If you’re a content creator or an artist, you must be aware of the importance of having a professional portfolio to show off your skills and creations to the world.
However, it’s hard to create a physical portfolio that really appeals to potential clients and employers. That’s why these days more people are starting to make a digital or an online portfolio to showcase their skills uniquely and to a broader audience.
In this article, you will learn why you need an outstanding digital portfolio and how easy it is to make one!
Why Do You Need a Professional Portfolio Website?
A great portfolio needs to stand out and compete with thousands of other great options out there. One of the best ways to do that is to have a professional portfolio website. How does it differ from the psychical one and why do you need it?
Well, a portfolio website is more accessible. You don’t need to bring physical copies everywhere you go — all you need is the site’s address and you’re ready to showcase your work.
Sure, physical copies are still great but a portfolio website lets you achieve so much more. It lets you build an online presence, appeals to a wider audience, and opens you to new opportunities — an employer might come across your site and decide to hire you right away!
What’s more, you don’t need an IT background to create a stunning and appealing portfolio website. Most website builders these days are so easy to use and customize, even for beginners.
So, how to create a professional portfolio website? Well, let’s take a look!
Creating a High-Quality Online Professional Artist Portfolio
Now that you know the importance of having a professional digital portfolio, it’s time to get down to business.
Creating a portfolio site isn’t as complicated as one might think. However, to ensure you have a high-quality website, you need to:
Choose a Good Domain Name
A domain name is essentially the first thing to think of when starting a new website of any kind. Since it’s an address you’re going to give out to people, you want something that represents you well yet is easy to remember.
Here are some good practices for choosing a representative domain name:
● Choose the right domain name extension — choose a
domain extension that best represents your site. For example, .org is best used with websites representing organizations, meanwhile .com, .me or similar options could be great for a portfolio. Pairing a good label and TLD will make it easier to remember your site and make you seem more professional.
● Avoid hyphens or numbers — hyphens and numbers make it harder for people to remember and spell your domain name.
● Consider using your name — since you’re making a website for your work samples, consider using your full name, or the brand you’ve created for your business.
Pro Tip: If you’re not sure if the domain you want to use is available, you can check its availability and price via the free domain checker. All domain sellers offering
this option and it is easy to use.
Choose Your Web Hosting Provider
If you want your site to be accessible, you need reliable web hosting. Think of hosting as a house, and your domain as an address. Once someone types in your address in a browser, it connects to the server of your web host and displays your site’s data in a form of fully functioning website.
That said, choosing the right web hosting provider is a crucial part of creating a website. A good web hosting provider for your portfolio website should have:
● Good uptime — your hosting provider’s uptime plays a big role in the accessibility of your portfolio site.
● Fast load speed — a slow website can turn away possible clients and employers, don’t create bad first impressions with a slow website. Additionally, you’ll be improving SEO and
reducing bounce rates.
● Live support — in case something goes wrong while you’re creating the website, you want a web hosting provider with live customer support to help you out.
Choose Your Website Building Platform
To create a professional portfolio website, you need a website builder or a
CMS (content management system).
If you’re new to the website building scene, website builders that offer a vast selection of free online portfolio templates, are a great option, as they offer intuitive and straightforward designs, perfect for beginners with no prior experience.
However, if you’re looking for flexibility, then
WordPress.org is definitely the answer. It’s open-source software that allows you to create any kind of website. What’s more, it offers thousands of free and premium plugins to extend your site’s functionality.
Though WordPress has a steeper learning curve, you can find everything you need to know about it in their
official documentation and all over the internet.
What Makes A Good Portfolio Website
Now, when you know some website building basics, it’s time to create your own professional portfolio site. Here are some tips to help you make a good one:
1. Responsive Themes
Having a responsive website design that works well across devices and browsers is more important than you think. You don’t want to show a patchy or broken website to your clients or employers that might be looking you up on a mobile device. So, pick a responsive theme and make sure to test it before publishing.
2. A Simple Design
When creating a portfolio website, less is more. Make it easy for visitors to navigate around the site and make sure everything is easy to understand. Don’t use hard-to-read fonts, add walls of text, and clutter your design.
A great example of this is the portfolio site of
Alex Mount, a designer and art director from New York. It’s simple, straightforward yet still provides the essential information like samples of her designs, drawings, and a contact form.
3. Include Essential Information
A good portfolio website must have all the necessary information, such as:
● A contact page — make sure to have a contact page with your email, phone number, and social media network so anyone can contact you via the method they prefer. Additionally, you can add a contact form so they can reach you straight through the website.
● Personal bio — having a personal bio page gives a personal touch to the website and adds credibility.
● A description of your skills — specify your skills and talents in detail to make it easier for clients and employers to understand what you can do for them/or their company.
4. Show Your Best Work
You don’t need to show off every project you’ve ever done, choose the best ones and showcase them on the homepage. But if you need more space to display your creations, you can section off your website into different parts to avoid cluttering it.
Mark Tessier, a landscape architect from California sectioned his portfolio site and filtered his work samples to make it easier for visitors to see his best work on different projects.
Final Word
Having a professional portfolio website is necessary to make you stand out from the other experts in your field. It lets you showcase your skills, talents, and the work you’ve done in an efficient and unique way.
What’s more, it’s not hard to create one, either! So what are you waiting for? Create your own professional portfolio website, and increase your chances of geting noticed by your dream employers!
by Josen Smith
