FREELANCERS! OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE TO GET MORE CLIENTS
Freelancers — you probably already know that you need a good website to compete. Websites offer a space where your work can be seen, help generate business, and increase your customer base. Operating without a website can often be like shooting in the dark since the majority of people seek services online and will use search engines to find these services.
However, a website does not automatically equate to success for your business.
You need to optimize your website so potential clients can easily find you, connect, and book your services. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Branding and Brand Consistency
Billions of people use the internet every day. Don’t get lost in the sea of options by having a website that looks like every other website out there. Have a clear brand and make sure your website reflects that. This includes the obvious: colors, fonts, symbols, icon styles, etc. But it also includes things like your brand voice and photography.
Accessibility
Prioritize accessibility on your website. In addition to the “being a good human” side of it, having an accessible website is also a game-changing component that unlocks your website’s potential to reach the maximum number of people, and get you maximum profits. Check out our top five website accessibility tips HERE.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the process of improving how your website appears in search engines like Google. The goal is to rank higher for relevant searches, leading to more organic traffic from potential customers, which should lead to more conversions, thus helping grow your business over time. This is especially important if you operate in a fixed geographic area, where local SEO plays a crucial role.
Set up your website using the keywords you know your potential clients will search and the questions they might be asking. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer in San Diego, your potential clients might be searching for things like: ‘Wedding photographer in San Diego’ or ‘San Diego weddings.”
Mobile Design
Over 50% of people search and buy things online from their mobile devices, and Google predominantly uses the mobile version of a website to index and rank it. A mobile-optimized site reformats content, displays larger navigation buttons, and optimizes images for the screen size and network limitations. This results in improved user experience and web speeds, increased user engagement and time spent on the site, and better search engine rankings. So having a mobile-optimized site really is good for business.
Client Testimonials
Potential clients trust the honest opinions of your current and past customers more than your marketing content. In fact, 85% of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family. So include testimonials on your website! You can dedicate one whole page to client testimonials or you can sprinkle a few of them in different sections of the site. They make a difference — websites with testimonials see an increase in traffic of about 45%.
Forms + Buttons
Make sure the “contact” button is big, in a contrasting color, and easy to find. You can put it in multiple places, too! Also, please don’t make people give you their entire life story before they can submit a contact form. Keep it as simple as you can, while still gathering the information you need to schedule a productive discovery call.
Describe Your Projects
Don’t just compile your work and put pictures of it on your site. Instead, provide some insight into your projects. Depending on the project, you can explain the objectives, the problem you were trying to solve, the hurdles you faced, and the impact of the finished product. People love a good story and want to learn the who, what, and why about your work.
Another way to help “describe” your projects is to be mindful of the visuals you choose. For example, if you’re a graphic designer don’t just put up flat images of your work. Spend some extra time and mock up your designs so that visitors to your site can see what they look like in practice. Also, don’t be afraid of your portfolio images not matching in style — if you have photos of your work in the wild, add them in! Seeing that your work is done with real clients and used in the real world can only help your credibility.
If you’d rather focus on building your business instead of building your website, let us know! We love to work with fellow freelancers.
