How many pages to start for a new site?

I am going to create a website for an online service. It will take some time to set up, and I don't want just the domain landing page while it is being worked on. I want to get the URL and a few pages up so that it will be kind of an actual site, and to start developing some online history and some ranking.

About how many pages do you think I will need to do this? I already have the template for the site and I was thinking about quickly throwing up four pages (home, description, pricing, and contact). The pricing page will have an order button, but of course will be disabled for now. The contact page will not have actual contact info since I have not established phone number etc.

Does this seem like a good way to start? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

To my knowledge, there is no magic number for how many pages a website should have. Many established businesses out there (in "old school" industries such as manufacturing, engineering, professional services) have very simple websites with few pages. Even some restaurants and boutique/luxury businesses have few pages.

I would recommend putting up the pages you mentioned as at least you can start having the SE robots looking at your domain. Putting up a sitemap and telling G & Bing about it will help.

It's a good idea as SEO does take time.

contact page: put a simple form that goes to an email address
personally, I'd try for 10+ pages indexed

30% of your target pages. If you are planning to build 10 pages of content then at least start with 3 then drip the other 7 and so on...