Web Designers: Marketing a Portfolio Site

The online portfolio is one of the most important assets for any web designer or web developer (not to mention other professions like photographers). A good portfolio site is capable of being the leading source of new clients, which is the lifeblood of any service-related business.

Although the importance of the portfolio site is obvious, having an effective one requires that people actually see it. Having a great portfolio is one thing, but getting it seen is another. There are so many designers out there that competition is very stiff and without marketing your site it is likely to get very little attention.

In this article we will discuss some of the basic things that you can do to get more eyeballs on your portfolio site, and ultimately more business.

1. Build a Search Engine-Friendly Site

There are almost infinite topics that we could discuss about Search Engine Optimization, but one of the most important is simply building a search-friendly site. This doesn’t mean that your site will rank high, but it does mean that search engines will have no problems crawling your site to find all of you pages and to know what phrases it is targeting.

To make your site search friendly, use valid code that is clean and well-organized. This includes proper use of headings, and choosing not to do anything that will trick search engines or make it difficult for them to crawl your site.

2. Use Effective Page Title that Include Your Keywords

One of the most important factors for search engine rankings is the page title, so give plenty of attention to the titles that you use. Think about what people will be searching for and what will help them to find you.

Use specific phrases rather than targeting general keywords like “web design” or “web designer.” There is simply to much competition for general keywords to realistically have a chance at ranking at the top of the search engines.

Consider specific words and phrases such as “e-commerce web design.” This is descriptive of the services provided but will eliminate a lot of competition as compared to more general keywords, meaning you will have a better chance for a good ranking.

3. Don’t Forget About Localities

One way to make your website stand out is to optimize it for local searches. For example, instead of targeting the phrase “web designer,” try targeting “Philadelphia web designer.” This will drastically decrease the competition that you have for search rankings and it is something that local clients would actually search for.

4. Link Building

Probably the single-most important factor for achieving great search engine rankings is getting links from other websites. Getting links is like getting votes from other sites. As more sites (and high-quality sites) link to you, the search engines will give more authority to your site and ranking well should not be a problem.

If you want to dominate the search engines you will need to focus your efforts on getting links from other websites. There are any number of approaches you could take for a portfolio site, but here are a few:

Put a blog on your site – Portfolio sites and blogs are popular combinations, and part of the reason is that blogs attract links from other blogs. It will take some work to maintain the blog and publish new content, but it is one of the best things you can do for search traffic.

Use social media – Social media marketing can be an extremely successful way to build links as popular items often attract links from all kinds of sites.

Exchange links – You can make an agreement with other website owners and bloggers to link to each other.

Get your site featured in design galleries – There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of web design and CSS gallery sites that showcase excellent work from various designers. You can submit your site and if it is good enough you can build a lot of links this way.

5. Create Something Amazing

One of the best things you can do to promote your site is to simply make it special. A great portfolio design will market itself quite well. Take your time and make something that is reflective of your best work.

6. Use Freebies to Draw People In

People like to get things for free, so if you can give something away from your website (i.e. icons, stock photos, blog themes, etc.) you may be able to attract a lot of links and new visitors.

Steven Snell is a web designer and freelance blogger. He maintains a gallery of portolio websites and a gallery of e-commerce web design.

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