or plan new content intentionally.
Key outcome: You’ll be able to audit your pages by job type, spot gaps where you’re under-invested, and stop duplicating effort across teams.
Time to read: 10 minutes
Part of: SEO & Discoverability series
Every page on your website has a job. When you know what job each page does, you can measure whether it’s doing that job well—and spot the gaps where you’re missing pages entirely.
This framework provides a way to audit your existing pages by job type, identify which jobs are under-served, and plan new content that fills real gaps instead of adding more of what you already have.
Why Think in Jobs Instead of Pages
Most websites grow by accumulation. Someone writes a blog post. Marketing needs a landing page. Support creates an FAQ. A few years later, you have 200 pages and no clear picture of what they all do or whether they’re working.
The typical question—”what pages should my website have?”—leads to lists. Homepage, about page, contact page, product pages, blog… These lists describe what exists but not what it’s for.
When you think in jobs instead:
- You measure the right things. A blog post and a pricing page shouldn’t be measured the same way. One brings people in; the other converts them. Same metric (traffic) tells you nothing useful about whether the pricing page is working.
- You find the real gaps. You will have 50 blog posts and wonder why nobody converts. When you map by job, you see: 50 Attract pages, 2 Educate pages, 1 Convert page. The gap isn’t “more content”—it’s content that builds trust between discovery and decision.
- You stop duplicating effort. Three teams creating similar content for different reasons is waste. When the jobs, you can coordinate: “Marketing owns Attract, Product owns Support, Sales owns Educate.”
- You improve for search and AI. Search engines and AI answer engines reward pages with clear purpose. A page that tries to do three jobs often does none of them well. Clean job separation makes each page a better answer to a specific question.
The Six Jobs
According to this framework, every page on your website does one of six jobs. A page will have secondary functions, but it has one primary job.
1. Attract
Purpose: Bring in people who don’t know you exist yet.
These pages answer questions people already ask. They show up in search results. They get shared. The visitor found you because you had something useful, not because they were looking for your brand.
How you know it’s working: Traffic grows. Search impressions increase. New visitor percentage is high.
Common formats: Blog posts, resource guides, comparison content, tools and calculators.
2. Educate
Purpose: Help visitors understand enough to make decisions.
These pages build trust by being genuinely helpful. They don’t sell—they teach. The visitor is researching, comparing options, figuring out what they actually need.
How you know it’s working: Time on page is high. Visitors view multiple pages per session. Return visits increase.
Common formats: How-to guides, case studies, webinars, buyer’s guides.
3. Convert
Purpose: Turn a visitor into a lead or customer.
These pages have one purpose: get the visitor to take the next step. Sign up, buy, book a call, start a trial. Everything on the page supports that action.
How you know it’s working: Conversion rate meets your target. Forms get completed. Carts move to checkout.
Common formats: Pricing pages, demo request forms, free trial pages, checkout flows.
4. Support
Purpose: Help existing customers succeed without needing a human.
These pages reduce support tickets and increase product adoption. The visitor already bought—now they need to actually use what they paid for.
How you know it’s working: Support ticket volume decreases. Feature adoption increases. Self-service completion rates are high.
Common formats: Help documentation, getting started guides, API references, status pages.
5. Navigate
Purpose: Help visitors find what they’re looking for.
These pages are wayfinding. Homepage, category pages, search results. They’re not the destination—they’re the map. If someone lands here and bounces, the map failed.
How you know it’s working: Click-through to destination pages is high. Bounce rate is low. Time to next action is fast.
Common formats: Homepage, category pages, site search, resource hubs.
6. Comply
Purpose: Fulfill legal or functional requirements.
Privacy policy, terms of service, shipping info, accessibility statement. Nobody reads these for fun. They exist because they have to, and they should be clear enough that anyone who needs them can find what they need.
How you know it’s working: You don’t get complaints. Legal says you’re covered. These pages rarely need measurement beyond existence and accuracy.
Common formats: Privacy policy, terms of service, shipping/returns info, accessibility statement.
How to Audit Your Site by Job
Follow these steps in order.
- Export your top 50 pages by traffic. If you use Google Analytics 4, see Pulling Basic Reports from GA4 for how to do this.
- For each page, assign a primary job. Go with your gut. If a page does multiple jobs, pick the main one. A homepage will have a signup form, but its primary job is Navigate.
- Count the distribution. How many pages in each job category? Most sites are heavy on Attract (blog posts) and light on Educate (guides that build trust) or Convert (pages that ask for something).
- Look for mismatches. A mismatch is when a page is doing a job it wasn’t designed for. Your pricing page (Convert) ranking for “what is [product category]” means people in research mode land on a sales page. That’s friction.
Example: B2B SaaS Site
ATTRACT (bring them in)
├── /blog/email-marketing-trends-2024
├── /what-is-marketing-automation
└── /marketing-automation-vs-crm
EDUCATE (build trust)
├── /guide/email-deliverability
├── /case-study/startup-grew-200-percent
└── /webinar/automation-best-practices
CONVERT (get the action)
├── /pricing
├── /demo
└── /free-trial
SUPPORT (help them succeed)
├── /help/getting-started
├── /docs/api
└── /status
NAVIGATE (show the way)
├── / (homepage)
├── /solutions
└── /integrations
COMPLY (cover the bases)
├── /privacy
├── /terms
└── /security
What this reveals: Three Attract pages, three Educate pages—that’s a reasonable bridge between “I found you” and “show me a demo.” If there were ten Attract pages and one Educate page, visitors would have to make a bigger leap to convert.
Example: E-commerce Site
ATTRACT (bring them in)
├── /blog/best-hiking-trails-colorado
├── /blog/how-to-break-in-hiking-boots
└── /gear-guide/backpacking-checklist
EDUCATE (build trust)
├── /how-to-choose-hiking-boots
├── /layering-guide
└── /gear-care-maintenance
CONVERT (get the action)
├── /hiking-boots/merrell-moab-3
├── /sale/winter-clearance
└── /gift-cards
SUPPORT (help them succeed)
├── /size-guide
├── /returns
└── /order-tracking
NAVIGATE (show the way)
├── / (homepage)
├── /hiking-boots (category)
└── /search
COMPLY (cover the bases)
├── /privacy
├── /terms
└── /accessibility
What this reveals: The “how to choose” guides do heavy lifting. A visitor researching hiking boots can learn what to look for, feel confident, then buy. Without those Educate pages, visitors bounce between product pages hoping to figure it out themselves.
What This Helps You Do
- Invest where it matters. If you have 40 Attract pages and 2 Educate pages, more blog posts won’t fix your conversion problem. Write content that builds trust.
- Measure appropriately. Attract pages should grow traffic. Convert pages should convert. Different jobs, different success metrics.
- Find real gaps. If visitors can find you (Attract) and buy from you (Convert) but have nowhere to learn (Educate), you’re asking them to make a leap. Some will. Most won’t.
- Plan with intention. Before creating a new page, ask: what job does this do? If you can’t answer, reconsider whether you need it.
Confirming Every Page Has a Defined Job
- Every key page has a defined primary job (what it must accomplish)
- Page elements are prioritized to support that job
- Conversion paths are clear for each page type
- Analytics tracks completion of each page’s job
- Team understands why each page exists and how to measure success
Ongoing: Review page jobs quarterly. As your business evolves, page purposes change too.
Sources
- Nielsen Norman Group – Task Analysis
- Nielsen Norman Group – Mental Models
- JTBD – Jobs-to-be-Done Framework
Page Jobs Framework Questions Answered
What is the page jobs framework?
A planning approach where every page on your site has a defined primary job (what it must accomplish) and a measurable outcome. Pages without a clear job tend to underperform because they try to do everything and accomplish nothing specific.
How many jobs should a single page have?
One primary job and no more than two supporting jobs. A homepage might have “build trust and direct visitors to key pages” as its primary job. If a page is trying to do more than three things, split it into multiple pages or ruthlessly prioritize.
How do I measure if a page is doing its job?
Define a conversion metric for each page job. For lead generation pages: form submissions. For product pages: add-to-cart rate. For educational content: time on page and scroll depth. Track these metrics monthly and compare against your defined targets.
What is the most common mistake with page planning?
Building pages around what you want to say instead of what visitors need to do. Start with user intent (what brought them here), define the desired next action, then build content that bridges the gap between arrival intent and desired action.
✓ Your Page Jobs Are Clearly Defined When
- Every page on your site has a documented primary job (inform, convert, navigate, or retain)
- Each page’s primary CTA directly supports its assigned job — no competing CTAs
- Pages with a “convert” job have a single, prominent conversion action above the fold
- Analytics goals or events are configured to measure whether each page fulfills its job
Test it: Pick any 5 pages, ask a colleague what each page wants them to do — if they correctly identify the job within 5 seconds of landing, your page jobs are clear.