It's A Black Tie Affair: Building You Professional Website

Get out your black shoes and that nice polka dot tie your dad bought you, because we are dressin' it up and building our professional website. There are a lot of things to consider when you're building your own website and it's important to get it right the first time. The average reader only spends 15 seconds on a web page before they click and go to something else. So that means that if you're trying to promote yourself and you don't catch that potential employer's attention in 15 seconds you're SOL, or (in a less colorful light) Sadly Out of Luck. So without further adieu, let's get to it.

Step 1: Identify Your Audience

The most important step in creating a professional website, or any website for that matter, is to identify your website. Who is it that you want visiting your page and what kind of things are those visitors going to be looking for? Are they looking for a gallery of photographs you taken or are they looking for straight to the point facts about what makes you qualified for the job? Whatever the case may be, think hard about who you want visiting your site and what sort of things are they going to be interested in seeing because remember, you only have 15 seconds.

Step 2: Pick The Layout

Now this step is probably one of the harder steps because there are simply just so many layouts and themes to choose from! So how do you make the decision then? Well, like I've said, you only have 15 seconds before the reader clicks to another page so rather than giving them the chance to miss some of your content, why not just put all your content on a single page! Single page sites look clean and professional and today are becoming more and more popular. This is tricky though, because if you have a lot of content to display you don't want to just slap it all on the front page because otherwise the reader will be stuck scrolling forever and get bored. A rule of thumb for creating a single page website is to keep the content as long as about a page and a half to two pages of standard printer paper. Now this can be hard to judge since you're viewing everything on a screen, but just use your best judgement and try it out a couple times. Scroll up and down your content and see how easily you get tired of scrolling all the way to the bottom. If it turns out that you need to add another page that's no problem! It is just important to keep all your information concise and not too wordy.

Step 3: Choose Your Content

When it comes to choosing your content, it is important to consider what it is exactly you are trying to promote. If you are looking to grab the attention of employers that can get you a job in video editing, you don't want to make your Photoshop projects the main focus of the page. Instead you would put maybe some videos you made right at the top, or at least relatively near the top of the page. The two things to remember when you're picking your content though is to 1) be concise and 2) don't put up bad content! It is important to be concise because nobody wants to read about the 2 hours you spent picking the perfect lens for the shot, they want to see the work! So don't bore the reader with lengthy paragraphs. As far as putting up bad content goes, just don't do it. Everyone has some work they are really proud of and everyone has some work they know isn't very good. Don't feel pressured to fill the page up with millions of things you've done, just put up the work you're absolutely proud of up there! If the time rolls around where someone wants to see more, then maybe you can pull those not as good projects out from the closet.

Step 4: Sticking Out In Search

Last but not least, take advantage of the many free tools you have available to you to make your website stick out in search. With a Google+ account you have access to free tools that allow you to improve how your site is displayed in search. Google will even tell you how to improve your HTML with rich snippets and meta tags so that your site will pop up in more searches! So take the extra step because it will pay off in the long run.

Final Thoughts:

So as you can see, you have a lot to consider when it comes to making your professional website, but you also have a lot of tools out there to help guide you. Whether you follow my 4 steps or find other sources out on the web, you don't have to start from no where. Just remember to keep your information concise and relevant to your target audience and you'll be on your way to creating a great site.