by Rachel Smith
11 January 2017
I’ve decided it – I’m going to (finally) create a website portfolio. New year, new website… and here’s hoping it helps me get more work. I’m going to go with WordPress, but I know it’s a minefield and I know you and Leo have created lots of websites over the years so I’d love your advice on what not to do. A
Congratulations. You will be so happy you did this; there’s nothing like having a beautiful, functional online space to showcase your work – a space that you know is working for you 24/7. That’s the world we’re in now. If you’re not online, you’re pretty much invisible (well, to anyone who wants to Google you and give you work).
But yes, there are lots of mistakes to be made while building a site (so much so that I could write a book on it) but here are the 9 biggest missteps in my opinion, when you’re just starting out.
This is a no brainer. Get one that’s as close to your business name or your name as you can. AmyAdamsJournalist.com.au if AmyAdams isn’t available. Hot tip: it’s much cheaper buying domains via your hosting company.
Although WordPress.com may seem like an easy, quick alternative, I would always bite the bullet and go for WordPress.org first. It’s open source, has heaps of plugins and themes to choose from, plus there’s a massive amount of WordPress forums and developers to help you if you get stuck.
So many themes, so many demos to scroll through, so many dreams of how your site could look… am I right? But it’s a waste of time trying to figure out one theme from another and you’ll just get bogged down in the biggest case of analysis paralysis ever. Devote no more than half a day to a day to theme research. Choose one you love (not a free one, but one that costs money so you get some support) and start customising it. The aim is to be up and running sooner rather than later, right?
Get it right the first time and you’ll have a site with longevity. As a case in point, I’ve had my site for well over a decade. It is REALLY out of date (updating the copy is on my to-do list) and being a custom build, rather than WordPress, it could probably do with a total overhaul, but I keep resisting because I love it as it is. I think that’s the key with getting it right first time – it’ll give you a great framework from which to build on.
I’m always being sent journalist portfolios from people who are registering at Rachel’s List, and you can really tell the difference between someone who has thrown their site up without much thought as to aesthetics or function, and those who have gotten help with the design, perhaps a logo that appears across their business cards and invoice, etc. This is your business, isn’t it? So set a budget and outsource if you need to. The polish a professional designer can bring to your site is invaluable.
You know that navigation bar that helps visitors get around? Resist the temptation to jam-pack it with a billion sections, pages, categories etc. Keep it super simple and make it super easy for your editors and clients to find what they need – fast.
I use Backup Buddy which costs around $100/year but is worth it (I think that supports around 5 sites). Backing up is a total bore, but the one time you need that back-up you’ll be so, so glad you have it.
Huge images, huge pdfs of your stories all add up to longer download times and a bored visitor who’ll quickly switch off. It’s super quick to optimise, say, a large png image to a web-optimised jpeg using online programs like PicMonkey or Canva. Get into the habit of doing it whenever you’re uploading something new to your site.
You want people to know who you are and what you do, so here’s where to sell yourself! Go to town. And good luck!
Have you made any huge mistakes with your website portfolio? Mistakes you’d be happy sharing for A’s benefit? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below (with your website URL too!)
Great post Rachel. I made the WordPress.com vs. .org mistake and I still haven’t sorted it out which is why your mention of Backup Buddy intrigued me – apart from it being a generally good idea. If I backed up my WordPress.com site using Backup Buddy, could I restore it to my domain at Digital Pacific?
I don’t THINK Backup Buddy would work on a WordPress.com site, Darren – it’s a WordPress.org plugin. You can backup and export your site though – see here for details: https://en.support.wordpress.com/export/#backups
And once you’ve loaded up your new site on WordPress.org, I totally recommend getting Backup Buddy – it’s one of the best backups I’ve tried. So easy.
Nice post Rachel. I have just about completed a revamp of my WordPress site to eliminate static html pages that were included in it. While I have an issue or two still to solve, I have learned a lot that I can share.
I ended up using a free theme called Generate Press and bought the Generate Press Premium plugin to extend it. In my opinion that combination is very nearly the holy grail of themes in that they give you the freedom to implement any layout you want. The bonus is that the support provided by Tom Usborne and his team is fantastic; you just tell them what you want to do and they give you the code to accomplish it. I’m not associated with them at all by the way 😉 https://generatepress.com/
I have started using the free version of Elementor page builder and that seems to work perfectly with Generate Press.
If anyone is building or revamping a WordPress site they’d do well to install a plugin to make the site AMP-compliant. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a Google idea and they’ll be penalising sites that can’t deliver AMP versions of their posts and pages to mobile devices.
Thanks for those tips Allan. I didn’t know about the AMP plugin – will have to check that one out for sure. Glad you’re seeing the light at the end of the site-revamp tunnel 🙂