What you need to create a website
Let's say that you are an architect (or photographer, interior designer, or graphic designer) with some pieces in your portfolio, and that you have been thinking about creating a website to showcase them.
Or you could be a lawyer, healthcare professional (physiotherapist, psychologist, therapist), or coach (career or exercise). What would your organizational plan look like for your website?
Every case is different, but to help you, here are some tips for structure, photos, and content that will apply to 99% of cases.
About the structure
The first step is to plan out your website structure. Firstly, you need to determine what pages you need. Five pages is generally enough to talk about:
√ what you offer,
√ present your portfolio in an organized way,
√ give some background about yourself,
√ include a contact page, and
√ even publish a blog if you want.
Most basic websites include these five key pages:
1 | Home
√ The home page serves to clearly and briefly explain what you offer, like a table of content
√ It must attract your reader immediately.
√ If your audience does not understand what you offer as soon as they land on the home page, they will not be interested in browsing the rest of your site.
2 | About
√ This page provides information about you, your training, courses you have taken... in short, a mini CV.
√ It should describe your professional background in an informal way.
√ Remember to keep it simple and to make your professional life sound interesting to attract clients.
3.1 | Portfolio
√ This area is for exhibiting your work.
√ Organize it by themes, and explain how you arrived at each solution.
√ Your audience will be interested to see not just the finished product, but also ‘behind the scenes’ of your creative process.
3.2 | What we do
√ This is the option for people who do not have a portfolio to display (lawyer, psychologist, coach…).
√ It is important to explain in a clear and detailed way what you do and your area of expertise.
√ In addition, describe your work methodology.
√ Highlight what makes you different from the competition (in other words, why should someone hire you?)
4 | Contact
√ No one wants to search through your site to figure out where to get in touch to get a quote, ask a question, or hire you for your service. For this reason, it is important to have a page exclusively for this purpose.
√ In addition, we suggest including an option in the footer to allow site visitors to contact you directly and to encourage them to follow you on social media.
5 | blog
√ This is a great tool to get you closer to your audience and to create a community around your work.
√ People love receiving tips and suggestions from those they admire.
√ Use this space to strengthen your relationship and to create a loyal audience.
√ Instagram stories are an excellent tool for this as well, but keep in mind that the content is temporary. If you miss a day, or if you liked a specific piece of content, there is no way to go back to it or save it for future reference.
This structure covers 99% of cases of professionals who need a website to present their portfolios and services.
About content
If you have a little more money to invest, I suggest hiring a copywriter to write your content. I know, I know, you write really well. We too, believe us, but we still hired a professional to get our copy right.
We offer a complete package that has the copy included. In this case, you don’t need to do anything. Just a phone call with our copywriter, fill out a few forms and voilá, your copy will be ready!
About the images
Professional photos are a must have.
If you can't afford to invest in a photographer, I recommend a stock image site. There are some that require you to buy the images, but did you know that there are free options too? We always go the extra mile for our clients not to break the bank and still have a website with quality images.
The other only thing, besides the copy, that's non-negotiable are photos of you and your work (in the case of a portfolio).
You have to take care of your website's image just as you would take care of your customers' image. We can design a website with mixed images (stock + exclusive photos) that are relevant to your business, keeping in mind that dark and poor quality photos will not help you.
