How to Have an Amazing Portfolio Website

Applying for a job? Talking to a new company? Trying to network?

The truth is that almost anyone who’s in an applicable field could benefit from having an amazing portfolio site. A picture speaks a thousand words. And a great portfolio speaks a thousand resumes. It takes away the pressure and speaks for you, saying what you want. So how do you build a great portfolio website that can show of your work and skills?

Keep it Simple

The first thing you need to remember - keep it simple. You don’t want your portfolio to come off as chaotic or overdone. There’s no need to have sixty pages in your menu or a million different colors.

Of course have any pages that are necessary if that’s how you choose to organize your portfolio site. Its perfectly okay to have a page for photographs, graphics, contact, bio, etc. However keep the pages limited. Too many pages could inadvertently hide some of your best work from someone too lazy to click through. An alternative is to have one page that scrolls down through sections with anchors attached to your menu.

Write a Great Bio

The next step to having a great portfolio website is to have a great bio! Keep in mind that in a way this bio acts as your resume. Most people reading won’t care if you were in marching band or where you went on your first date - keep it focused.

Walk plain and simple through your relevant experiences highlighting your accomplishments. This is also your chance to explain in deeper terms anything like gaps in your resume or anything like that.

Include Only the Best Examples of Your Work

While you might have tons and tons of work examples, you should consider limiting what you put on your portfolio website. You’ll only want your best examples of your work on your portfolio website. This way those looking through can see your best stuff while not getting distracted with everything else.

Link to Anything/Everything Possible

When you’re going through your portfolio website - you should include links to whatever possible. If you’re a web designer or web developer, make screenshots of your created works link to the websites themselves. That way those looking through can get the “live feel” of scrolling through.

Setup a Contact Form

At the end of the day, a portfolio website is really about making connections to those looking through. Presumably, those who will be visiting will already be in contact with you in some way or another. However, that may not always be the case.

That’s why its imperative to include a contact form at the very least on your website. For obvious reasons, you may not want to include things like your phone number or email address. Certainly don’t include your physical address unless its a storefront or office space (even then be careful). A contact form, on the other hand, gives visitors a way to get in contact with you without having your information publicly available to any wacko who might want it.

Update Regularly

Lastly, make sure you update your portfolio website with some regularity. The last thing you want is your best work examples on a broken or outdated website that looks like its from the early 2000s. Update your mobile and desktop sites to be modern and functional regularly so possible connections don’t get missed.