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Is it a good idea to have a personal website?

Smiling african american mother and kid daughter having fun with computer looking at her personal website

For many, the idea of creating an entire website dedicated to you and your achievements can seem unnecessary, even narcissistic. But it could be a great career move, or a way to consolidate your portfolio so your work is easy to find and share. With website builders like Go Sitebuilder, you can have a website up and running in just a few minutes, so now it’s just up to you to decide whether it is a good idea for you. 

A personal website gives you a competitive advantage when job hunting

If you’re job hunting, then a personal website can be an invaluable tool to help you stand out from other applicants. Whereas a CV, cover letter and Linkedin Profile are all restricted in their format, if you create your own website then you have full creative control over how you present yourself. Remember that your website speaks volumes about who you are as a person, so make it reflect your personality. 

All recruiters carry out some research on potential candidates, and if you have a website that comes up after a quick Google, you’re giving them more information in a more dynamic way. It may say on your CV that you grew a blog by 10,000 followers, but your website will have a link to the blog itself, making it more memorable and more believable. Including work samples and client testimonials is another way of proving that your work is valuable and of a high quality.

You can use your personal website to network

If you have expertise in a certain area, you can highlight this in your personal website. Writing blogs on topics in your industry and optimising them for SEO could get more people viewing your site and seeing you as a leader in your field. This will mean others in your industry will be aware of you and your work, and are likely to reach out, for collaboration, job offers or more!

Think of your website as a virtual business card that you can use when networking, and make sure it has all the information you think is necessary to show you in the best light. Don’t crowd it though – make sure all the information is relevant and useful for visitors to your site. 

Creating and optimising a personal website means you acquire new skills

Depending on which website builder you use, you can make your personal website as complicated or as simple as you like. Either way, you’ll gain a plethora of new skills, proving not only that you are tech-savvy, but also that you are capable of learning new things autonomously. 

You’ll learn how to customise a website for your personal use, show different styles of web design, and also prove your copywriting and content writing skills. If you spend some time optimising your site and promoting it on social media, then these are even more skills that are easily transferable to many different job roles. 

Personal websites lend credibility to freelancers

As a freelancer, you are only as good as your online image. There are so many thousands of freelancers on the internet offering work in a variety of sectors that it is extremely difficult for clients to choose which person to go to, especially on freelancer websites like Upwork or Fiverr. If you have a link to your personal website in your profile for these sites, then potential clients can visit your site and immediately see the work you’ve done, as well as testimonials from other clients who have worked with you. 

Having a personal website also means that you can develop a brand for yourself, rather than using a plain, uniform profile like those supplied by Linkedin or Upwork. Creating a brand means that you will become more memorable and your style will be more recognisable. This gives you a headstart against other freelancers who are struggling to stand out in a saturated market.

Personal websites are perfect for visual industries

Imagine you’re a designer, photographer or videographer. How are you going to showcase your work using just your CV and cover letter? If you’re a freelancer or looking for a job, the best way to show what you’re capable of is by publishing your work so others can see it. If you’re worried about people stealing your hard-earned work, check out our blog on protecting your images from being stolen by strangers. 

When done right, your personal website can be an instant portfolio that will be potential clients or recruiters’ first port of call when they want to find out about you and your work. 

If you think you’re ready to get stuck in and create your own personal website, why not choose Go Sitebuilder to do it? We provide hundreds of pre-designed templates that can easily be customised to your personal brand and style, all in a matter of minutes! We know you’re busy, so our streamlined web design services can be carried out from your laptop, tablet or smartphone, so you can control your website wherever you go. 

Why not try our free 14-day trial to find out what your personal website could look like? 

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What should you put on your personal website?

Young Asian man using the laptop in the living room thinking about what he should you put on his personal website

A personal website is a great tool to help you present yourself on the internet. Invaluable if you’re job hunting or if you’re a freelancer (or just starting out as one), a personal website is potential clients or recruiters’ first port of call when they start researching you – so you want to make sure you stand out. 

Website builders like Go Sitebuilder can help you have a beautiful and professional-looking website out in minutes, but when you’re customising your website, there are certain things you need to make sure you include. 

The most important thing to bear in mind is the goal of your website. Are you looking for a job? Or on the hunt for clients for your next freelance project? Either way, focus on your personal website so that it will help you achieve this goal, rather than uploading swathes of information about your cat and your favourite pair of socks. Now, let’s talk about what you should include in your personal website. 

Your elevator pitch

This is paramount! Your elevator pitch should be one of the first things a visitor sees when they reach your website, and should say what you do, and what makes you different. Imagine that someone arrives on your website and only reads your elevator pitch; will they have a good idea of what you do and why you’re better than the competition?

Things you could include in your elevator pitch are your most important career moments, what you’re most proud of, and what you’d say is your “superpower” as a professional. It shouldn’t be any longer than two to three paragraphs – shorter if possible, but make sure it shows a little of your personality – you want to hook them in!

Your bio 

You can put this on an “About Me” page, and is longer and more informative than an elevator pitch. Give details of both your education and your expertise in work; if you have a long work history, it might be a good idea to visualise it in a timeline to make it easier to digest. 

Make sure that you are showing a bit of your personality here as well. The main aim is to highlight your professional achievements but you also want to humanise yourself, making yourself both more likeable and more memorable. Many companies screen potential candidates for company culture fit, and this is a way you can show your personality. 

It’s also a good idea to have a downloadable CV in this section, for recruiters who have stumbled across your page. Normally you’ll optimise a CV for a particular job, but for this general one make sure you include a wide range of your skills and achievements so it could work for multiple different roles. 

Samples of your work

It’s very easy to think you need to upload all the work you’ve ever done here, but in reality nobody is going to look at it. Only add your very best work to this section. You might find it difficult to do this if you aren’t in a visual industry, but if you work in marketing for example, you can outline the best campaigns you’ve created. 

One tip is to make sure you quantify your work. Saying that you’ve managed “multiple successful campaigns” is vague and open to interpretation, so it’s better to be clear and say exactly how many you managed, and what results it had. Why not use a free infographic creator like Canva or Venngage to make this more engaging? 

Blog

Creating and maintaining a professional blog does require a bit of time investment, but it is worth it. It shows that you are committed to your career path, that you’re knowledgeable about the industry and engaged in how it is evolving. You’ll need to update your blog at least a couple of times a month – there’s nothing more off-putting than an outdated blog that obviously hasn’t been added to in a while!

Be aware that this is also an opportunity for you to show off your communication skills and style, so make sure that you proofread your work for errors!

Contact information 

What is the point in having a beautiful personal website showing off all your skills if there is no way to contact you? Make sure your contact information is visible and easy to find, and give multiple ways for people to contact you. It’s also a good idea to link to other professional platforms as well; the more times you are mentioned on the web, the more credible you appear. 

Testimonials

Testimonials from people you’ve worked with are a great way to lend credibility to your online persona. Linkedin is a good way of sourcing these – if you don’t already have some, contact some former colleagues or clients to ask them to do so. Make sure they give details, not just saying that you’re a great person, but what exactly makes you good to work with and why? 

Now you know what are good things to put on your personal website, it’s time to create one! Go Sitebuilder has a simple website builder with professional web design in the form of hundreds of customisable templates. On the go? Our website builder can be used from a laptop, tablet or smartphone, so you can create a professional website from wherever you are. Why not try our free 14-day trial today?