Do freelancers need to add a large number of content pages to their sites?

Good question.

It all depends on how you are planning to attract new clients.

If you find new clients through phone calls, direct mail or some other direct sales medium, then you don’t need a huge number of pages on your freelance website. The site is there as a brochure, to reassure your hot prospects.

But if your client acquisition strategy includes having prospects find your site through the search engines, or through social media, then yes, you need a ton of content on your website.

Why? 

Because tens of thousands of freelancers are optimizing their websites for phrases like “freelance copywriter” or “online copywriting”.

But there are only ten available spots on the first page of Google’s search results.

And you are not going to get on page one if your site has only ten pages, however well you optimize them.

If you want to attract prospective clients to your site through the search engines, you’ll be working to the same rules followed by every content-based website – he or she who publishes the highest number of quality pages wins. (Ho-hum pages won’t cut it, because to win with the search engines, you also need plenty of inbound links from quality, related sites. And other sites will only link to quality content.)

If you want significant search engine traffic coming to your website, you need to have dozens, and then hundreds of pages.

Some can be blog posts, articles, case studies, tips, and guides.

Others can be multimedia – video, slide shows, infographics, and so on.

Each page or post should, of course, be optimized for one particular keyword or phrase. Or be optimized for social media.

For many freelancers, this will means an upgrade to their site, and many more hours devoted to content creation.

If you feel you might fall short of having enough ideas for your site content, sign up for Web Content Cafe membership – where I publish a new web content idea daily, five days a week.

 

 

Comments

[Nick]

Russ, hi

You may not like the answer. : )

Every company, large and small, has to devote significant time and resources to marketing its products or services. It's no different for freelancers. Content marketing takes time and effort, and you have to build this time into your schedule.

Nick

[Russ Henneberry]

Great points Nick. The #1 question I hear from day to day is --- where do I find the time to create all of this content. I'm sure you hear that a lot as well. What is your answer to that question?