5 Key Components of a Digital Freelancer Website
More and more businesses are seeking freelancers for their web design, SEO and paid media services as they continually get let down by marketing agencies.
As a result, more and more experts are quitting their 9-5 to go solo. There are generally two ways to get started:
An ex-client contacts you after doing an excellent job but handed their notice in with the agency for their fees being a rip-off. Or you build a website and get enquiries through that.
The latter is certainly the long-term approach. And if you want to make your freelance career a success, here are some tips for your website:
1. Domain Name
Ideally, if you’re promoting yourself as your own name, you will want your own name as the domain. Sometimes, this is not possible though.
In which case, you can simply add ‘digital’, ‘marketing’ or something after your name to use as your brand.
2. Professional Headshot & Bio
You have less than 5 seconds to impress your potential client. If your headshot is professional, then they will take you seriously. If not, they will exit your website within five seconds having not considered you.
If you’ve succeeded with your photo then move onto the bio. This is one of the best opportunities you have to impress. Speak of your successes, experience, how you got there and why you’ve gone freelance.
3. Case Studies / Portfolio
Case studies can be difficult if you’ve only just gone freelance. Work you’ve done with an agency will almost-certainly be under their ownership and therefore you won’t be able to publish it.
If you’ve been able to do work on the side before handing your notice in then that’s a great headstart. Otherwise, you can give examples of your knowledge through a blog section of your website.
A great example of this is from freelance PPC expert Barrie Smith, whose current website highlights some of the amazing work he has done for big brands on Google Ads, Facebook Ads and other paid media.
4. SEO
There are a couple of different skillsets in digital marketing, but Search Engine Optimisation is one that can really pay off as a freelancer. Not only can you win big contracts of clients, you can get free traffic and leads to your own website simply by ranking your own site.
Whether it’s via SEO to rank for national terms of local SEO to rank locally, the benefits of being good at SEO are a huge blessing.
5. Contact
Don’t overlook the importance of making it easy for visitors to make it easy to contact you. Some will want to contact you via email and some via phone – so make sure you have both available. Some freelancers don’t realise how important this is.
Feel free to have a second mobile number so that work and personal life are kept separate and be careful about Captcha forms as they can be difficult and end up putting off potential leads from getting in touch.
