A portfolio website is an essential marketing tool for any freelancer looking to attract potential clients.
Your portfolio allows you to showcase your skills, experience, and work samples to prospects in your industry. But what should you include in a freelance portfolio site to make a great impression on potential customers?
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll review the key elements every successful freelance portfolio website needs. So, let’s get started.
What is a Portfolio Website?
A portfolio website is an online platform used by creative professionals like designers, developers, photographers, writers, and more to showcase their skills, experience, and work samples to potential clients.
The main elements of a portfolio website typically include:
- An About page introducing who you are and what you do
- A portfolio gallery showcasing 6-12 of your best types of projects with descriptions
- Client testimonials and case studies proving your expertise
- Contact page and lead generation tools to convert visitors
- Strong visual design and branding to stand out
- Optimized for SEO to help you get found online
A portfolio site is an essential marketing tool for freelancers and creative agencies. It allows you to promote your services, establish credibility, land prospective clients, and grow your business.
An exceptional portfolio site highlights your unique talents, style, and personality. It’s a place to make a great first impression on potential customers in your industry.
Portfolio Website For Freelancer Step-By-Step
Building an effective portfolio site takes planning and effort. Follow these steps to create a portfolio that wows clients and drives new business.
Step 1: Who Are Your Audience?
First, know who you want to reach with your site by knowing your audience. This is the first step to creating your freelancer profile that works for you.
Your portfolio should be tailored to your ideal type of client and niche. For example, a graphic designer’s portfolio would look very different from a freelance writer’s. Determine your target customer profile so you can craft content accordingly.
When working with clients on an assignment, try to accomplish the best results that work for your customer. So, impressing your clients is very important to hire you again. In turn, they will recommend you to other potential clients.
Hence, remember when creating your freelance portfolio that you want to impress your potential clients.
For this, you must determine who your clients will be and what they want to see. Check out other successful freelancers’ portfolios to get a better idea of what clients are looking for.
Then, you have the option to structure your portfolio in two ways. You can go for a brief introduction of your work or create a marketing tool to advertise your business. You can then create a one-page portfolio or a full portfolio, depending on whom you want to reach.
One-page portfolios are significant for only introducing your work as it is not a way a client will find you but mostly reached through introductions like LinkedIn.
But if you want clients to find you through Google, then a full SEO-optimized portfolio is the best way.
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Step 2: Set Up Your Website
Now that you have decided on the type of online profile you want, the next step is to determine whether to build a website yourself or use a website builder. These choices all come down to two options.
1. Get a domain, hosting, and design
If you have coder experience, you can purchase your domain name, secure hosting, and install WordPress. Then, pick a visually appealing theme from a marketplace like ThemeForest to design the site.
This option gives you complete control. You can even use WordPress if you are not a coder, as they have website-building programs with templates available and straightforward to use, especially for a one-page website.
2. Use a platform like Pixpa
Services like Pixpa provide easy portfolio website builders made for creatives. They are hosting providers that handle design and security so you can focus on content.
Some even include lead-generation tools. Using these tools can be a faster, more straightforward option. So, if you want an all-in-one DIY website builder platform, Pixpa is the way to go.
You can create a stunning freelance portfolio website without much effort. Pixpa is mobile-friendly and pixel-perfect, offering responsive templates to customize according to your needs.
Check out these fantastic freelancer portfolio templates offered by them.
Step 3: Showcase Your Best Work
The most important part of your portfolio is displaying your best projects front and centre. Carefully curate 6-12 pieces that represent your talents and skills. Avoid showing all your work; only highlight the best previous projects you are proud of.
The best is to focus on the work you want to do the most. For instance, if you are an illustrator and writer but want to concentrate more on illustration, leave the writing portfolio out. Doing this will help clients know where their strengths lie.
Most importantly, to make your portfolio stand out, add descriptions to each project you worked on. Explain the project and the challenges you faced in solving them. Add context to your brochures and screenshots as a graphic designer.
Step 4: Make It Personal, Stand Out
Add personality to your site through branding, colour scheme, copy, images, and more. Doing this allows you to differentiate from competitors. Share your story, creative process, and passions on your About page.
The About section is where you can tell potential clients more about yourself and what you do. The About page is where readers will get a background about you.
For example, if you are a web designer, use the terms “I have helped to decrease shopping cart abandonment rates for e-commerce stores by 40% after running a usability test and redesigning the checkout on the site.”
So, get creative when communicating your value to bring those clients to you.
Step 5: Make A Strong Call To Action
Most online portfolios have your contact information directed by a button for potential clients to reach you. While this is a straightforward process, your contact page is where you can stand out.
For example, if you decide to use a one-page portfolio, you can advise your clients to reach out to you if interested in finding out more. The fantastic thing about this approach is that it allows you to keep track of people interested in your work.
Another benefit of this approach is that it is an excellent solution if you cannot showcase work because of confidentiality agreements.
Step 6: Show Authenticity
Build trust by including real client testimonials, case studies, and information about your services. You can display testimonials from previous and existing clients related to reviews of your work.
The fact is that clients prefer to work with freelancers with positive reviews. It shows that they can trust you with the work and can rely on you to get the job done. As your work sample informs clients of your skills, testimonials show how well you do your job.
Other ways to show authenticity are through your About page, Contact page, and Portfolio Overview, which can help convey authenticity.
Step 7: Optimise for SEO
While creating a freelance portfolio website can help display your work, more is needed. Once everything is in place, you must promote yourself to spread the word and gain a freelance client to lead to more.
The easiest way to achieve this is with SEO. Using Search Engine Optimization can help improve reaching potential clients. It helps your site to build organic web traffic on search engines like Google.
The important thing is that your freelance portfolio website must load fast and be well-coded. So, choosing the right freelance web developer portfolio builder is crucial.
With Pixpa, they use clean HTML markups to improve loading times. Other exemplary SEO practices are using alt tags on images, URLs, SSL certificates, sitemaps, and more.
Different ways to promote yourself are through social media accounts or using marketing tools to boost your online presence:
- Cookie consent bars
- Announcement bars
- Marketing pop-ups
Another effective way is to showcase your website on platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
Examples Of Great Freelance Digital Portfolio Websites
Great, now that you are all excited about starting a freelance portfolio, I have some impressive portfolio websites here for you to look at:
Freelance Photographer Ankush Maria
Here, we have an excellent example of Ankush Maria, a freelance photographer.
Ankush specializes in different genres, from real estate portraits to product photography and other forms of photography.
The website has a grid layout, providing visitors with a range of work. He has a detailed Biography, an About page, and client testimonials with a contact form.
Freelance Illustrator Thomas Radclyffe
Illustrator Thomas Radclyffe is UK-based and uses monochromatic colour palettes to display his work.
The landing page makes a significant impact with the geometric black-and-white illustrations.
Thomas also has a contact page with an About page and an online store to sell his work and prints.
Freelance Photographer Saurabh Narang
Saurabh Narang is another excellent example of how a freelance portfolio website should be.
Saurabh is a multimedia storyteller and photographer from Germany. The minimalist layout focuses on his work while keeping the images centred.
The About page has client testimonials, and the contact page is very detailed.
Creative Director Antonio Prisco
The Italian graphic designer Antonio Prisco designer uses a minimalist approach to display his portfolio.
You see a detailed About page that showcases his experienced background and profession.
There is a contact form allowing him to respond to queries directly from the website.
Wrap-Up
An exceptional freelance portfolio website is critical for attracting future clients and growing your business.
Be sure to determine your target audience, carefully curate your best work, add personality, build trust, optimize your SEO features, and include a call to action.
Use this guide to create a perfect portfolio site that gets results and lands clients!