Yes, referrals are an important sales channel for freelancing. However, meeting and talking to people, in other words just plain old sales work is vital, too.

Yes, referrals are an important sales channel for freelancing. However, meeting and talking to people, in other words just plain old sales work is vital, too. That's where a decent website helps a lot: You can refer people interested in your services to your website for further information, testimonials, previous projects etc. In other words, potential customers probably won't find you via a Google search (unless you're a high-profile specialist or open source contributor in your area of expertise) but a decent business website will complement the rest of your sales efforts.