For web designers and web developers (as well as other professionals, such as photographers) the portfolio website is one of the most important assets. In many cases the portfolio site will be a leading source of inquiries from potential clients, and it is the best way to showcase your work to anyone who is interested.

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.

Here we will go over several tips that can help you to get more out of your portfolio site by increasing its exposure to potential clients.

1. Consider Search Engines

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.

Creating a search-friendly site is all about making it easy for search engines to crawl through your site and determine what it is about. This involves things like using heading tags and opting against any questionable tactics that may trick or confuse search engines.

2. Use Effective Page Title that Include Your Keywords

Page titles are critical for search engine rankings, more so than any other on-page factor. Give lots of thought to the titles that you choose for your pages and try to match them up with the same words and phrases that people are likely to use in a search to find that page.

There are already millions of sites and pages that cover topics related to web design, so going after general keywords like “website design” is not likely to result in high search engine rankings. Instead, focus of phrases that are more specific and likely to have less competition, that will give you a better chance to earn high rankings.

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. Consider Localization

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

Link building is probably the most important aspect of marketing a website. Search engines see links like a popularity contest, and sites with a lot of links from quality websites are going to be respected by the search engines, and thus very likely to rank well.

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:

Add a blog – Blogging is a great way to attract links as bloggers often link out to other blogs. Of course, it will also take work to write the content.

Social media marketing – social media sites provide outstanding opportunities for exposure to large audiences and link building. Articles that “go viral” will draw a ton of in-bound links for your site.

Link exchanges – Exchanging links with other designers and bloggers can also help.

Submit to galleries – If your site has a high-quality design you may be able to get a lot of traffic and links from web design and CSS galleries that showcase sites.

5. Design a Beautiful Site

If you want your site to be featured in the best website galleries you will need to design something that is truly special. Be sure not to rush, give yourself enough time to do the very best work that you can. If it is good enough it will make the rounds through design galleries and bring a lot of exposure for you and your portfolio.

6. Use Freebies to Draw People In

One popular way for designers and design bloggers to gain exposure and links is to give things away for free. You could give away a free template or theme that you designed, an icon pack, Photoshop brushes, or just about anything thing else that will be useful to others.

Steven Snell is a web designer and freelance blogger. He maintains a gallery of the best portfolio websites and a gallery of ecommerce websites.

categories: portfolios,portfolio websites,web design services,web design,website design,internet marketing,seo,link building,social media,internet,marketing,websites