If you're new to HubSpot, you may have noticed that it lets you create both website pages and landing pages.
At first, this can be confusing. They look almost identical, use the same drag-and-drop editor, and can include the same content—text, images, forms, videos, buttons, and more.
So why are there two different page types?
The answer is simple: they're built for different purposes.
A website page is exactly what it sounds like—it's part of your main website.
These are the pages visitors use to learn about your business and find the information they're looking for. Some common examples include:
Website pages are typically connected through your site's navigation menu, making it easy for visitors to move from one page to another.
If someone lands on your homepage and wants to learn more about your services or contact your business, they're navigating your website through these pages.
A landing page has one job: getting visitors to take a specific action.
Instead of encouraging people to browse your website, a landing page focuses on a single goal.
That goal might be:
You'll often notice that landing pages have fewer distractions than regular website pages. Many don't include the main navigation menu because the goal is to keep visitors focused on completing one action instead of clicking elsewhere.
A simple way to think about it is this:
Create a website page when the content is meant to become part of your website.
Create a landing page when you're promoting a specific offer or campaign.
For example, if you're creating an About Us page or adding a new service, you'll want a website page.
If you're running Google Ads for a free consultation or asking visitors to download an ebook, a landing page is usually the better choice.
There's one important difference that isn't immediately obvious.
When you publish a website page, HubSpot automatically includes it in your website's XML sitemap.
Landing pages aren't added to the sitemap by default.
That doesn't mean they can't appear in Google. Search engines can still discover and index landing pages through internal links, external websites, or other methods.
The sitemap simply helps search engines understand which pages make up the main structure of your website.
If you have a landing page that's intended to rank in search results or remain part of your website long-term, you can manually add it to your sitemap in HubSpot.
If you're building the pages that make up your website, choose a website page.
If you're creating a page for a specific promotion, advertisement, or marketing campaign, choose a landing page.
The good news is that you're not learning two different tools. Both page types are built with the same HubSpot editor, so the experience is almost identical.
The difference isn't in how you build the page—it's in what you want visitors to do after they arrive.
If the page is something you'd expect visitors to find while browsing your website, create a website page.
If you're sending people to a page from an email, social media post, or advertisement to complete one specific action, create a landing page.
Keeping that simple distinction in mind will help you choose the right page type every time.