Keep It Simple: What to Include and What to Leave Out on Your Personal Site

Dale Carnegie reportedly said, “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

It’s natural to feel the same way about your website: this is your digital real estate, your chance to shine, to tell the world what makes you unique, to…

Whoa.

While it’s tempting to want to include everything from birth forward, keep in mind that digital attention spans are measured in microseconds. And with an estimated two billion personal sites out there (not to mention all the social platforms), yours will stand out best if it’s succinct.

For example, David Hoffmann’s straightforward bio touches on his efforts to transform Augusta, Missouri, into the “Napa of the Midwest.” It links to his company’s business site and also includes a page that lists the many press stories that feature him and his company, so viewers have the option of clicking through to learn more.

Here are six steps for creating a compelling personal website:

Choose and purchase a domain name. Your actual name is best, but if that’s not available (say, because it’s fairly common and already in use), aim for something professional-sounding that reflects who you are and/or what you do. For instance, see FabricArtistMaryButler.com. You can also try some of the newer suffixes to see if you can land your name that way, such as MaryButler.info or MaryButler.me

Tell visitors who you are. Briefly. Think of this as an elevator pitch or job cover letter. What do people most need to know about you, personally or professionally? What’s the one major takeaway? You can sync your site to other places you can find online, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc., so keep this to a few paragraphs at most.

Showcase yourself. Remember Show and Tell from school? When people can see as well as read what you have to share, it makes the material that much more memorable. The internet is a visual medium, so if your work is in any way visual (e.g., an auto mechanic can upload before and after car repairs), be sure to include images. If you’re in sales, post pictures of the most intriguing products, perhaps with a memorable statistic: “I sold 30,000 of these last year!”

Optimize. You may know all about the critical importance of SEO for business blogs. You may even have written some, but never think to do the same for your site. Yet SEO is essential if you want to be found online. Research your keywords, include them in your copy, and add your personal profile link to your other digital real estate. You can even consider guest blogging for popular publications in your field as a way to get a link back to your website. It’s good for building business, too.

Keep it fresh. Creating a personal website isn’t a “one-and-done” deal. Links get broken all too often, and content grows stale quicker than bread. You don’t want a new visitor clicking on a link just to have it open to a 404 Not Found page, so check your links often and update pages that have moved. If you’ve started a blog, be sure to add new content as you upload it. You may want to change the images you display as well.

Include a high-level testimonial. If a client has written a glowing recommendation about your product, service, or support, it’s fine to include it on your site. Books do this as a matter of course: place a pithy, persuasive quote on the cover that entices the prospective buyer to purchase this book now. The testimonial is often from a well-known personality. So if you have such an endorsement, use it.

That’s it! Now congratulate yourself on a job well done and start checking your metrics to see what needs to be tweaked.