What Should I Put In My Will

Now that yous've been sold on the benefits of a personal website and hopefully started building your own, you may exist thinking: So, what exactly exercise I fill information technology with?

Peculiarly if you lot're early in your career or don't work in a particularly visual field, information technology can be piece of cake to feel like you don't have plenty content to brand a personal website worth your time.

But you'd be wrong for two reasons. First, even if you only had a page's worth of information, putting it on a website under yourname.com is still worth it but to take some real estate on the web and make it easier for hiring managers to notice yous, learn most you, and become in touch with you.

Secondly, and more than chiefly, you lot have more to fill a website with than you probably realize. To help yous out, we've come up with a list of things that you lot should exist including in your personal website (and, yep, a few things you should avoid at all costs).

1. Include: Your Lift Pitch

Right off the bat, when people land on your site, you want them to empathise who you are, what you do, and what you lot're looking for.

So, somewhere that'due south easily accessible (ideally your abode page or "about" page), you lot should include a summary—no more than two to three paragraphs long—laying out the most of import things about you. This could include major companies you lot've worked for, projects yous've worked on that you lot're most proud of, your "superpower" every bit a professional, and fifty-fifty a piddling personality. Imagine people coming to your site and just reading this i section. What would yous want them to take away?

If y'all're not sure where to get started, check out Alexandra Franzen'due south advice on how to tell people what you do and exist remembered—and then interpret that into your written bio.

Avoid: Your Life Story

That said, while you definitely desire to tell an engaging story on your site, you're not writing your autobiography hither! Just like hiring managers don't spend much time on your resume, there's a good chance that the majority of people visiting your personal website aren't going to spend hours clicking around.

So keep information technology short and snappy—people will get much more than from two well-written paragraphs than they will from skimming over two pages, I promise.

2. Include: Examples of Your Best Work

These days, creative professionals often treat their personal websites equally their portfolios, where they collect their work in a way that makes it easy for hiring managers to see their chops. If you're a designer, creative person, photographer, or the like, you should definitely be doing the same. (Squarespace offers some galleries to help you build this hands.)

Only even if you're not in an particularly visual field, you can (and should!) create a sort of "gallery" of the work you're most proud of. If you're a writer, this could be clips to articles you've published around the spider web, photos of impress articles, or links to books y'all co-authored or ghost wrote. If yous're in marketing, you lot could include examples of campaigns you lot ran or descriptions of events you helped put on. Even if yous're in sales or business development, endeavor talking well-nigh some of the companies yous've sold to or from, or give some thought about your sales numbers (without giving away anything proprietary, of class). Get artistic and don't retrieve yous tin't "bear witness off" your work just because you don't have anything tangible to show.

Avoid: Every Piece of Work You've E'er Done

You lot should call back of your personal website as a curated gallery of your best work—not a repository of everything you've ever done. Think about it this style: If a hiring managing director comes to your site and has to weed through a long folio of work, he'll likely feel overwhelmed, click on the first matter on the page, and then ignore the rest. But if you've carefully picked out your top examples, y'all control exactly what he sees.

This also applies to any "works in progress." If yous wouldn't be comfy turning it in to your dominate, you lot shouldn't be showing it off to potential futurity bosses.

3. Include: Where You Are Around the Web

Nosotros know—your personal website isn't actually your only real estate on the web these days. You lot have your LinkedIn, your Twitter profile, publications you've been published on or places you've been interviewed, your GitHub or Behance profile; I could keep and on.

And while your site doesn't need to replace all of these things, it'due south a nifty way to bring them all together and brand them easier for people to find. So, link away! Link to all your (professional) social profiles. Link to any repositories of piece of work. Link to author pages on different websites you contribute to, or sites y'all've helped build. Link to places you're quoted as an expert. Whatever it is, your personal site is a great style to bring your scattered web presence together.

Avoid: Links Totally Unrelated to Your Task

You should, however, avert sharing any profiles that are totally unrelated to your job. For example, unless you're a designer or work in another creative field, I have a hunch your Pinterest has little related to your work on it (yep, fifty-fifty if you follow The Muse). This as well applies to blogs that are side projects, well-nigh Tumblrs, and your personal Facebook profile.

4. Include: A Great, Professional Blog

Your personal site is a great identify to share your thoughts and philosophies related to your manufacture, and a blog is the perfect medium to do just that. It gives you a infinite to get a thought leader, appoint with more people around the web, and easily update your network on your career news. Plus, information technology'll show y'all have writing skills—a bonus no thing what your job.

If you lot remember you lot tin keep upwards with it somewhat regularly (two or three times a month, minimum), then consider adding a blog to your site. You tin can use it to talk nearly projects you lot're working on, give your opinions on big happenings in your industry, or give advice to others trying to break in. (Here are 22 ideas for keeping your web log filled with useful, unique content.)

Avert: A Web log You lot Haven't Touched in 2 Years

On the other paw, if you lot don't feel like you tin regularly write good, thoughtful content (free of embarrassing grammar mistakes), and so skip the blog. Information technology'south non necessary for a good personal site, and if somebody comes to your site and sees that your final mail service is two years sometime, they'll assume the whole site is outdated.

5. Include: Testimonials That Testify Your Worth

Testimonials from people yous've worked with in the by can be a great manner to make you look even more impressive, especially if they're from well-respected professionals in the field. You can use quotes from people you've worked with earlier to show off soft skills that would be hard to demonstrate, to allow someone else sing your praises so you don't accept to, or to just further prove your worth.

Just as Jenny Foss suggests when yous're asking for LinkedIn recommendations, you want to ask for testimonials for your site with specificity. That is, instead of just saying, "Will you lot write something nice about me?" try mentioning skills y'all're trying to highlight and encourage your recommenders to give examples. Doing so will help you…

Avoid: Testimonials That Just Sound Like You're Bragging

A page total of vague testimonials of different people saying "she's great!" or "he'southward the best person I ever worked with!" is non merely going to sound disingenuous—it's going to audio a lilliputian scrap like you lot're humble bragging. Plus, it won't actually help the person reading your site larn whatever more nearly yous. Cull your reviewers carefully, and ask for them to exist specific.

6. Include: You, Visualized

Finally, information technology's important to remember that your personal site shouldn't simply exist pages total of text—your resume and cover letter handle that. Instead, find ways to visualize yourself and your accomplishments. Maybe information technology's creating a simple logo that represents you and what you lot do. Peradventure it's including a professional photo of yourself. Perhaps it's going as far as to create icons or an infographic representing your accomplishments.

Whatever information technology is, call up of ways to up the imagery and cut downwardly on the words on your site. It will make your site expect cute—and make you more memorable.

Avert: Clip Art Graphics

If you're non an artistically abled person, don't feel like you have to resort to low-quality clip fine art graphics (it's actually ameliorate to have none than ones that make your site stand out in the wrong way). Instead, consider investing a little money in having someone help you pattern one or two graphics that will really help you stand up out, and so keep the rest of the site clean and simple. You tin also use Squarespace'southward logo designer or pull images from one of these sites, which offer beautiful, free images to anyone.

Come across? Y'all have more than to show off than you thought. At present get going and fill upwardly that personal website!

See how other people are using their personal sites on Squarespace!

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