How to make a personal website

A personal website is a site about you, not a company. People use one to get hired, to collect their work in one place, or just to have an address they control instead of a social profile.

1. Decide what it's for

Write one sentence: "This site helps [who] to [do what]." For example, "This site helps recruiters see my projects and contact me." That sentence decides what goes on the page and what stays off it.

Common purposes:

• Job hunting: your CV, projects and LinkedIn in one place.
• Freelance work: examples, what you charge and how to book you.
• A creative hobby: your photos, writing or music.
• A simple home on the web: who you are and where to find you.

2. Pick a name and an address

Use your own name if you can. It's what people search for, and it still fits if your job changes. If it's taken, add your trade or your town.

You have two kinds of address to choose from:

• A free address on the provider's domain, such as liite.co/yourname or yourname.github.io. Free, and fine for most people.
• Your own domain, such as yourname.com. You register it with a domain registrar and renew it every year. ICANN, which oversees domain names, lists the accredited registrars that sell them.

Check a free Liite address below before you decide.

3. Choose how to build it

There's no single best option. Pick the one that matches your time and skills.

A page builder (simplest). You start from a template, swap in your words and links, and publish. Liite works this way: a free page at liite.co/yourname with up to 15 blocks, such as links, text, images, a contact form and social icons. Its personal website template is a good starting point. It won't give you a blog or dozens of pages.

A full website builder. Better if you want many pages, a blog or an online shop. Most have free plans with their branding on the site and paid plans to remove it and connect a domain.

Your own HTML and CSS. Best if you want to learn or show you can code. GitHub Pages hosts static sites from a GitHub repository at yourname.github.io. On Liite you can upload a zip or a folder with an index.html; on the Free plan uploaded sites need a card on file and go offline 7 days after your last publish, while paid plans keep them up.

4. Write the sections

Keep it short. Most personal sites need four things:

1. Your name and one line about what you do: "Product designer in Leeds" or "Chemistry student and climber".
2. What you're doing now, in two or three sentences.
3. Proof, if the site is for work: three projects, clips or photos, each with one line of context.
4. How to reach you: an email link or a contact form, plus the profiles you actually use.

Add a photo if you're comfortable with it. Leave out your home address, date of birth and anything you'd mind a stranger reading.

5. Make it findable

Search engines show your page title as the clickable link. Google's guidance is to give each page a descriptive, concise title rather than something vague like "Home", so use your name and what you do. On Liite you set this in the editor under Enhance, as the search title and description.

Then link to the site from places that already rank for your name: your LinkedIn, GitHub, social profiles and email signature.

6. Publish and keep it current

Publish, then open the site on your phone and check every link. Put a reminder in your calendar every few months to update what you're doing now. An out-of-date personal site is worse than a short one.

Ideas for students

If you're a student, your site can be small and still useful. List your course and year, two or three projects or pieces of coursework you're proud of, any part-time work or volunteering, and a link to your CV. See adding a personal website to your resume for where to put the link, and the developer portfolio page if your projects are code.