If you are a creator, you need to have a portfolio website to visually showcase your work to the world. It’s that simple. We live in a visual society and people love to see examples of your work when they are considering hiring you, be they an employer or a potential client.
In the case of where the creative individual is looking for their next great job opportunity, the portfolio website gives potential employers a comprehensive, wide angle view of your skills. A resume can give work history, facts, and figures and the portfolio website gives the finishing touch.
When I work with my clients to construct their portfolio website, I treat them not only as my career marketing clients but also as my website design clients so that I can give them the best of both worlds with comprehensive best in class design and SEO – search engine optimization.
This gives them the very best chance of being discovered and showcasing their work or passion project.
Many of my creative clients are photographers, graphic designers, makeup artists, artists, writers, videographers, and fashion designers. Special care needs to be taken to showcase their amazing talents and abilities in a way that makes an instant positive impact.
So what is involved in a portfolio website? Here is a brief overview.
A Professional Introduction – Tells in one sentence what you do.
Call to Action – CTA – Be clear and concise.
A Professional Photo – Websites with an owner / artist / creator photo tend to be visited 15% more than those without. People are visual and like to see who they “may” be employing or hiring.
Compelling Tagline – A secondary one liner that spells out your value proposition.
Your Story – Tells potential employers and clients about your background, experience, what motivates you, why your chosen path is your passion project.
Value Proposition – Share with the world what your niche is, what sets you apart from others, how it can benefit those reading.
Quality Content – This should be written with readability and search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. People have short attention spans. Many people skim read. Your content should be professionally written for best results.
Break Down Your Services – What you offer, item specifics, deliverables. Structure as appropriate for your particular line of work.
Pricing – This is optional. Some professionals choose to publish their prices, others do not and prefer to have the phone or text inquiry. This is preferable especially if your services are not one size fits all or are personalized. I personally do not advocate for posting of prices.
Testimonials / Referrals – Always good to have especially if they can be backed up as legitimate from your Google Business Profile if you are a business looking for clients. If you are a job seeker, recommendations from those in the industry go a long way. These might be showcased on your LinkedIn profile, for example, and copied to your website.
Blog Articles – These kind of resources, providing they are well written, clear and concise, can prove invaluable. Share information, tips, guides and establish your credibility as a knowledgeable leader in your chosen field(s).
Contact Us – An absolute necessity so interested parties can get in touch with you. Some prefer contact forms and email addresses – which I advise my clients against due to the ridiculous amount of meaningless and time wasting spam these can generate. I advise my clients to be much more direct with a Call Us / Text Us link to their phone number. This link should ALWAYS be clickable so that it can be called from any phone, tablet / iPad, or website.
CTA’s – Call to Action – This should be on every page of the portfolio website. Generally in the header or footer as this section is generically displayed on all websites and you don’t have to manually add the CTA link to each page.
Visual Portfolio – Add galleries, videos, infographics, showcased photos and screenshots of relevant work or achievements. An introduction video explaining what you do can be extremely useful and work many wonders to your benefit. A no right click script should ideally be added to prevent piracy of your articles, ideas, and images.
Technical SEO – ALWAYS important. Your portfolio website should be fast loading (no spinning wheels), mobile responsive as most people utilize their phones for searches – your first impression means everything, and very SEO friendly so that your website and pages rank well for your chosen niche or profession. The higher you rank, the more traffic and potential clients / employers will see your website and be able to take in your amazing talents.