When you learn how to create your freelance portfolio website, you’ll be on your way to capturing more clients’ attention. Because as you gain more experience, clients expect you to show how you’re growing. And having a website is one of the ways to show that you’re growing in all dimensions.
With a website, potential clients may access details about your freelance career/journey in one central location. In addition, you can design your landing pages here and help clients find you more easily when you optimize them for search engines.
But how do you get there? Find out below.
What is a Freelancer Portfolio, and Why Do You Need One?
A freelance portfolio is an organized collection of your best work as a freelancer. You can use it as a professional tool to display your skills and experience to potential clients. Think of it as your introduction letter to your clients that provides them with everything they need to consider your suitability for a position. It should have the following details.
Who you are
Your skills
Level of experience
Projects you have worked on
Contact information
Any reviews or recommendations you have received from previous clients
The details you provide in your portfolio tell why you need an online portfolio as a freelancer. It is a platform for you to showcase your best work.
Remember, most clients are looking for someone with proven experience and skills. Your sample projects can tell a lot about your creativity and skills as a freelancer.
Your portfolio website is also your personal brand. It’s what you use for marketing yourself to potential clients. For example, any social media or email marketing campaigns will be geared towards driving more traffic to your website that you can convert to paying customers.
With that in mind, here are steps you can follow in building your freelance portfolio website from scratch.
1. Pick Your Domain Name
Since your portfolio website is your brand, begin building that brand by choosing the domain name you want your virtual assistant business to have.
You need to select a unique name for this website. Remember, this is the name clients will use to search for your website. Therefore, it must be unique but still tells clients about your profession.
Don’t also forget that a good name will go a long way in boosting your search engine ranking. For this reason, we have some tips on how to come up with a good domain name:
· Ensure it includes keywords relevant to your freelance profession
· It should have a simple spelling
· It is advisable to keep it short, which makes it easier for a client to remember
2. Look for a Good Host Provider
Once you have settled on your unique domain name, you need to register it and have it hosted. These are two separate processes but can be undertaken almost simultaneously if you need to start building your website ASAP.
You register your domain name with a domain register provided by websites like Domain.com. It simply means that you have reserved ownership of your domain name.
It is quite similar to reserving your business name in a business registration process. It will cost you an average of $10-20 per year to register your domain name.
The next stop is hosting your website on a server of your choice. As mentioned, you can combine these processes by registering your domain with a provider who also offers hosting and design services.
You can choose free providers like WordPress if you want to start small. It may be free, but it provides you with everything, including the templates you need to build your simple website from scratch.
Others like Wix and Weebly help you avoid the costs of a web designer through their DIY website builders. It is as simple as dragging and dropping templates without writing a single code.
3. Develop a User-Friendly Interface
Your portfolio website will not serve its intended target if the visitors don’t take the time to peruse the site. And one of the reasons for this would be a non-user-friendly interface.
The greatest measure of a user-friendly website is how easily the user can navigate through it. Can our clients easily access every section and content of your website? Moreover, does your website theme and background color make the customer feel relaxed reading through your portfolio?
Another important consideration is the mobile compatibility aspect of your website. Many of your clients will use their smartphones to access your portfolio website. Therefore, make sure it is easily navigable with a phone.
4. Optimize Your Site for Search Engines
The goal here is not just to make a freelance portfolio website. The goal is to make one that is visible to your potential clients.
For that to happen, it needs to rank high in the search engines like Google. It has to be among the top search engine results pages.
And that just did not happen. You have to perform certain SEO practices that contribute to a good ranking.
On top of the list of those practices is developing SEO content. You can create a separate landing page with SEO content, such as blogs, that will help redirect traffic to your freelance portfolio website. Alternatively, you can develop a section on the same website containing the SEO content you need to market yourself.
5. Ensure It Includes a CTA
Take a moment to think about potential clients who visit your freelance website portfolio and are impressed. What next for such a potential client?
That answers why you need a call to action on your portfolio website. You can never be sure when or which customer will be impressed with your portfolio.
But you can feel relieved that if it does happen, that customer will take the next step by clicking on your CTA buttons. The click can lead them to a contact form where they will share some of their details with you.
That click could start a possible long-term relationship with that customer. You just earned yourself the chance to convert your website visitor into a potentially full-paying customer.
6. Review and Analyze Your Website
It’s okay to be excited about publishing your portfolio website online. But don’t let the excitement get over you to the extent of publishing a malfunctioning website.
That is why you must conduct a test before officially publishing the website. Some of the tests to focus on include:
Possible broken links
Accuracy of the content
Compatibility with popular browsers
Mobile compatibility
Also, ensure that you have enough white spaces
Whether the user interface is friendly enough
Moreover, you need to connect your site to performance monitoring tools like Google Analytics. These analytics will provide useful insights into what is and is not working for your website.
Want to Learn More about What a Good Portfolio Website Can Do For You?
Creating your freelance portfolio website will take your freelance business to the next level. But it would be better if you hear it from others who have been in your position and developed their portfolio website. Join the Royal VA Community and pick the brains of these experts on all matters of VA.