I have worked with over 200 clients who’ve contacted me though this site since 2006. It always amazes me how WordPress developers especially don’t use WordPress to get more work.
Stick with me on this one. There’s a lot of good stuff here about what works NOW, even though SEO, Google and online behavior has changed so much in the last decade.
Keyword research
Have a look at Google’s Keyword Planner tool and find out which keywords with “buying intent” you want to target. Here are a few examples on the number of searches per month certain keywords with “buying intent” get:
| Keyword with “buying intent” | Searches/month |
|---|---|
| web designer london | 590 |
| freelance web developer london | 140 |
| wordpress developer new york | 10 |
| web designer scarborough | 30 |
The above keywords are what potential clients could key in to search engines. This is what I mean by “buying intent”. The keywords you should target will depend on a number of factors, for example:
- how would you describe yourself (designer, developer, etc.)
- your geographical location
- is there are demand for your services in your location (see keyword research above)
- what’s the competition like? (google your keywords and see if you’re likely to be able to get on the first page of search results.
This is just the first step of getting clients online.
Put the keywords with “buying intent” into your home page’s title
Let’s say your name is Leslie Othalthwaite and your website’s domain is LeslieOthalthwaite.com, what do you put as your site’s title? Leslie Othalthwaite? No! The domain is enough. Go WordPress > Settings > General and enter the keywords with “buying intent” into your Site Title.
Now the search engines are more likely to return your site in searches for those keywords and people can see what you do from your site’s title which, don’t forget, is what they see in the search results along with the meta description.
Put these keywords in your blog posts’ titles
But it doesn’t end there. You can put these keywords in your blog posts’s headings and subheadings. For example:
- “The life of a London freelance web designer”
- “How much freelance WordPress developers charge”
- “How to plan web design and development projects for corporations”
The above three blog post title ideas have three things in common:
- They target potential clients with keywords (with “buying intent”)
- They target potential clients with the content (they will be interested in reading the content and therefore could be interested in working with you)
- They are clickable and shareable on social media
- They are quite specific and not general
Try to follow the above four rules when writing some of your blog posts.
Make your blog posts specific not general
“How to run a WordPress web design business” is better than “How to run a business”. The former will get you more traffic from search engines because it’s more likely to come up in searches. The former will get you more interest from social media because WordPress web designers will be interested. The latter doesn’t do anything for anyone. It’s too general.
You will help more people by being specific rather than general.
Help other web designers
Write blog post tutorials and shoot video tutorials to help other web designers. Make these specific as possible as well. For example, “How to change the domain of a WordPress website with the help of cPanel” will help others trying to perform the same task. This will increase your authority and standing in the community. Other designers and developers will get to know you and this will help you build relationships with fellow professionals in your field. They may link to you. Over time, they will feel comfortable recommending you to their clients when they have too much work on.
But you can also find clients with web design tutorials. For example, I have found clients with my post and video about changing the domain of a WordPress website with cPanel. People who want to perform this task will search Google to find out how to do it. Some will eventually ask someone else to do it for them and they are likely to employ the services of the person who made the best tutorial.
So don’t make your material “web designer only”. Use a combination of technical as well as everyday language. Make your tutorials accessible to the layperson. Don’t be too geeky!
Another example of this is my web design questionnaire. I created this using GravityForms for other designers to use with their clients but I’ve had loads of queries from prospects as a result.
Video / YouTube
But it’s not all about blogging. I would urge web designers and developers to get involved in other media and forms of content distribution. It will help you going forward.
Purchase decisions tend to be emotional. The reason a potential client decides to contact you may not be because you are the best at what you do. For example, a client of mine contacted me because she’d seen me talking to a female client on a YouTube video and thought I related well with women(!)
We may not be able to have control over the reasons someone has to work with us but we can vary the type and platform of the content we put out, so that we increase our exposure and the likelihood of being contacted.
Authority
Authority is of greater and greater importance online. Here are some ways to increase authority in the eyes of the search engines and the wider web:
- Blog regularly
- Comment on other relevant blogs
- Make sure your blog posts can be easily shared on social media
- Create in-depth profiles on all the major social networks
- Forge long-term business relationships with other designers and developers online and off
Authority takes time to achieve. Take it one step at a time and concentrate on the areas where you’re getting the most traction. All this blogging, sharing, linking and engagement within the community of designers and developers will, in time, get you links and social signals to boost your authority.
Go local and responsive
Some people like to do business locally. So, if you haven’t got yourself on Google Maps right now, you really should.
And if you haven’t got a mobile responsive website right now, you really should as well.
Call to action
Every website should have a call to action. Every blog post should have a call to action.
Consider having a “Hire me” rather than – or as well as – a “Contact me” button or link on your website. Add a link to your contact page at the end of a blog post where you’ve given extra special value. Even better, add a contact form at the end of a blog post where prospects can add an email address and click a submit button. You can use GravityForms to add this email address to an email subscription list, if you want.
You can do it!
You can find people online who will want to hire you for web design or WordPress development. Keep blogging and be specific with your blog post titles. Do something everyday to increase your authority in the web design and WordPress niche.
What do you do to find clients? What did you think of my ideas? Let us know in the comments.
This was part of a presentation I did for the London WordPress Meetup group. Here are the slides:
https://www.slideshare.net/RobCubbon/using-word-press-to-find-clients
Helping other developers and writing specific posts are 2 awesome pieces of advice in a power post Rob! Simply give freely and you’ll receive more easily. Clients seek out free givers persistently, so don’t be stingy with your talents. Help out some folks for free and you’ll find more paid work than you’re prepared to handle. Karma 🙂 Get specific to send a loud and clear message to people about what you do and how it can help them.
I’m sharing this post on kingged(dot)com to boost your traffic 😉
“Don’t be stingy with your talents.” I absolutely and most fundamentally agree, Ryan. Thank you so much for your comments and sharing 🙂
Hey Rob, you just gave me a HUGE idea about how to properly use my website for local clients and how to give them more value and become an authority at the same time.
Can’t believe this was right in front of me and I still couldn’t see it myself, thanks a million brother!
– Sergio.
Hey, Sergio, that’s the power of blogging. I’m still finding things out that have been staring me in the face as well. Glad it helped, mi irmano 🙂
Hi Rob, the Google Keywords link appears to be broken. I’ve found it via Google Adwords, but it keeps asking me to set a daily budget?? Where did you find the above table showing buyer intent? Cheers Martin
Thanks, Martin, I’ve fixed the link. You have to create an Adwords account in order to use it. But definitely don’t spend any money! 🙂 In Adwords go: What would you like to do? > Search for new keyword and adgroup ideas > and enter your keyword ideas (web designer london, etc.) in the box below “Enter one or more of the following: Your product or service” that’s it, don’t enter anything else. Click “Get Ideas” and then click the “Keyword ideas” tab rather than the “Ad group ideas”.
Hi, yes I have an account, it takes me to a page called ‘Your First Campaign’ nothing about ‘What would you like to do’? Oh well. 🙁
on this link? http://www.google.com/sktool/
Rob, it seems adwords has changed in the last two weeks, it wants you to set up a campaign and add a budget and a bid now before it’ll let you access the tool. Thanks anyway.
“All you need is an AdWords account.” That’s what it says here: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2999770?hl=en-GB Anyway, you don’t have to spend any money.
Great tips for those seeking clients. Also periodically writing WordPress tips on your blog can do wonders as far as getting clients is concerned as prospective clients will view you as an expert. Out of curiosity, do you also promote your services off line? What are your thoughts on having a price list?
Yes, by blogging you are considered by some to be an expert. We are all experts.
The only offline promotion I do is going to business meetups in London which I enjoy and would do anyway. I don’t advise publishing your prices but you would maybe want to put a minimum price for web design as that might get rid of the “cheap” clients.
I hope that answers your questions, Shalu. 🙂
Hi Rob,
Many thanks for this post. However, I have a question… On my website, I help clients write content salespages, and do some SEO stuff. But am also skilled in web design as I have designed a couple of websites for myself and a few clients.
My site name is http://www.MyFreelanceHaven.com. Would you suggest I add a page for web design as well or create an entirely new site strictly for web design? Pls, I am thinking of which will work best with clients. Pls advise me, sir!
Hello Adeniyi, your question is really asking what sort of business you are in and I can’t answer that for you. And it also depends on what your clients are looking for. I would experiment and see what helps. You should taylor your site to the demands of your customers. Sorry I can’t be of more help.
Thanks Rob,
This is very useful piece. I should be able to use some of them.
Regards.
That’s good to know! 🙂
great advice as usual Rob, google keywords tool so useful.
Thanks, Louie. Agreed about the keyword planner tool.
Thanks for the great advice, Rob. I think I followed all these tips from elsewhere in your portfolio! Maybe, though, you’ve prompted me to revisit my site’s title keywords. Great advice as ever. Garry
Yes, Garry, I’ve been writing about this sort of thing for a while. Always good to keep revisiting page titles every now and again. 🙂
Hey Rob! It’s great to know your personal experience and knowledge in the post. I do not know much about how to impress the search engines. I read the point that to increase the authority we should use Blog regularly. Do you think that only posting regular blogs on a website will increase the reputation or either I need to promote blogs by other means too and how to do that effectively? Thanks!
Good question, Michelle. I would say that if you had to do one thing then “blog regularly” would be it. However, of course, it’s better if you can do as much as you can to promote your site.
The most beneficial way you can do this is by forming long term business relationships, partnerships and friendships with people who are interested in a similar area. If you nurture these relationships they will reward you with links and social shares. Also, you can maintain profiles on the major social networks and promote your posts there along with other good relevant content. You could also do guest blogging.
But, relationships are the most important thing.
Thanks Rob, some great ideas and advice as per usual. I personally as of yet haven’t done some of what you outline in your blog post, so it’s a good reminder for me to find time and get it done. Shame I don’t live in London as it would have been good to have gone to one of your meetups.
Hey Mark, I glad some of the points here were a good reminder for you, Mark. Yes, shame you don’t get down to London much. But you could check MeetUp for business groups in your area or start your own if they don’t exist.
Rob,
this is a post of great value from an experienced freelancer like you.
also the slide share widget as above has no content.
regards
vinodh
Hi Vinodh, thank you, I’ve got to look in to that Slideshare widget. Thanks for letting me know. Rob
Rob,
I have to thank you. because, after seeing this tutorial I changed the title text
of my personal website as per this post on buying intent. I recently made a new website in wordpress just for getting leads from potential service buyers for my skill set.
I am not a wordpress developer but an experienced programmer.
Today I got call from authorized representative of service buyer from abroad
for my exact skill set. I feel thrilled. This is even before I could write blog posts for my skill set. website has no content other than few pages detailing my skillset .
leads coming after just after title text change as per this post.
so I am certain that your advice helped me.
thats the power of wordpress and learning from a teacher like you.
regards
vinodh
Hello Vinodh, it’s amazing how many people don’t do this and put their name as the title of their website. These are the most important words on your website and it makes sense to put “java web developer bangalore” (for example).
Be careful not to “keyword stuff” don’t put the same keyword in there too many times, for example.
I’m delighted that you’re getting contacts from your website, Vinodh.