It most definitely helps with being seen as a professional and as a business rather than an anonymous set of TLAs. I refer potential clients to the testimonials on my website and to blog posts relevant to the clients' problems.

The testimonials establish trust that I can deliver on my promise and indeed have done so for other clients in the past.

The blog posts give potential clients an idea of my expertise and perhaps can already help them with a problem they're having (like choosing a testing approach for their software, for example). Probably the most important aspect I learned about sales conversations is that those shouldn't be actually about selling but about trying to understand where the client is coming from, what his or her problems are and about trying to provide possible solutions right from the very start. The resources I provide on my website help me a lot with this.

In terms of getting new leads it's not like my website gets a whole lot of organic traffic from search engines. That does happen from time to time but by itself it wouldn't be enough for having a sustainable business.

What routinely happens though is that potential clients google my name and find my website as the first search result. Again, this helps with establishing a professional relationship and informing the client about what I can bring to the table.

I write regular blog posts (one per week at least) on subjects relevant or related to my business and post excerpts and teasers on social media and business networks like LinkedIn and XING. This helps a lot with getting new leads from my extended network (again, networking is key).