Freelancer Homepage Checklist: Turn Your Visitors into Paying Clients
Last updated: December 13, 2021
You may be a skillful designer, an experienced copywriter, or a great marketing consultant. But you may still feel overwhelmed when it comes to creating a website for your business that brings you new clients.
This freelancer homepage checklist shows you, step-by-step, how to create a homepage that will impress your prospects and become a solid foundation for your business growth.
70+ tips for every part of your homepage:
- Three things to do before writing a single line
- Freelancer homepage must have’s
- Two extra sections that lure your prospects in
- Homepage FAQ: target audience, length, testimonials
- Real-life examples and additional tips
Bonus:
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Freelancer Homepage “Must-Have”s
For your homepage visitors to even consider hiring you or enrolling in your courses, they should be able to:
- Instantly understand who you are and what you do
- Understand what’s in it for them
- See you as a trustworthy professional
- See you as likable person
- Easily find relevant information and get their questions answered.
Let’s look at every part of your homepage and see what you have to do to make sure you get the full score on all these points.
Hero Section
This is the first section that your prospects will see. The goals of your hero sections are to:
- greet them in person and start building a relationship
- make it clear what you do
- tell your visitors how it could make their lives better
- tell them what they could do next.
Here’s what you should add to your hero section to achieve these goals.
☐ Your photo
- Looking either straight or towards the text / call to action (not away)
☐ Your name
☐ A clear website tagline that explains what you do
Webite Tagline Examples:
Vague:
- Wizard of words
- Saving you time and money
- Making your ideas shine
Clear:
- Creative B2B copywriter
- Virtual Marketing Assistant
- Web designer for women-entrepreneurs
Tip: To make sure that your website tagline is clear, ask yourself if you would use the same words to explain what you do to a stranger. Will they understand it right away or will you have to explain further?
When in doubt, use this surefire tagline formula: {What I am}. I {do what} {for whom} {with what benefit}.
Recommended reading: “How to Make Sure Your Homepage Sends a Clear Message (+ 7 Great Website Tagline Examples)”
☐ 1-2 sentences explaining why your prospects should care
☐ Call to action
- For example: “Learn more”, “View services”, “Contact me”
Hero Section (sign-ups oriented)
If the purpose of your homepage is to grow your email list, you may want a different hero section that contains the following elements:
- Enticing headline presenting your lead magnet
- 1-2 sentences describing what the benefit is (make sure to use the word “free” effectively)
- A direct opt-in or a “Learn More” button that leads your visitors to a dedicating landing page with an opt-in
In this case, make sure to include your name and what you do (for ex., “copywriter”, “editor”) on top of the page (for ex., in the top-left corner).
Navigation
Together with the hero section, navigation is one of the first parts of your website your prospects will look at.
The goal of the navigation is to make it as easy as possible for your prospects to find relevant information.
Here’s what makes a website navigation effective:
- Not more than 7 navigation labels
- Positioned as your website visitors expect it (one row at the top of the page)
- Descriptive
- Clear
- No drop-downs
Tip: Drop-down menus irritate your visitors and lose you visits to important pages. Reorganize the information on your website to have only top-level navigation.
Recommended reading: “4 Reasons You Must Kill The Drop-Down Menus in Your Navigation”
Navigation Label Examples:
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