Freelancers often struggle to “sell” websites.
You tweak pricing. Adjust proposals. Add more features.
But nothing seems to land.
Here’s the problem.
Clients don’t buy websites. They buy outcomes.
Why Clients Don’t Buy Websites
If you’re a freelancer wondering why clients don’t buy websites from you, here’s why.
Clients don’t buy websites. They buy outcomes.
Most business owners have short-term and long-term business goals. Whether that’s to increase revenue, brand awareness or lifetime customer value. A website is just another business tool to help support those goals.
Your job as a freelancer is to understand the real business goals and sell those, packaged up as a digital product. This can be a simple website with a landing page and conversion form, or more complex with 3rd party service automation.
It’s not the website that the client is buying. It’s the outcomes the website delivers that are the gold. The website is a tool that delivers outcomes.
For more information, read my Stop Selling Websites newsletter.
Why Freelancers Undercharge for Web Design
Most web freelancers undercharge for web design, and here’s why.
They naturally slip into the time-and-costs charging method. It’s an easy method to get your head around.
In this method, you spend X hours creating the website and $X on software/plugin costs, so you add it up and add some extra for profit.
This method is further reinforced by many clients who think of you as a contractor and ask for your hourly rate.
Other freelancers may also be tempted to price according to features requested by the client. So a blog system costs an additional $500, a gallery is $250, a portfolio system $750 and so on.
Charging for your time and costs is not inherently a bad way of pricing a project, but it can leave a lot of money on the table, and if you are putting together a large website proposal, this method doesn’t scale. The client is not going to pay you by the hour if your project is going to span 6-8 months.
Consider reframing your pricing in terms of the value it provides to the client.
This is the way commercial freelancers think and operate.
This is where most freelancers lose money without realising it.
Why Clients Reject Your Pricing
Here’s why clients reject your web design pricing as a freelancer.
Consider this scenario. You deliver a proposal to a prospect for $2,500.
The proposal tells the prospect that you will deliver a five-page WordPress website: Home, About, Services, Contact (with a form), and Search. They need this website because most businesses are online, and they should be as well.
This is weak positioning. The prospect sees a cost with no real business commercial value. They may agree that their business needs to be online to compete, but where is the value being delivered? Businesses want to see real numbers, costs and returns bundled up as value to their bottom line. Not fuzzy maybes.
The prospect checks your website portfolio. They see the same recurring trend: images of company homepages shown on a desktop, tablet, and mobile browser. Mentions of “WordPress”, “Google Core Web Vitals grade A+” and “Responsive Design”.
This type of portfolio doesn’t convert. There is no inherent commercial value past the aesthetic design.
Read my why your portfolio isn’t converting newsletter.
Your proposal comes across as generic. A price tag for something anyone could deliver.
Your porfolio doesn’t stand out. Maybe they could do the same thing more cheaply with AI or hit up someone on Fiverr.
- They don’t see ROI
- You sound like everyone else
- They compare you to others
- Your proposal feels like a commodity
Now you’re competing with everyone in a price race to the bottom.
The Shift To Commercial Thinking
To fix this, you need to think differently about your role.
Don’t be like every other freelancer pricing on your time and costs.
Think commercially. What value are you bringing to the table? Stand out by delivering a value-led proposal.
Diagnose
Understand the real business problems. Sit down with the prospect, in person or on Zoom and hold a digital strategy session. This can be a separate paid piece or work.
Reframe
Turn your findings into strategic website requirements that address problems and align with the business goals.
Position
Frame the solution around outcomes, not pages.
e.g. What is your solution solving and why is this valuable to the business?
Price
Price based on value, not deliverables.
e.g. How much time and money is being saved? How much additional revenue will be brought in?
Extend
Convert into ongoing retainers. Support or SEO for example.
How to Price Web Design Projects Properly
To price web design projects properly, your proposal should outline how your proposed solution implements business outcomes.
For each outcome, show how this benefits the business. This provides context for your proposal and pricing.
- Price based on outcomes, not hours
- Anchor pricing to business value
- Context matters more than deliverables
How to Sell Web Design Without Being Salesy
To sell web design without being salesy, you frame the proposal as a solution to real business issues and goals. Not just another website.
Your value-led proposal shows the context of where and how your solution will benefit the business.
The prospect can clearly see value in implementing your solution and understands the price tag in your proposal.
You’re not selling a website. You’re presenting a solution.
Common Mistakes Web Freelancers Make
Undervaluing Diagnosis & Strategy
Freelancers often undervalue the diagnosis and strategy stage, calling it a “discovery call” while only glancing over surface-level requirements.
This stage is where you can deeply understand the business issues and goals. The prospect is telling you exactly what they need.
You translate their needs into a commercial technical solution. This is your core skill.
Over-Explaining Features
Freelancers tend to jump directly into features mode.
Say the prospect is a real estate photographer.
The freelancer’s brain is already researching which plugins are needed without asking any business questions.
“You need to use XYZ plugin because it’s the most popular and allows you to blah, blah..”.
STOP. Don’t do that. Listen and strategise.
Copying Other Freelancers
The worst method you can use during your proposal creation is to research and copy what other freelancers are doing.
Your proposal needs to stand out above the noise. It needs to be unique and you can only do that if you aren’t copying from others.
Where To Go Next
If you need further help in your web freelancer journey, here are some solid resources that will help.