7 Reasons Why Freelancers Should Have Their Own Website

Having profiles on various freelance platforms, such as Upwork and Fiverr, is great and can bring you a lot of clients. However, if you want to grow your business and take your work to the next level, you absolutely need a website.

You may provide services on many different platforms, but your site should be your central hub, to where you can refer any client interested in seeing who you are and how you work.

It adds a personal touch, which is important for freelancers since it’s so easy to get lost in a sea of people from all around the world who offer the same things.

Here are some compelling reasons to convince you that you need a website.

It Makes You Appear More Professional

Having a website automatically says to potential clients that you take yourself and your work seriously. It means you’re not just working odd jobs to get by, getting paid and getting it over with. Instead, you’re building a brand, and people appreciate that.

Of course, freelancers need to ensure they have a good design, or else a website can have the opposite effect — it can actually be detrimental to their career. On the other hand, a great website design will make them appear like competent and qualified experts who can solve their clients’ problems with ease.

It Helps You Build a Convincing Portfolio

One of the best things about having your own site is that it allows you to display your best work in one place. So if any of your clients want to see more of your work, you can refer them to your website.

If you provide several different services, you can categorize your work in several different sections, so that interested parties can check out precisely what interests them. This way, you’ll be able to show off your best work in a way that works for you.

It’s a Place for You to Display All Your Services and Prices

If a client finds you on one of the freelancing platforms you use, they may only see one service you provide. However, if they visit your website, they’ll be able to see all the services you provide along with the prices. This way, they may realize that you could do much more for them.

In essence, having all your services displayed, coupled with sample work for each of them, can have immense benefits for your business. Everyone will be able to see the scope of your skills and knowledge, which may be just the tipping point that will help them decide to choose you for the job.

You Can Show Your Clients Your Personality and Brand

Building a brand is now more important than ever, as people are used to businesses having more flair and being less impersonal. Everyone wants to engage with an actual person with their own personal style.

Your clients will see exactly who you are, and this may help them decide they want to work with you. You can show off your credibility even further by managing a blog that deals with topics related to your field of expertise.

Just think about it — will they prefer to work with a freelancer that has an established brand or an impersonal profile on Upwork so similar to many others there?

It Allows You to Display Testimonials

What better way to promote yourself than by letting your happy clients sing your praises? Testimonials and social proof go a long way in building trust and credibility with your target audience.

No matter how great your portfolio, clients will always rely on others’ reviews and comments first. As many as 72% of customers say that positive testimonials increase their trust in a brand, which makes them some of the best tools for building credibility.

You can take some of the best reviews from your other platforms and ask the people who wrote them if you could put them on your site. Happy clients will gladly consent to this.

It Sets You Apart From the Sea of Competitors

Freelancers usually face huge competition, especially in some of the most popular jobs, such as copywriting, graphic design, programming, etc. We’ve already mentioned that the biggest platforms are filled with people offering the same services, and clients are often forced to choose at random.

However, if you can refer them to your site, you definitely stand out from the crowd as they can see exactly what you can offer. Since a website can make you appear as a more well-established business, you can even increase your prices and get away with it. People will often rather pay more and know that their project is in safe hands than risk it.

It Allows You to Reach a Wider Audience

A professional-looking and SEO-friendly site can attract many visitors, even if you don’t have profiles on freelancing platforms. The magic of SEO, careful content optimization, and great UX (which comes with a great design) can bring you tons of clients from organic search.

So instead of seeking them out, you let them find you. You can even go a step further and start building a solid client base by engaging them through subscription options, email lists, and great newsletters. This way, you may even get regulars who will keep coming back to you for more.

It Helps You Grow Your Business

Ultimately, a website helps you rise above a “gigster” and take your status to the level of an established business.

By growing your business, increasing your credibility and trustworthiness, improving your reputation, and creating your brand, you will likely attract much more respectable and serious clients who will not take you for granted.

Freelancers are all-too-often targets of tricksters and difficult clients who think they can push them around. That’s something you’ll leave behind by establishing a strong online presence on your site.

It Allows You to Streamline Your Onboarding Process

A website is a great tool that can allow you to streamline the process of onboarding new clients. There are so many handy ways in which you can automate this process instead of doing everything manually.

For starters, you can set up a booking calendar, where your clients can book their meeting with you all by themselves. This is great because it allows you to sit back and relax while your schedule arranges itself, so to speak.

You may also use a chatbot that can onboard your customers and answer their questions as soon as they land on your site. Another option is a form or questionnaire that they can fill out and allow you to prepare yourself in advance for the meeting.

You Can Use Promotions and Special Offers to Draw In Clients

Additionally, you can lure clients in with special offers and promotions, such as limited offers and discounts.

This works great if you have an extensive email list and can send out the offer. You can reach out to the people on the list whenever you’re going through a dry spell. Reminding your subscribers of your existence may be enough to land you more work.

As you can see, the many benefits of having your own site as a freelancer are undeniable, so why miss out on them?

I’m Rebecca, a translator, avid traveler, and bookworm. My job has given me the amazing opportunity to travel to dozens of countries around the world, and writing on Rough Draft gives me a chance to try to showcase some of them.