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 online portfolios are critical to the success of designers and developers, getting exposure for a portfolio site is difficult because there are simply so many of them. With so much competition it is critical that you consider how you will market your portfolio, rather than simply putting it up and waiting for people to come see it.

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. Build a Search Engine-Friendly Site

SEO (search engine optimization) is a huge topic that could never be covered in one brief article. However, one of the basics of optimizing a site for search engines is to simply make it easy for the search engines to crawl the site so they can accurately determine what the site is about.

Making a site search engine friendly involves using clean, valid coding, proper use of heading tags, and avoiding practices that can make it difficult for search engines to crawl your site.

2. Include Keywords and Phrases in Your Page Titles

One of the most important factors for search engine rankings is the page title, so give plenty of attention to the titles that you use. Think about what people will be searching for and what will help them to find you.

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.

Try using a specific phrase like “custom WordPress themes.” This will be highly relevant to the services that you offer, plus it will give you a better chance of actually getting search engine traffic since there will be less competition for your keywords.

3. Consider Localization

Optimizing a site for local traffic is a great way to cut out a lot of competition and prepare your site in a way that targets a specific audience. Most designers do not target a locality with their portfolio, so doing so can put you way ahead of the competition in searches like “Texas web designer.”

4. Get Links from Other Sites

Along with the page title, links from other websites are as influential to search engine rankings as any other factor. In a way, search engine rankings are a bit of a popularity contest. Google views a link as basically a vote. When you link to another website you are essentially endorsing it.

Anyone that aspires to build a site that gets lots of search traffic will need to focus on link building. Here are a few ideas of ways to get links to your portfolio site:

Put a blog on your site – Portfolio sites and blogs are popular combinations, and part of the reason is that blogs attract links from other blogs. It will take some work to maintain the blog and publish new content, but it is one of the best things you can do for search traffic.

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.

Reciprocal links – You can exchange links with other websites, just don’t go overboard and do this with hundreds of sites or it will put up red flags for search engines.

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.

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