What belongs on a services page

A portfolio and a services page do different jobs, and almost everybody only has the first.

The portfolio shows your best work, well presented, with no wasted words. It is beautifully done and it answers exactly one of the four questions in the head of somebody who has just found you.

What a prospect is trying to decide, in order

They are not reading your page, they are looking for four answers, and they leave at the first one missing.

1. Does this person do the thing I need?
2. Roughly what does it cost?
3. Can I trust them?
4. What happens if I get in touch?

A good portfolio answers number three beautifully. It does not answer the other three at all, and number two is where half your visitors leave without saying anything.

1. Say what you do, in their words

"Art direction and brand identity" and "I redo your logo, your cards and your website" describe the same work. The first is what you are, the second is what they are looking for.

The test is simple: would somebody typing their problem into a search engine recognise themselves in your first sentence? They are not typing "art direction", they are typing "restaurant logo redesign".

Trade vocabulary is the biggest filter on a services page, and it does not filter out bad clients: it filters out clients. The person who knows your words is often a fellow professional.

2. A price, or at least the shape of one

This is the hardest section to write and the most profitable, and "price on request" is the way of not writing it.

What "on request" actually costs you is not what people assume. It does not protect your margin: it takes you off the shortlist. Somebody who cannot tell whether you work at five hundred or fifteen thousand will not risk writing to find out, especially having found two other people who said.

Four ways to say it, all acceptable:

• From. The simplest, and enough. "Visual identity, from £1,800."
• A range. "Between £1,800 and £4,000 depending on how many variants."
• A typical project, priced. The most convincing: describe a real job, what it contained, what it cost. The reader places themselves.
• Three packages. Effective when your work is regular, and painful to maintain when it is not.

The objection is real and deserves an honest answer: yes, a published price attracts people who compare on price. It also removes them before they cost you an hour's meeting and a quote. The sorting happens in both directions, and it is better done on the page than in your diary.

3. Show the process, not just the result

What worries a prospect is not the quality of your work, it is uncertainty about what is going to happen.

Four steps are enough, each in one line: what you ask for at the start, what they receive and when, how many rounds of feedback are planned, how it ends. It is the same argument as in "could you show me a first idea?": a written process reassures more than a free mock-up, and costs nothing to produce.

Say what is expected of them, too. A client who discovers halfway through that they were meant to supply the copy is a late client who thinks it is your fault.

4. One next step, and it is not "get in touch"

A contact form with a "your message" field asks a stranger to compose something. That is exactly where they abandon, or write three lines that tell you nothing and force a round trip before you even know whether the project exists.

Replace it with the questions you need anyway. Not twenty: five or six, the ones that decide whether you can answer. What they want, by when, what already exists, who signs off. The same ones as in five questions to ask before writing a quote, simply asked earlier.

A prospect answers those more readily than a blank field, because answering a question is easier than composing one. And you receive a usable enquiry instead of "hello, could you quote me?".

What to take out

Each of these answers a question nobody asked:

• Your career history. Nobody buys your career. Two lines at the bottom is plenty.
• The list of your software. A client does not know what it is and should not have to.
• "Passionate since forever". Everybody writes it, so it says nothing.
• Awards, unless your client has heard of them. Otherwise it is a distinction between peers.

The change that matters most

One page per service, rather than one page listing everything.

For two reasons, and the first is mechanical: people search for one specific thing, and a page about exactly that thing is a page that surfaces in a search and gets believed. A "my services" page listing six surfaces for none of the six.

The second is that a dedicated page can carry its own price, its own process and its own questions, which a list cannot do six times over without becoming unreadable.

With Kalepio a studio has its own public page at its own address, with its services on it, and a client can start an order from that page: they answer the questions and send their files, with no account to create. Which settles point four by construction.

Frequently asked questions

Should a freelancer publish prices on their site?

Yes, at least as a "from" figure or a range. "Price on request" does not protect your margin, it takes you off the shortlist: somebody who cannot tell whether you work at five hundred or fifteen thousand will not write to find out.

What is the difference between a portfolio and a services page?

A portfolio answers "can I trust them". A services page also has to answer what you do, roughly what it costs, and what happens if somebody gets in touch. Most sites only have the first.

What should replace a contact form?

The five or six questions you need anyway: what they want, by when, what already exists, who signs off. Answering a question is easier than composing a message, and you receive a usable enquiry.

One page per service, or a single page?

One per service. People search for one specific thing, and a page about exactly that thing surfaces in a search, whereas a page listing six surfaces for none. And a dedicated page can carry its own price and process.

What should you leave off a services page?

Your career history in detail, your software list, "passionate since forever", and awards your client has never heard of. Each answers a question nobody asked.