A website for a solo professional

Sell the judgment, not the service list

A list of services tells a prospective client nothing about whether you would be any good. Every competitor lists the same things, and the list is the least distinguishing part of the site.

What distinguishes you is how you think about a problem. A page working through a real situation, with the trade-offs named, does more than any description of your approach.

That is also what makes the page specific. Our page on choosing sources covers why material that says something particular is what an answer engine reads and repeats.

Case material works the same way when you can use it. An anonymized account of a real engagement, with what you found and what you changed, is the closest thing to letting somebody watch you work.

Do not write as a firm

Our team and we at the practice are common on solo sites and they undermine the whole proposition. A client choosing an individual wants the individual, not a smaller version of a firm.

It is also a claim that fails on contact. The first call reveals that there is one person, and the gap between the site and the reality starts the relationship badly.

Write in the first person, name yourself, and show a face. Our page on about pages covers the shape, and for a solo professional it is the most important page on the site.

Credentials, stated precisely

Name the qualification, the body that issued it, and where it applies. Vague credential language is the thing most likely to cause a problem in a regulated profession.

Keep it current. A lapsed registration displayed on a website is a serious matter in most licensed trades, and nobody will remind you that the page still says it.

Our page on credentials covers what may and may not be claimed. Take your own advice on your profession, since nothing here is legal advice.

Insurance belongs alongside them. Professional indemnity cover is something clients in several fields will ask about, and stating it plainly removes a question from the first conversation.

What a solo practice must show

The list below is what a prospective client is deciding on. Most of it is practical rather than persuasive, and missing items produce hesitation rather than rejection.

• What problems you take on, specifically
• Who you work with, and who you do not
• How an engagement actually starts
• What it costs, or what determines the cost
• Your availability and typical lead time
• Your credentials, with the issuing body
• Writing that shows how you think

Availability and lead time

Say how far ahead you are booked and how quickly you respond. A solo practice has a real capacity limit, and hiding it produces enquiries you cannot take and clients who feel let down.

Being busy is not a weakness to conceal. For many clients it is the strongest signal on the site, provided the date you can start is stated honestly.

And say what happens when you are full. Referring on, joining a list, or a realistic date all work better than silence, which loses the client permanently.

How an engagement starts

Describe the first conversation, what you need from them, what you produce, and when money is discussed. Uncertainty about the process stops more enquiries than price does.

Say whether the first conversation is chargeable. Ambiguity here makes people hesitate to make contact at all, which costs far more than the value of the call.

Then make the contact route obvious and monitored. Our page on contact forms covers the setup, and a solo practice cannot afford an unmonitored one.

Writing that does the selling

The pages that produce work for a solo professional are almost always the ones that answer a question properly. Not the services page, and rarely the homepage.

Write about the situations clients arrive in, the mistakes that got them there, and what you would do. That is demonstration rather than description, and it converts.

It also compounds. Our page on topic clusters covers how a set of such pages builds a subject that a single page never can.

Write for the client who is nearly ready rather than the one who has never heard of the problem. The nearly-ready reader is the one who makes contact, and most professional sites are written for the other one.