First website.

Hello , i've been reading for a couple of weeks this forum but never had an account.
I'm trying to make my own website and i want to get it right from the start. What i do in my spare time is illustrations /branding(logo,flyers etc) and i would like to promote myself a bit more maybe i can change my career with this website. I do have some clients but i would like to make it a permanent job. I know this 'niche' is saturated (?) but i still do want to try .

Does the domain need to incorporate words like , 'studio' 'logo' ex. dmcdesign.com or whatever to become better ranked ? I would like to at least reach page 1 ? 2 ? for keyword like logo design or illustration i know it's impossible but still.

The website needs to be structured in a certain way ? Im not really interested in a lot of pages maybe 3-4 pages to showcase everything and where i can be found.

Any help would be highly appreciated.


I have also attached some work taken out of context.



Thanks.

Nope. Exact/partial match domains (EMDs/PMDs) were super powerful/useful for ranking in 2013ish. Google has adapted pretty substantially since then and they're not as useful, at least not inherently. You can still make an exact match or partial match domain, but it's not going to instantly rank you. It's also easy to overoptimize with an exact/partial match domain, which will cause you to shoot yourself in the foot. Branded domains are generally much more useful in 2017.

Generally, what you can do with a branded domain is start making various sub pages that serve as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_page (such as a blog section) that are optimized for individual keywords. You might have these pages for example:

• somebrand.com
• somebrand.com/examples
• somebrand.com/order
• somebrand.com/blog-directory/
  
• somebrand.com/blog/best-logo-design-service-2017
• somebrand.com/blog/hire-professional-logo-illustrator
  
• somebrand.com/blog/some-arbitrary-keyword-here

If you go for a keyword, you want to go for page #1 or bust. Basically https://www.google.com/search?q=click+through+rate+serps&oq=click+through+rate+serps&aqs=chrome..69i57.5329j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.

Also, those keywords ("logo design" and "illustration") are extremely broad, meaning they're going to be extremely competitive. Look into https://backlinko.com/long-tail-keywords, which are much more specific (and therefore less competitive). It's much more viable to rank for things like:

• Similar to "logo design":
  • how to design a logo for a non-profit organization
  • cheap logo design in houston tx
  • how much should i spend on logo design for my website
• Similar to "illustration":
  • professional illustration service usa
  • how much does it cost to hire an illustrator
  • best professional illustration service 2018

ROI for long tails can be way higher than for more general terms. You're not spending as much money trying to compete with two million other people, which means that you can rank and be done with it in a lot of cases. As you build increasingly more long tail pages, you continue to get residual traffic from the old ones, which adds up.

You don't necessarily have to structure it in any specific way. What I would recommend is that you have a sidebar/footer that links to your main pages (home, samples, order, whatever) and that also links to a page called something like "blog directory," "products," or "services." Then on the directory page, have links to each of the inner product/service/blog posts/pages sorted by category. In addition to this making it easy to navigate the site for users, this also ensures that search engines can find all of your pages easily and that links to your site spread authority across your overall site.

Well, no one's necessarily interested in having a lot of pages. You generally do it because it's profitable, not because it's easy. Fortunately, you can work with templates for landing pages, so each page on in the blog/products/services section really just needs content to be written. The actual web design and functionality only has to be done once to develop a template. Then you can reuse it.

Also:

I know this 'niche' is saturated (?) but i still do want to try .

Every niche ever is saturated. Specifically, saturated with morons, lazy people, and lazy morons. Once you get over the hump/barrier to entry of two million incompetent nobodies, you're good to go.

Thank you! for the fast reply and the information Matthew, gaved me a little bit more confidence. Now i just need to buy everything and set it up, and promote myself everywhere i can.

Ah and one more question , web design is not my strongest point , using services like wix or others will decrease my chances ?

Oskar Schindler said:

Thank you! for the fast reply and the information Matthew, gaved me a little bit more confidence. Now i just need to buy everything and set it up, and promote myself everywhere i can.

Ah and one more question , web design is not my strongest point , using services like wix or others will decrease my chances ?

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Free site creation tools can be fine. You should get your own domain though. brandname.com instead of brandname.wordpress.com. You can run the Wordpress content management system on your own domain. That is what I would recommend.

I recommend getting a domain with a new gLTD, looks fire, unique and new. A lot of people do it. And this way you can find a great domain with a short word. Example.
I love your illustrations, how you learned that skill? Went to design school? Would love to learn it, where should I start from?

Wow, @MatthewGraham has given some excellent, detailed responses here. It's helpful interactions like these that make me keep coming back to BHW.

I don't really have too much to add to his answers. But I will mention that, since you're targeting people looking for design work, you'll definitely want an attractive, well-designed site. You'll likely want to have a portfolio-style website, which doesn't need too many pages. Like Matthew mentioned, perhaps a landing page for each service you offer (e.g. "logo design", "illustration"), with plenty of examples of your previous work and what you're capable of doing.

As far as ranking for these terms, they are pretty competitive. Not saying it's not possible, it will just take a lot of work and time. In the meantime, you should consider building up a reputation/presence on other platforms/sites as well. Freelance websites, sure, like Upwork and Fiverr are fine, but also design-focused websites where designers showcase their work and ideas. Just a thought.

Good luck.

As @MatthewGraham has said, what I will do if I were you is to find easy keywords related to my niche e.g. logo design, illustrations and then write long-form articles based on the keywords. The website will start ranking for some long-tail keywords.

As a newbie, there are many things to learn about ranking a website. Attempting to learn everything at once may slow you down and lead to frustrations along the line. So, it's better to outsource certain areas. The mistake I did when I started was trying to learn keyword research, build visually appealing websites, learn coding and a lot of other things at the same time.

My advice for you: Find someone with a good reputation here to find you some super-easy keywords related to your niche, then start putting up long-form contents on your website for those keywords.

topakins said:

My advice for you: Find someone with a good reputation here to find you some super-easy keywords related to your niche, then start putting up long-form contents on your website for those keywords.

Click to expand...

@namhq89's keyword research services are extremely comprehensive. One of the best services I've worked with on here. More keywords and data than you almost know what to do with. If I recall correctly, his largest package is $89.99 or something like that and you definitely get your money's worth. Great place to start for any new niche.

The site ranking advice that @MatthewGraham gave is golden along with the long-tail keyword suggestions. Put yourself in Google's shoes, or better yet, your target client. What will that person type when they search Google? Google excels at connecting people with what they're looking for. If you don't differentiate your business enough, it would make it difficult for anyone to refer to you.
For example, if your current clients were to refer you to someone, how would they describe you? Would they say 'he/she's a great artist' or would they know enough to mention that you specialize in (logo design, high performance vehicles, etc.)? What is it that you do that makes you stand out from the "morons, lazy people, and lazy morons"?