If you are a web designer, you will have at least once faced the problem of not having enough work. Finding clients is always a pressing problem for any freelancer. This is encountered, not only by newcomers to the field but also by professionals who are not just starting out. Here, also, orders do not always continuously flow – there is also downtime, as in any other profession. To minimize the number of “empty days” you have to work hard.

Even if you may be doing just fine at the moment, you should not be negligent about the problem. The situation of no clients happens to almost 80% of web designers. You should always be aware that there is fierce competition in this market. There are hundreds of experts just like you around the world, and you can locate them on a variety of resources. If you still think you can easily compete with others simply by lowering the price, you are also wrong. Remember, there are freelancers who live in low-income countries, so competing only on price will never be profitable or enough.

You may be a great specialist and rely on your professionalism, but you have to be aware that finding clients requires a different kind of skill. If you cannot sell yourself well, communicate, and attract clients, then you need to change immediately.

Your Website Is Your Face

First of all, if you already have the website (it is highly recommendable that you do), then it needs to have special attention. No one will trust their work to a person who has a shoddy website. If you are a novice web designer, then initially it will be enough for you to have something lively and simple. You need a platform that looks good, that will inspire confidence in the potential client. But do not forget, it must-have design and functionality executed 100% because quality is paramount. Also implementing the essential SEO and accessibility practices is worth remembering that it can positively impact a website’s ranking in search engines.  

But, besides a well-designed website, we also need it to be displayed as often as possible and it should be easy to find by potential clients.

You need to do the following:

1. Develop a semantic core resource — That is a set of keywords that match the subject of the website, and for which you will optimize it. The first stage is to make a “brain dump” for phrases related to your web and then supplement them with synonyms and expand them further using services such as Google AdWords. Thus, you will get a list of different frequency keywords for the promotion of the website.

2. Make a relevance map — You need to think about which page matches which query that you want to promote? All queries must be sorted and clustered. On the same page, it is better to take 1-3 requests of different frequencies. It will allow you to understand what pages are still lacking on the site, and as a result, you will have an opportunity to promote the existing ones.

3. Fill the resource with optimized and effective texts — Those that contain keywords that are important to promote and encourage the user to buy or choose your products, services. Of course, the posts should be unique, that is, not copied from other web resources, otherwise search engines can lower the site in the rankings.

These are the three basic steps of internal optimization, which will help to develop your site.

As for external optimization, it involves promoting the resource through third-party websites. The number of mentions of your website by other projects is an indicator of its credibility. The more websites that link to your resource, the greater will be its “weight” in the eyes of search engines. But it is important for these links to be organic – not paid for on exchanges, and to come from different types of sources, that are similar in topic to yours, and are anchored and unanchored, etc.

And, of course, do not forget about social networks. Ask your friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who have websites, or social media accounts to link to your website. Contact the owners of popular web design blogs and offer to write guest posts for them. After these simple steps, feel confident that your site will not stay invisible. This will give you just a great advantage over the competitors.

Take Every Opportunity

Try to be flexible and catch every opportunity to boost your business. One such trick is to work with marketplaces. The target audience for such resources is creative individuals from a wide variety of fields. These are designers, artists, bloggers, photographers, and many others. For example, you develop a landing page, then start collaborating with the MasterBundles marketplace. It will provide you with an increase in customers and help popularize your brand. 

If you do everything qualitatively and in the best way, you will not only earn income on it but can easily find new clients who will be interested in your work. After all, hundreds of thousands of users can pass through such resources every day. And given the profile of users they are, when working with them, you will also have a great opportunity to sell your services and products at a higher price and maybe even ask for advertising.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth is still an incredible motivator when it comes to hiring people. You can use this trick in your business. Every time you work with a new client or finish a job, ask them for recommendations. These are powerful incentives that attract new customers. Of course, it is easier to get a recommendation from a client you have worked with more than the first time. 

If you have several clients who keep coming back for new services, ask them by email or phone if they would recommend you to other people who would need similar help. If the customer is hesitant, offer an inducement. These may be a free consultation, a free hour of work, a free solution to a problem, or something else. You can also do something for the recommendation, such as an incentive or useful advice from you, as a professional in this business.

Remember that in this way you can not only find new clients, but also raise your credibility in the eyes of people because you do not just buy advertising from anyone, but the clients recommend you as a master of the business. And that, in turn, is worth a lot.

Get Better

If you are a web designer or developer, you are probably well aware that your profession never stands still. You need to fight for relevance, update, and improve your skills all the time. Technology and platforms are constantly changing, and you must work hard to stay one step ahead of others. This is the only way you can keep being really in demand for your profession and for the clients. Even when engaging customers for the business, you also need to improve your skills. 

After you have graduated from college or university, taken courses, or attended seminars, you need to continuously learn new information. First of all, it is always necessary to study updates of your software or programming language in which you work. Everything new is always written down in the technical documentation. You may also ask other designers what qualifications they have. Study job postings to see what skills are needed. Read industry newspapers and news articles to find knowledge gaps and find out what skills are needed. It is a lot of hard and painstaking work, but rest assured, you will be greatly rewarded for it.

Find a niche

Another effective way to increase the number of customers is to become an expert in web design in a particular industry. In other words, you need to occupy a niche. On the one hand, it may seem silly, because you may lose orders relating to other branches. However, who says you cannot work with different customers if desired? But at the same time, focus all your efforts on something specific where you plan to be the best of the best. One of the main benefits of this trick is that defining a particular niche can help you direct your branding efforts.

In other words, you will position yourself as a specialist in a particular area. For example, you decide to only take on cases of high complexity that not everyone else will take on. In such a very competitive field, having a niche is a quick way to stand out. Instead of providing a wide range of general-purpose services, it is better to convert your products into well-qualified niche services. This will narrow your target market but allow you to get more specific requests.

Special Offers

Another effective way to attract customers, and for them even more enjoyable, is a variety of special products and discounts. You can always offer your clients different templates, layouts, or even plugins. It is also a great idea to offer a consultation or discussion of different issues of the client that you can help them solve or suggest something. You can add free offers to the website, as they may help attract links and traffic. 

Giving something away for free can be painful, but it should provide a return on investment. If users like the free products, they may want to buy a premium version with advanced features and customization options. One of the main benefits of this method is to showcase your skills and experience. These are not only a service but also a sales tool. You do not have to limit yourself to just a website, you may also use business cards, anything that will not take you much time to create but will be greatly appreciated by the client. A customer who is satisfied with your work is more likely to recommend you to others.

Marketing

This might seem banal, but a lot of people forget about it, and it is too wrong. Never forget about the usefulness of web content. A quality and engaging article can help create a positive image for your brand, showing you as a real professional in the field of web design. On its own, it also increases your chances of being ranked higher in search engine results. But it is not necessary to limit yourself only to the text content, you may always be a little creative.

Here are a few ideas that you may use:

• Videos with useful tips
• Interviews
• Podcasts with experts who have had success in the industry

With the right approach, your blog can be a great resource for customers, especially if you are focusing on specific keywords close to your search goal. In this case, it is designing or building websites. Do not feel upset if your website does not bring in many customers – it will help build trust relationships with clients and recognition of your brand on the Internet.

Final Words

Even with all the ideal conditions, unfortunately, there is no perfect way to find new customers in web design. Practically everything depends only on your persistence and work. Now is the time to use all this knowledge to your advantage. You need to have the information required to choose a niche, the skills to work in that niche, and the knowledge to promote yourself worldwide. You need to work much harder and more diligently than before. Not only that, but you may decide qualified clients that you know are effective for you, instead of the usual isolated approach of trying to engage every customer for every type of project. You will have a high-quality website, social media activity, forums, and other places where clients interact online. Of course, if you follow all the rules, you will have great success in getting what you want and be sure you will get a lot of clients.