A personal website allows you to control your personal brand, gives you space to showcase your work, and can make it easy to network with recruiters and potential clients.
The great news is that you don’t have to be a coding wizard (sorceress?) to create your own portfolio. There are plenty of sites with super easy and navigable interfaces that allow you to upload pictures, text, links, and more with ease.
What to include on your personal website
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A professional headshot. Don’t have a headshot yet? Here’s how to get cheap (or free) professional-quality headshots .
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An “about” section. Describe who you are and what you do—think about it like your personal mission statement.
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Your contact information. Always include your email address (or a contact form) and links to your social media profiles, like LinkedIn and Twitter (if they’re professional and active) so recruiters or potential clients can easily reach out to you.
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Work samples. This should be the meaty portion of your personal website. Showcase your portfolio of work, whether it’s links to blog articles, photographs you’ve taken, or client testimonials.
Read more:How to Write a Stellar LinkedIn Summary [+ Examples]
15 sites to help build your personal website
1. Wordpress
Wordpress already powers 35 percent of the internet and has thousands of cool layout themes to choose from. You can build your personal website for free, but you’ll need to pay $4 per month for a custom domain.
2. Weebly
With the starter packet, you’ll pay $8 per month to build your custom portfolio site. You’ll get a custom domain, SEO tools, unlimited storage, and image galleries.
3. Squarespace
Start with a free trial then pay $12 per month to build your personal website on Squarespace. The site allows you to take a quick quiz so they can help you find the perfect template to fit your goal.
Read more:How to Network Without Feeling Gross
4. Wix
Wix is a free website builder that’ll allow you to build your online presence with video backgrounds, scroll effects, and animation.
5. Duda
Duda prides themselves on being one of the fastest website builders. Instantly upload content and automatically optimize your site for $14 per month after a free trial.
6. Strikingly
Strikingly is a simple personal website builder that allows you to create a site in just 30 minutes. Use a free website attached to the Strikingly domain or pay $8 per month for your own domain name.
7. Viewbook
Viewbook is targeted at photographers looking to showcase their work. Choose from a variety of gallery layouts and enjoy a live view of your page while you’re customizing and editing it for $16 per month.
8. Format
Format is another photography focused personal website builder with mobile-optimized templates, image protection, and online store capabilities for $12 per month after a 14-day free trial.
9. Dunked
Dunked aims to make the portfolio building process easier with easy-to-drag tools and stylish themes for $8 per month.
Read more:How to Write a LinkedIn Headline That Performs Like a Pro
10. Virb
For $10 per month, enjoy unlimited pages, cloud hosting, site analytics, and more for your personal website.
11. Adobe portfolio
If you already have Adobe Creative Cloud, this is the best option for you since Adobe portfolio is included for free. If you’re new, you can gain access to Adobe fonts and Lightroom photos for $9.99 per month.
12. Pixpa
Pixpa is a great website builder for photographers and artists. The base plan includes tons of benefits like customizable themes and unlimited client galleries for $6 per month.
13. Carbonmade
On Carbonmade, there aren’t any templates—customize your own portfolio grid, navigation, colors, fonts, and everything else easily with no tech experience necessary. The beginner plan is priced at “two cups of coffee per month,” AKA $8.
Read more:4 Women in Tech You Should Know
14. Jimdo
Jimdo integrates SEO automatically into your personal website and has designs for every industry under the sun. Try it out with basic features and a Jimdo domain for free or pay $9 per month for more features and your own domain.
15. Moonfruit
Build your website on Moonfruit and enjoy access to tons of free stock images. Start with the $5.99 per month basic plan that includes Moonfruit ads, or upgrade to the professional plan at $11.99 per month to stay ad-free.
