Freelancer Homepage Checklist: Turn Your Visitors into Paying Clients
Last updated: May 24, 2020
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.
To comfortably use this checklist, you can download its PDF version that comes with a bonus homepage template.
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
- 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:
Vague:
- Get to Know Me
- How can I help?
- Fees & Charges
- Read My Columns
- Support Yourself
- Get in Touch
Clear:
- About
- Services
- Pricing
- Blog
- Books / Courses
- Contact
Navigation mistakes:
- Linking to unimportant pages (Impressum, Privacy policy, etc.)
- Not linking to important pages (About us, Services, etc.)
- Placing navigation menu items in unexpected places
- Using too many navigation labels
- Unnecessary drop-down menus
Tip: Navigation is the last place you should be creative. Website visitors don’t read navigation. They scan it for familiar labels. Anything that is unclear or requires them to pause and think will cause irritation or will be overlooked.
Recommended reading: “How to Turn Your Website Navigation into an Effective Click Magnet (+ Examples)”
Testimonials
After your prospects understood what you do and how it can benefit them, they’ll ask themselves whether they can trust you to do a good job.
That’s why it’s a good idea to include testimonials as soon as possible on your website.
Yet, not every testimonial is a good testimonial. For example, “Loved it!” is one of the worst testimonials you can use on your website. It’s vague and unspecific, which make it less believable.
Here’s what makes a great client testimonial:
- It’s short and direct
- It’s believable:
- Uses full names and, if possible, headshots of the clients
- Is specific enough to sound authentic
- It backs up your claims:
- Reinforces your unique value proposition, and/or
- Uses data behind the value service / product delivers, and/or
- Addresses initial fears of your customers and explains how they were eliminated
Example of an Effective Testimonial:
Tip: Testimonials are most powerful in context: On your homepage, About or Services page next to the claims you make about your offer.
Don’t hide your testimonials on a Testimonial page and include more client testimonials on your homepage and other pages every time you make a claim or ask your website visitors to take action.
Featured Services
Make it easy for your prospects to understand what you offer and include more information about your services directly on your homepage:
Here’s how to present your services on your homepage in a clear way that grabs attention:
☐ 1-3 columns
☐ 1-2 paragraphs for each service describing:
- What it is
- Whom is it for
- What problems it solves
☐ Call to action that links to the corresponding service page
☐ If using flat icons of the same color than the call-to-action button:
- either remove them completely, as they contribute to visual overload
- or give them a distinct design in a different color palette than the call-to-action button.
Tip: Have more than 4 services? Group them together on your homepage in one category and split them in the separate sections later, on the page that your prospects get to see after they click on the corresponding button.
Footer
Footer is something your visitors see on every page, which makes it ideal for drawing attention to important information, pages or products. Use your footer to keep your visitors longer on your website and help them navigate through it.
Footer must have’s:
- Links to main pages
- Link to Contact page
- Copyright
- Link to Privacy Policy
- Cookie disclaimer
- Social icons
Footer extras:
- “About me” section
- Latest articles
- Featured asset
- Email signup
- Postal address / link to a map
- Phone and fax numbers
- Search box
Tip: You don’t have to include all these points in your footer, of course. Just select the most relevant for your business.
But whatever you do, don’t leave the footer empty. Footer is a safety net of your website “catching” the visitors who haven’t found what they were looking for on your page and were about to leave.
Freelancer Homepage: Extras
The elements listed above are the minimum you should include on your freelancer homepage to communicate your business message clearly, to appear trustworthy and to offer your prospects an easy way to find more relevant information.
Want to give your prospects a stronger push into the right direction? Consider including the following sections as well.
Featured Asset
Imagine, you have a visitor on your homepage who is interested in your services. Use this opportunity to influence what they see next about you and your work and include a featured asset on your homepage (for ex., a lead magnet, a book, or a course).
Present your asset using:
- An image that grabs attention
- Enticing paragraph explaining what it is and what’s in it for your prospects
- Call to action
Latest Articles
Your blog posts demonstrate your authority and expertise. If you have a blog, feature some of your latest articles on your homepage:
- 2-4 latest blog posts
- Featured images
- Enticing titles relevant to your audience
- Blog post excerpts that highlight a specific benefit or ignite curiosity
- Call to action (for example, “Read more articles”) that takes your prospects to your Blog page
Freelancer Homepage: FAQs
Q1: Whom should my homepage target?
Most of the people who’ll visit your homepage will be first-time visitors. Assume that they don’t know you at all or don’t know much about you, and structure your page accordingly.
Q2: How long should my homepage be?
Your homepage should be as long as you can keep it relevant and scannable. Make sure you have calls to action after every section so that your prospects can dive into particular topics anytime.
Q3: I don’t have any testimonials yet. What should I do?
If you had some clients already, reach out for a testimonial. If you are just starting out and didn’t have any clients yet, offer your services to a friend or a peer for free and ask them for a testimonial.