In today’s competitive digital landscape, creating an exceptional website is the first step freelancers should take to attract and retain clients. Think of your website as a virtual storefront, one where potential clients can window shop your skills, portfolio, and personality. To stand out, you’ll want to balance aesthetic appeal with compelling content, as well as effective SEO strategies with user-friendliness.
“A well-designed portfolio allows you to visually demonstrate your skills and create a career narrative that cannot be done by other means like a resume,” says Chris Lovell, founder of Careers by Chris and a career expert at SoFi. “It is also an important tool to help freelancers show off actual work samples, which can be the deciding factor when clients are looking to hire someone for a project.”
First things first: find a website builder that you feel comfortable using. Squarespace is a popular option for freelancers, and it’s easy to see why. Squarespace offers a wide range of customizable templates and is a breeze for beginners to navigate, even if you have no experience building a website.
How can you make your site especially memorable? Here are some job coach-approved tips that’ll help your portfolio stand out amongst the digital crowd.
Invest in Personal Branding
By building strong visual design—which sites like Squarespace make incredibly easy—you’ll create a portfolio that’s not only attractive to the eye, but demonstrates your individual taste and professional look. Stick to consistent color palettes, high-quality images, and clean copy.
To achieve this, choose between two routes: hiring professionals, like a graphic designer and copywriter, to create a full brand with assets (like logos and email signatures) that you can use throughout your business and website. Or, you could use a free or low-cost design tool, such as Canva, to create a cohesive look on your own.
Attract Attention With Interactive Elements
Chances are potential clients don’t have the time (or patience) to read big blocks of text on a freelancer’s website. Instead, make your portfolio eye-catching and memorable by including interactive components. Try animations between sections, embedding short videos introducing yourself, or giving a behind the scenes look at your workspace—“something that’s going to leave a lasting impression and make the visitor feel connected to you and your work,” says Lovell.
Clarify Your Services
What is it exactly that you do? That should be clear—very clear—from a quick glance at your website. Lovell suggests outlining your services, concisely explaining what you offer and how it benefits clients.
Showcase Your Personality
With the help of drag-and-drop website builders like Squarespace, it’s not hard to create an attractive website. What’s going to help you stand out, though, is your one-of-a-kind personality, possibly through sharp copy, project selection, and a little humor.
“This helps people relate with you at a personal level, which separates you from the competition,” says Lovell.
Optimize Your Website for SEO
Not everyone looking to hire a freelancer is going to use or pay for freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, says Lovell. They may begin with a simple Google session, using search terms like “virtual assistant freelancer.”
In order to make sure you’re not missing out on potential clients, take advantage of the SEO capabilities of your website’s back end. Include meta tags and descriptions with keywords related directly to what people could be searching when trying to find services like yours online. This will help search engines boost your ranking higher up on their results pages.
Include Contact Information With a Clear Call To Action
It should be extremely easy for a potential client to find ways to contact you. You wouldn’t want them scrolling and clicking (and scrolling and clicking…) only to come up empty-handed and move along to the next freelancer. Whether you include an email address, phone number, or both on your website is up to you—just make sure your contact information is highly visible.
To move the potential client to take the next step, Lovell recommends including a clear call to action with your contact information. A subtle nudge like “book a call here” or “discover more here” can be the key to nailing that next project.
Make It Mobile-Friendly
“More than half of all internet traffic comes from people on mobile devices,” says Lovell. “If someone cannot get onto your website because it’s not optimized, then you have lost out on half of your potential audience.”
Choose a platform, such as Squarespace, that provides responsive design templates that automatically adjust to different screen sizes. This ensures a seamless user experience whether on a desktop, tablet, or phone.
Out With The Old, In With The New
It’s good practice to update your portfolio on a regular basis, especially with work that showcases skills that are directly related to the services you’re currently offering. Lovell suggests freelancers refresh their portfolios every six months to a year, or any time they complete a project they’re particularly proud of.
Alternatively, nix old or lower-quality work that doesn’t reflect your current skills and standards.
Include Client Testimonials
As your freelancing business grows, Lovell suggests including reviews or case studies from past or present clients, showing their satisfaction with your work and how you added value to the projects. This will help you gain and build trust with new clients.
“This can help move them to hire you, knowing that others have had positive experiences working with you and have seen tangible benefits from your services,” Lovell says.
This article was sponsored by Squarespace, however, all products were independently selected by our editors. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.