How can I get clients with a website?

by Jean
(Ontario, Canada)

I'm very impressed with the comment you made about the importance of having the right sort of website to get clients on our LinkedIn group discussion this week.

I have a website that I made through Yahoo Small Business. The domain was submitted through the service of the site. I'm on the yellow page. I advertised several free classifieds sites.

At this point, what else I have to get clients? I rarely get the clients from my site. I'll appreciate your advice.

Many thanks

Jean

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You need the right sort of website!
by: Joanna

Hello Jean

Many thanks for your kind comment!

Interestingly enough, I was at a translator event yesterday on marketing, and one of the presenters (“marketing and innovation”) made a throwaway comment that “in ten years’ time homepages won’t exist anymore”.

Now, I don’t think he meant the web is going to disappear, but I do think he meant that as we are all becoming so connected, having a static, “visiting card” website is fairly pointless because it won’t get seen. I think his vision was that any successful translator (or anyone selling services) has to create a “joined-up” presence – a website, yes, but supported with and as part of a network of related activities (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc. ) to create a living, breathing digital whole.

Sounds terrifying to people of my age (when I was at university no one even had a computer!). But I think he’s right, and the successful freelancers are those who can establish their own active presence, in the translation niche of their choosing.

Which brings me back to your question! My site is built using SBI, Site Build It! which is ideal for anyone trying to sell their services. For details see here.

Basically, the SBI philosophy is to build webpages based around the keywords that people actually search for, e.g not “your name” (unless they already know you and are actively looking for you - most potential clients aren't), but something like “German to English translation”, which gets hundreds of hits a month. That way your website – and you - get found.

The beauty of SBI is that they provide ALL the tools, and do all the things you didn’t even know were necessary in the background (informing the search engines etc. etc.) I see on your own home page that you publish a blog - SBI would be perfect for you as are obviously happy to write and share information about your services. That means it'll be easy for you to build up a sufficient numbers of pages to get noticed.

According to Alexa, your site has “no rank” amongst the 200+ million websites out there. Mine is currently in the top 600,000 – which has absolutely nothing to do with my innate webmaster abilities!

If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

Yours

Joanna

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German to English Translation

Joanna Scudamore-Trezek

I'm a German to English translator living and working in Vienna, Austria. I turn German texts into clear and accessible English, allowing clients to present their stories, ideas and information to a completely new audience. My business and marketing clients rely on me to get their message across clearly and effectively.  How can I help you today?

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