Your freelance website is one of your most important marketing tools as a freelancer. A well-designed website can help you position yourself well in your target market and fill your inbox with inquiries from ideal clients.

Having a good website can help you stand out from the crowd of freelancers out there. Your freelance website will make you look more professional, and leave the impression that you mean business. 

Plus, it can help you shave off several hours a week. Why? Because if you properly set up your website, it’ll do all of your marketing and sales for you!

But, I’m sure you’re wondering… What do you need for your website to be effective at attracting and converting potential customers?

Your website doesn’t need to be overly complicated or fancy to be effective. What you do need is a well-planned website that answers all of your ideal clients’ questions about you. Here’s how to go about it.

The 7 Most Important Elements of a Freelance Website to Attract Your Ideal Clients

#1 – Professional hosting and domain registration

So, what exactly does ‘hosting & domain name’ mean?

Hosting is essentially what you require to store all of the files that comprise your website. Professional hosting companies ‘host’ your files (store them on massive computer servers) and serve them up whenever someone visits your website.

A domain name is the address that people use to find your website. Our website address is guemmah.com.

If you’ve never created a website before, this may appear technical and difficult, but don’t worry. It’s very simple to set up.

(For a complete guide to setting up your freelance website with a custom domain name and professional hosting, see this blog post.)

There are, of course, ways to get free hosting and a free domain name. However, your domain name will be something like “guemmah.squarespace.com” or “imad.blogspot.com.” When you go cheap, it sends a message to potential customers that you aren’t a real business… and they immediately lose trust in you.

If you want to attract clients and grow your freelance business, you must invest in it and present yourself as a professional.

In any case, the investment isn’t all that significant.

BlueHost is a hosting and domain name provider that we recommend. All you need to get started is the basic plan, which costs $3.95 per month.

#2 A value proposition

A value proposition explains to potential clients why they should hire you over other freelancers. It focuses on who you are, who you work with, and the benefits of working with you.

When someone visits your website, the first thing they should see is your value proposition.

In about 2 seconds, website visitors decide whether or not to stay and learn more about you. Your value proposition should convince potential customers that they’ve come to the right place.

The value proposition formula:

who you are + who you work with + the benefits of working with you

Start by identifying your benefits or unique value before writing your value proposition. Perhaps you have a one-of-a-kind two-week design process. Perhaps you are a writer with social media experience who wants to get more people to read your clients’ articles. Identify why your clients enjoy working with you and use that as a jumping-off point.

Writing a value proposition can be hard, but here are a few pointers to consider. A value proposition:

• Isn’t a tagline 
• shouldn’t have buzzwords
• can be a headline with a few supporting sentences or bullets, so don’t worry about cramming it into one sentence
• shouldn’t be a meaningless slogan

A strong value proposition will immediately resonate with your ideal clients and keep them on your site to learn more about you.

#3 – Your services

If you want clients to hire you through your website, it makes sense to tell them exactly what they can hire you for!

Your services page is an opportunity to motivate potential clients to work with you. They’ve arrived at your website, seen your value proposition, and are now looking for more information.

This section of your website can describe what you do, how you work, and what a client can expect. Even better if you can demonstrate some results or benefits.

Create a mental image of what they can expect and get them excited about the possibilities.

Spruce Rd‘s services page explains exactly what clients can expect at each stage of the branding design process when working with the company.

When writing your services page, remember to ask yourself, “what’s in it for them?” because it’s all about the value you provide to clients.

#4 – A contact form

If you want your inbox to be flooded with inquiries from your ideal clients, you shouldn’t make them look for your email address. Make it as simple as possible for those clients to contact you!

Include a link to your contact page in your main navigation so that it’s easily accessible from any page on your website. You can even include a contact form in your website’s footer to appear on every page.

What information should your contact form contain? You can keep it simple by limiting it to the first name, email, and message fields.

You may also use your contact form to ask a few key questions upfront, which will help you determine if a client is a good fit for you – for example when you’re ready to begin, or something about budget. Incorporating a question such as “how did you find me?” will help you determine which marketing channels are effective for you.

If your website theme lacks a good contact form, you can try building and embedding forms on your site with typeform.

#5 – Create a portfolio

Potential clients want to see the type of work you’ve done in the past to see if you’ll be a good fit to work with them. This is why you should have a portfolio on your website to showcase your best work – even if you’re not a designer!

The style of your portfolio will be determined by the type of work you do. Images, videos, text, case studies, and links can all be included. Here are a few suggestions:

• Link to guest posts or blog posts that you’ve written. 
• Showcase websites that you’ve designed. 
• Share screenshots of your designs if you’ve worked on social media campaigns

Create a case study to share your process and the results of a marketing strategy you developed. If possible, include some results – for example, this campaign increased reach by X% or received a clickthrough rating of Y%. Alternatively, the new web design increased email signups by Z%. Including metrics can demonstrate that your work not only looks good but also gets results.

#6 – Testimonials

A good testimonial can help clients move from a “maybe” to a “yes.”

Testimonials help potential clients who have never worked with you before to trust you.

Do you think you don’t have any testimonials? You can make use of:

• LinkedIn recommendations
• Positive reviews from freelancing sites such as UpWork and Fiverr
• Praise you’ve received for your work on social media posts.
• Nice emails from clients thanking you for your work. 

Always ask for testimonials and get permission to post them on your website. People like to see human faces when they read a testimonial, so you get extra points if they let you use a headshot. It helps them visualize the story they’re reading.

#7 – About You

Your About page is an opportunity to get a little more personal and provide clients with insight into the person behind the business. It should help your client feel more connected to you as a person.

Your about page should include the following information:

• a photograph of yourself
• A little bit about your background and how you got to where you are today
• Education and honors (feel free to brag a little)
• Some interesting or unusual facts about yourself to which your ideal client may be able to relate (like your love of corgis or how you done a full DIY van build from start to finish)

But keep in mind that your website is really about THEM, not you. So, even as you write this page, ask yourself, “What’s in it for my ideal client?” This will help you keep your content engaging and relevant to your audience.

Use these 7 elements to build your freelance website to convert more visitors into clients.

So, tell us… do you have all seven of these elements on your website? Let us know in the comments section below.