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Whether you want to advance in your career, work for yourself or share your ideas, a professional personal website like a personal blog is a very effective way to market your professionalism as an expert in your field, and your personal brand for example as a designer.
Nowadays, your personal online presence will greatly impact the way people perceive you as a professional e.g. a professional writer. So, getting it right will put you on the path to professional success. Here are some tips for creating a professional personal website.
What a Professional Personal Website Can Do for Me?
First, a professional personal website allows your potential employers or clients to find you more easily.
Secondly, you can showcase your works on your website.
Thirdly, a professional website allows you to build credibility and your personal brand.
Additionally, if you write blogs on your website, you can share them on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. This can funnel your social media visitors and followers back to your website.
Lastly, a professional personal website can tell your audience a lot of information about your skills and works. It can educate your viewers who will spread the word.
Available Options
Deciding which content management system (CMS) to use to create a professional personal website is the very first and yet the most critical step. However, there are tons of options available. Below is a summary of the most popular CMS you may use to create a website.
- Hosted platforms like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and WordPress.com where you can find personal website templates
- Self-hosted platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal
WordPress is the world’s leading content management system (CMS) trusted by over 35% of all the website users worldwide.
A WordPress website has the following main features.
- Simplicity
- Flexibility
- Publish with Ease
- Publishing Tools
- User Management
- Media Management
- Built-in Comments
- Fully Customizable
- Browser Compatibility
- Multilingual Blogs
- Own Your Data
What Should A Professional Personal Website Have?
Fundamentals
First, you should also ensure the following in your website design.
- Good UI/UX in terms of design, colors, fonts, and navigation
- Simple and clean design
- Short and concise calls-to-action that stand out with short but compelling words
- Professional animated images or illustrations
- Website performance optimization
- Mobile-friendly responsive design
- HTTPS secure
Pages
Secondly, depending on the type of personal websites, a professional website typically includes the following pages.
- Home
- A slider with professional animated images or illustrations
- Strong mission statement
- Strong call-to-action buttons
- Social media icons
- About
- Write your story, unique personality, and personal brand with compelling words that set you apart from others
- Use images and videos of yourself like presenting your service/product at a tradeshow, speaking at a conference, performing on stage if you are a model or artist, etc.
- Works
- Showcase your best portfolio of work
- Even if your work involves no visual, you can still showcase your work online e.g. articles or publications that you wrote if you are a writer, marketing campaigns that you made if you are a marketer, etc.
- Testimonials
- Reviews highlighting your qualities from customers or whoever you’ve worked with before
- Contacts
- Contact information
- Social media icons
- LinkedIn is a must for those are looking for jobs
Types of Professional Personal Websites
Resume/CV Websites
Resumes have their limitations when it comes to conveying your uniqueness and personality. A professional personal website can be customized with loads of useful content like your works and updated with new one which would otherwise be impossible with your traditional resumes. Below are some tips for personal resume websites.
- Use creative images, animations, and/or illustrations to tell your story and personal brand that set you apart from other candidates
- Use creative fonts and colors to convey your personal brand image
- Submit your website to Google and Bing
- Call-to-action buttons to download your resume
Personal Portfolio Websites
If you are a freelance photographer, graphic designer, illustrator, interior designer, artist, writer, and model, a professional personal website to showcase your skills and works and to build your personal brand.
Check out more ideas on portfolio websites and professional portfolio website examples for your inspiration.
Blogs
If you are a blogger, writing blog posts on a professional personal website regularly is the best way to drive traffic to your website from your social media channels as well as search engines. Below are some tips for personal blogs.
- Post regularly ideally every day
- Simple and clean design
- Use images, videos, infographics, and/or illustrations in each post
- Think about SEO including:
- Outbound links
- Internal links
- Keyphrase in introduction and meta description
- Keyphrase length and density
- Meta description length
- Previously used keyphrase
- Keyphrase in subheading
- Image alt attributes
- Text length
- Keyphrase in title
- SEO title width
- Keyphrase in slug
- Keyphrase distribution
- Use various post types like image, gallery, audio, video, quote, link
- Use various post listing types like grid, classic large image, small image, masonry, timeline, gallery, chequered, vertical loop, headlines
Check out more tips for creating a blog and professional blog examples for your inspiration.
Conclusion – The Best Solution?
Which is the best solution to create a professional personal website? If you are just starting up with zero budget and you have plenty of free time, you may try DIY hosted solutions like Wix.
If you want to get creative with animations and illustrations to set yourself apart from your competition, you should consider WordPress which allows you to scale up your website project with loads of customizations and add-on features.
