With the gig economy in full swing, more and more people are trying to earn their spot on the market not as part of a company but as freelancers. Whether with creative, physical, or intellectual work, a freelancer must be able to promote their services to attract customers. A considerable disadvantage self-employed professionals face is the significantly lower marketing and lead generation budget. Thus, individuals trying to storm their industry on their own should make the most of what little resources they can afford.

Building a proper, well-designed, and informative website is the first step and the easiest way to attract paying customers without breaking the bank. Naturally, you need to provide the audience with all the right information. And while a one-pager is quite enough for a starting freelance gig or a nanobusiness if you want to go big and become a full-time freelancer, having a full-blown multi-page website is the way to go. There, each page has its own mission. Of course, how many pages you will create is entirely up to you. It depends on your business plan, your industry, and your vision. Still, there are five pages each freelancer must have on their website if they want to be successful. Let’s have a closer look at the what, why, and how of these web pages.

About page

As a general rule of thumb, each page you create is for the benefit of your audience. This means that no matter the page, it must serve a purpose. It needs to bring value to the users, thus converting them into leads. The About page makes no difference. Many freelancers go into lengthy tales about their childhood dreams, stories, and lives. Unfortunately, no one cares about these aspects of the freelancer’s life. What users are interested in are the freelancer’s qualifications, experience, and motivations. So, naturally, this should be the highlights of your About page.

On the other hand, some freelancers disregard the About page as a waste of time and effort. They couldn’t be further from the truth.

Why do you need an About page?

The About page serves multiple purposes at once. Probably the most important one is establishing credibility. For instance, if you are a freelance SMM specialist, a customer will have to give you access to some funds and their Social Media profiles. Naturally, the potential client will want to know who you are, where you come from, your expertise, and who you have been working for. Consider it a job interview where your About page answers all the questions.

Furthermore, the About page builds trust and connects with your audience. Imagine being at a social event or a workshop where you wanted to find a business partner. You’d like to know their background, hobbies, and personality. You’d like to see if you are compatible as partners and if they can be trusted.

The About page is much more than that. It’s a platform where you can showcase your personality. This is your key advantage against big companies that dwell within your niche. Customers often prefer the personal touch, which most companies can’t give because they follow standards. When ordering from a company, you’re not talking to a decision-maker. When talking to a freelancer, you talk directly both with the owner and the worker. This is a communication homerun.

Last but not least, the About page is an SEO goldmine. Google loves it when they can verify who’s behind a website. Thus, though not explicitly stated, About pages give you a slight bonus for your SEO. Moreover, the more credible your website, the better your ranking will be. So, what should your About page have?

How to make it work?

In short, you need to show your understanding of your target audience’s problems and, more importantly, your knowledge and experience in solving them. But first things first. People should be able to find your About page effortlessly. Make it visible and add a link in the main menu and your homepage. A great idea is to add a small About section on your homepage with a link to the About page.

Firstly, a successful About page is always customer-centric. That means you must focus on traits and aspects of your personality, business, and services that are interesting to your audience. What you find interesting about yourself is irrelevant if it doesn’t serve the About page’s purposes listed above.

This, however, doesn’t mean you should avoid talking about yourself. On the contrary, the About page is all about you. However, focus on being convincing and trustworthy rather than interesting. For example, wingsuit flying will definitely make you look cool. However, it will also instill doubt about your credibility, as taking risks is not a great B2B model. So, choose carefully what is beneficial to disclose and what can remain hidden.

Furthermore, on your About page, you must address the problem that drove your audience to your website. Share your story, your credentials, and your qualifications. Share how you found a fix and what makes it better than all other solutions. In other words, give your unique sales proposition.

Most importantly, make your About page memorable. Create a lasting impression through your content, imagery, and page design. Don’t hesitate to incorporate interactive elements. Moreover, this is the best place to add some humor. Still, don’t go overboard and keep it professional. After all, you are offering a service. Speaking of which…

Services page

Of course, your entire website’s main point is to offer your audience some services. While this can be done on your home page, a far better solution is to have a dedicated Service page. If you are offering more than one service, it’s a good idea to have a separate page for each one of your services.

Why have a Service page?

Your Service page is, of course, the highlight of your website. This is the place you want all your audience to end up on. A good marketing strategy will funnel traffic from various sources. A dedicated Service page will accommodate the hotter and warmer audience, usually via paid advertisements and Search engines. These people have a particular problem, and they are looking for a solution. If you offer multiple services, sending them on your home page will only dilute their resolve to use your service. On the other hand, if they land on a dedicated Service page, you can build a tailored customer journey for this segment of your target audience.

Moreover, a separate Service page will immensely benefit your SEO efforts. Offering a solution is what Google is all about. So, if you nail your SEO optimization, a dedicated Service page will be much more valuable than any home page. That’s why each of your services must be separated on a different page. Because each one of them solves a different need and problem.

So, how should you build your Service page?

How to build your Service page?

Your Service page is nothing short of a landing page. It should follow the same structure. It needs to create a customer journey, starting with a strong introduction in your Hero Section and ending with a persuasive CTA. The narrative on your service page, naturally, depends on your industry and service. Regardless, there are some key elements you need to incorporate on your Service page.

Firstly, you must be clear about what you are offering from the very start. This must be the focus of your Headline (H1) in your Hero section. There, you must also add a “quick order button” for returning customers or those who have already decided.

To make the impact even stronger, you must state your offer beneath the Hero section. Be clear and specific. For example, you should add delivery time, ordering process, what information you need, and others. Most importantly, you need to add what your service does not include.

Moreover, you need to address the cost of your service, as this is one of the most important pieces of information for the customer’s decision-making process. Thus, you can explain how the price is formed.

Furthermore, any customer will want to see a sample of your work. Thus, you need to provide a link to relevant examples of your work. While having a small batch of service-specific samples on your service page is good, a freelancer should also have a dedicated portfolio page.

Finally, you must add a persuasive CTA. The CTA should be the natural ending of your customer journey and narrative.

Your customer journey should answer all burning questions about the service you offer. The more detailed your service page is, the less time you will spend answering inquiries without the prospect of becoming paying customers.

Portfolio

You don’t just hire a person because of their charming smile and good looks. If you do, that’s not the most efficient way to run your business. Yes, personal traits play a huge role in choosing your partners and vendors, but any self-respecting business is looking for competence above all else. So, how do you show your experience, know-how, and work style? Through a portfolio, of course.

Why do you need a portfolio?

It’s simple, really. You need a portfolio so you won’t have to create samples for every customer. Your customers will want to know your capabilities, and showing them some of your work will showcase your competence and work both as social and authority proof.

How to build your portfolio page?

Honestly, there is no single rule on how to build your page. It all depends on the service you provide, the samples you want to share, and your personal preferences. If you are a digital marketer, you’d want to share screenshots of successful campaigns and their results. Graphic designers should go for a more gallery-like vision. If you are a copywriter or a content writer, you’d want to showcase some of your published blog posts or articles.

One common mistake many freelancers make is adding all their work to their portfolio. That’s not just unnecessary but can have a negative effect on your goal. In your portfolio, you’d want to share only your best work. Choose 5-10 of your best work examples. Giving too many choices and examples will either become confusing or give the audience enough opportunities to find something wrong.

Still, if you offer more than one service, highlight at least 2-3 examples from each. This will showcase your skills while, at the same time, you can use the same samples as an element in your service page.

Regardless of how much information you share on your website, there will always be additional questions. That’s why you need at least two other pages on your freelance website.

FAQ page

People are not too thorough when searching for information, especially when this information is beautified and not direct. That’s why having a dedicated page where the most common questions can be answered is a good idea. This is the FAQ page. A good FAQ page can reduce pointless inquiries significantly, as the audience will have the means to get their answer without contacting you. But the benefits of the FAQ page are more.

Why do you need an FAQ page?

First and foremost, it saves a lot of time, both for you and your customers. Most customers will have a specific goal in mind, and they wouldn’t want to go through your entire sales page to see if you offer what they are looking for. For example, if you provide writing services but don’t offer SEO research, this may be a dealbreaker for some customers. Thus, stating that on your FAQ page will save you time answering an email on whether you offer SEO research.

Furthermore, it will immensely improve your SEO. The FAQ page is the perfect place for adding all sorts of shot-tail and long-tail keywords. This will help you rank on many more keywords, increasing your organic traffic.

Most importantly, however, the FAQ page demonstrates your expertise. This is the place where you can show off your knowledge of your industry.

How to build your FAQ page?

First and foremost, you need to pick the questions you want to add. At first, when you are new on the market, you won’t have much data. Still, the FAQ section can be filled with everything you consider important to share. Over time, as you start receiving inquiries and communicating with customers, you can add new questions to your list. You can also draw some inspiration from your competitors and Google.

Your next step is to structure your questions. Follow some kind of logic. For example, start with broader questions like “Who are you?” and get into specifics later. Being random with your questions will only confuse your audience.

If your list is far too long, you should group the questions into categories so they can be easily scannable.

When it comes to design, there are no strict rules. You can choose whatever seems most convenient. Still, your FAQ page design should correspond with the rest of your website.

While the FAQ page will significantly reduce the number of pointless emails, you still must give your audience the means to communicate with you directly. This is where the Contact page comes into play.

Contact page

You can’t cover every single question your audience will have. Many will have subjective questions about their cases. Others will want to order or book your services after they make sure you are a real person. So, naturally, you must give your audience the means to communicate. The contact page is just that. There, you can present your preferred means of communication. Regardless of whether you prefer to communicate by phone, adding an email address is essential. If you don’t want to share your email directly, you can add a contact form instead. The main point is to allow your audience to communicate without personal interaction.

With the rise of AI, you can even create a chatbot, but that shouldn’t be your priority.

Naturally, make sure to state how long it takes you to reply and stick to it. For example, if the reply time is 24 hours, make sure to always answer an inquiry within that period. Otherwise, you will lose your customer’s confidence.

Moreover, make a schedule of checking your inbox at least thrice daily and state that on your Contact page. For example, check your emails at 10 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm. This way, when someone sends you an email, they will know precisely when you will read it and when to expect an answer. Don’t forget to exclude weekends, though. After all, you didn’t become a freelancer to have a worse work-life balance.

There you have it

Your website is done. Mostly. You still need a gorgeous homepage and a catchy and memorable brand name. However, no matter how excellent you build your pages, if your readers can’t get to them, it’s all pointless. So, the first step towards building your freelance website should be investing in a fast, secure, and reliable web hosting service. Fortunately for you, HostArmada is just that. We pride ourselves in our lightning-fast hosting, boosted with top-notch security. To top it all off, we offer 99.9% uptime, making our service one of the most reliable on the market. If you want to have a successful freelance website, our offers are where you must start your journey. Check out our plans, and if you need any help choosing the right one, don’t hesitate to contact our team.