A professional-looking website that’s easy to navigate, informs and educates potential clients about what you do, displays your skills and shows how your services can help them is a must for any serious freelancer.
But what should you include?
Here are 10 things to include on your freelance website to set you up for success.
Homepage
This is usually the page a visitor lands on first, so it’s essential that it is clear from your homepage who you are and what you do. It needs to look professional, capture attention, load fast, and be compelling enough to make visitors want to know more about you and how you can help them.
It will often include at least one strong primary call-to-action (CTA), telling visitors what to do next (i.e. take action by hiring you or getting on a discovery call) or where to go for more info (maybe your Services or About page).
About page
Your About page, while obviously about you, is also about your clients and how you can help them. It shouldn’t be just a long list of your accolades and achievements, but relay your story and relevant skills and experience in a way that your ideal client can easily resonate with, and, from your ‘talent stack’, clearly see how you can help them.
People remember stories, and they can make your About page less impersonal and more human.
Services & Products
Depending on the type of freelance work you perform, a services page can outline what you do and how this benefits your clients.
Here you could include bundled packages offering several items or simply your core services. If you sell products, you should include a product page on your website displaying your products with product descriptions and prices. You should also consider customer reviews.
Price
If you want to display your prices on your website, it’s a good idea to have a separate prices page or a section visitors can easily reference.
Whether you decide to display your prices (or a price range) will depend on your pricing strategy and specific business. But it’s generally a good idea for potential clients to have at least a ballpark figure or price range to go on before they take it a step further (i.e. get on a call with you). You might have already established this through your brand reputation and positioning.
Portfolio
If you are a creative freelancer, a portfolio of your best work can help attract clients. However, while it may seem that adding your portfolio is the simplest way to display your skills, it might not always have the desired effect. For example, if you are a copywriter or web designer, you will be working to the client’s brief and taking into account their brand voice and chosen style – which is unlikely to be the same for all your clients.
There is also the issue of proprietary rights and client confidentiality to navigate. Therefore, it could be better to direct potential clients to actual results you’ve achieved for other clients and successful outcomes by way of case studies and client testimonials.
Testimonials
Sharing positive client testimonials is great for social proof. Where possible, get the client to talk about specific results and the positive outcomes of working with you rather than just generic statements such as “Great to work with”, “Fun personality”, or ‘Good job”.
It’s perfectly okay to provide your clients with a guided testimonial where you ask them specific questions about working with you that will, in turn, elicit a more on-point testimonial.
You may also want to add case studies to your website that give potential clients a clearer idea of what you can help them achieve and your way of working. They can then ‘picture’ in their mind what the outcome could look like for them.
Process
Some clients may not have approached a freelancer before, so they won’t be aware of how freelancers operate, and if it’s a new client, they certainly won’t know your process.
That’s why it’s a good idea to briefly spell out your process somewhere on your website or even publish a guide. It can be on a separate page or listed on the services page, or you can have it as part of your FAQs. It can cover your onboarding process, including when they will get a quote, whether you require a deposit in advance, and usual turnaround times to name just a few.
If you require a deposit upfront, Invoice Ninja offers a nifty feature where the quote can be converted to an invoice and paid in just one click – making the process even more simple and streamlined for your client.
Payment
Stipulating how (and in which currency) you are paid is an essential element to include, especially if you have international clients in different jurisdictions. But even if you don’t have international clients, being clear about payment options makes it easier for clients to do business with you and can be the icing on the cake that makes prospective clients choose you over competitors.
Invoice Ninja offers a range of payment gateways, along with client-side portals and email invoicing, making it easy for clients to pay you in just one click.
FAQs
An FAQ page is helpful to answer questions about your service, products or process that aren’t covered elsewhere on your website. They can also be an excellent place to combat any potential sales objections.
Blog
A blog can be a good marketing tool and attract traffic to your website if you publish quality content regularly. It can also improve your website’s authority so you rank higher.
You can publish blog posts that provide helpful advice that your clients are asking search engines around your subject matter. This will require some SEO research and skills. But for example, if you are a gardener, your blog could include helpful posts about gardening subjects – you could focus on specifics relating to your service or products (How to Grow Bee Orchids) or go broader (How to Plant a Vegetable Garden).
~
Finally, don’t forget to add a contact details page or contact form so potential clients can easily contact you. Also, provide different ways to contact you, i.e. by phone, email or via the website form.
The above list is not exhaustive, as other legal, data protection and privacy notices are required depending on your jurisdiction, but hopefully, it will give you a good pointer as to what to include.
Happy freelancing!