A personal website can be an incredibly versatile and powerful tool that helps you share your ideas, express yourself, market your personal brand and level up your career. We live in a digital world and young professionals use social media for all kinds of purposes, from socializing, sharing their ideas and work, to even professional networking and job hunting.
While social media platforms offer you a wide range of opportunities, the potential for customization is quite low. LinkedIn offers the same basic template and the same essential sections to all of its users. So, how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you showcase your unique personal talents and professional abilities? You need more than just a cookie-cutter template and creating your own online website is the best solution here. Here are some of the best about us page examples to inspire your own.
This guide will tell you what a personal website is, why you need a personal website and how you can create a personal website, easily and without breaking the bank. We also have some beautiful personal website examples for you to take a look at and get inspired!
What is a personal website?
A personal website is exactly what it sounds like. It is a website that belongs to you that you can use as a personal online space to customize and use according to your needs. For a lot of people, a personal website is essentially an online portfolio or a personal resume website. These websites are useful in professional networking and job hunting as they let you fill in the gaps where a resume may prove inadequate.
If you are an architect, for example, a resume may let potential employers know your qualifications and experience but it doesn’t let you show your work. This is where a personal website may come in handy. You can use your personal website to showcase your architecture portfolio, present images, schematics and case studies of projects you have worked on, include previous client or employer testimonials, and so much more.
Personal websites allow you to go beyond basic templates and generic resumes and cover letters. They let you truly showcase your personality and stand out from the competition.
Types of personal websites
Let us take a look at some of the most common types of personal websites. For a more detailed read our article for all the different types of websites.
- Resume websites
- Online portfolio websites
- Personal blog websites
- Personal business websites
- Student websites
Resume websites
As the name suggests, resume websites are created with the intent of showing off a person’s resume. Resume websites are a creative and interactive way of displaying your skills, qualifications and accomplishments. A personal resume website also encourages people to actively interact and engage with your resume instead of simply skimming through it. Do read this guide if you are looking to create a beautiful, professional resume website.
Online portfolio websites
Online portfolio websites are important tools for people in creative professions, for example, designers, photographers, artists etc. Portfolio websites let you show your work, unlike a resume which is a short one page summary of your professional and educational qualifications, certifications and experience. For professionals in creative fields, for example, design architecture, illustration, art etc, it is not enough to simply list off your qualifications. Clients and employers want to see your work before they hire you. This is where a personal portfolio website comes in handy. You can simply link potential clients and employers to your personal portfolio website and show them the work that you are actually capable of. Here is how you can make your online portfolio stand out!
Personal blog websites
Personal blog websites are personal websites that people use to host their blog. Blog websites are a great way of reaching out to the world, sharing your thoughts and ideas and promoting yourself. Blog websites can come in many shapes and forms. You can create a professional blog website and write about your profession and on industry topics or you can create a blog centred around your personal passions and hobbies, for example, a travel blog or food blog. A personal blog website can help you promote yourself and network better. It can also be a source of revenue for you if you can monetize it well with sponsored guest posts and paid reviews. But, be sure to practice proper disclosure for paid content!
Personal business websites
Personal business websites are personal websites made by business owners to promote their business and brands. These websites focus pretty heavily on brand building and marketing. Along with the biography and story of the business owner, personal business websites also tend to talk about the business itself. Creating a distinct brand identity for your business and for yourself is really important when it comes to a personal business website.
Student websites
Student websites are personal websites created by students either for academic or early professional purposes. Student websites are an excellent way of standing out and making a mark for yourself as a student. Your personal student website can be a platform that can enable you to share your school projects, as well as personal projects with the world, build a portfolio, gain credibility and network with established professionals before you even start your first job. Student websites are also useful for internships and job hunting. They can help you establish a professional online presence which is very beneficial in helping you make a good first impression with potential employers.
8 reasons why you need a personal website
Here are some reasons why you need a personal website :
- Customize to your requirements
- Take control of the search result page
- Engage people in getting to know you
- Display creativity, initiative and drive
- Build a personal brand
- Sell products and services
- Start a blog
- Take control of marketing yourself
1. Customize to your requirements
Social media profiles offer very limited options in terms of customizability and personalization. You can fix that by creating your own personal website. Unlike a social media profile, you don’t have to stick to a template for your personal website. You can create a unique website that matches your taste and requirements.
With the right personal website builder you can get all the customization you want without touching a single line of code. There is a misconception that unless you have advanced technical knowledge or web development skills, you need to resign yourself to generic and uninteresting templates. As a matter of fact, with the help of a good website builder, creating a custom personal website becomes easier than a breeze. With drag and drop visual editors and fully customizable templates offered by a comprehensive personal website builder like Pixpa, nothing is impossible. Check out this article for a step by step guide on how to create your personal website.
2. Take control of the search result page
In normal circumstances, if someone googled you, the results most likely to come up would be your social media profiles like LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. While you have control over what you post to these social media platforms, not all of these platforms are the same. Some platforms like Facebook might showcase a more casual side of you that you don’t necessarily want employers to see. You can lock your profile or prevent it from appearing in search engine results but that still leaves us with the question of how you can take control of your search engine results page.
With a personal website, you have a lot more control over what turns up on the search engine results page when someone googles you. This way you can redirect potential employers to a place where they can get exactly the information they want about you, and exactly the information that you want them to see.
3. Engage people in getting to know you
Your personal website gives you an easy and engaging way of helping people know you better. Unlike a dry resume, your website gives you a lot more freedom to play around and create something interesting and innovative. You can use a custom colour palette, engaging fonts and innovative web design to create a personal website that can engage people and pique their interest.
With your personal website you can make sure that people do not simply move on after skimming through your resume or profile, you grab their attention and then retain it.
4. Display creativity, initiative and drive
We live in a very competitive world. You may have an extensive range of qualifications, certifications and experience but that may not be enough to set you apart. If you are looking to create an impression you need to think outside the box. Your personal website gives you the opportunity to do just that. It can provide you with a simple and elegant solution that can help you stand out from the crowd and display the full range of your creativity, drive and initiative.
Your website is a blank canvas that you can customize to your liking. With the right tools and some creative thinking, you can create a personal website that doesn’t just tell people who you are but illustrates your skills and talents in a unique and creative way. This way you can show people that you have the capacity to think big and execute every project you undertake with creative flair and innovative thinking.
5. Build a personal brand
Branding is not something that is limited to companies. Creating your personal brand as an individual can be a productive and beneficial venture. Not only will this help you create a distinctive identity for yourself, investing in creating a personal brand can help you boost your profile and market yourself better. Think about how Coca-Cola distinguishes itself from Pepsi. They are both essentially cola companies and sell very similar products. But they are able to create distinct identities and make their products visibly stand out from each other.
Basically, your personal brand is your answer to why someone should hire you for a job and no one else. Your personal website can be your cockpit from where you can leverage, promote and manage your personal brand. Your website is an empty canvas where you can be anything you want. It can be the face of your personal brand.
6. Sell products and services
Your personal website can also serve more practical purposes. You can use it as a platform to sell products and services and create a secondary source of income for yourself. This can be a great opportunity for you to broaden your horizons and create a lucrative business venture for yourself.
If you are a professional, you can use your website as a platform to sell your skills and services on a freelance basis. You can also act as an independent consultant using your website as your main center of operations. If you are a graphic designer, for example, you can use your online graphic design portfolio website to offer freelance services or even consultancy services. Alternatively, you can also use your website to sell products from your side venture.
7. Start a blog
Blogging is not just a great way of expressing yourself and sharing your thoughts and feelings, it can also be a great self-marketing strategy. Even if you are not intending to start a personal blog website specifically, blogs are a useful and easy addition and can be of great help in incorporating various long tail keywords into your personal website. This can help you attract more organic web traffic through search engines.
Through your blog you can share your experiences as well as industry expertise with the wider world. You can network and create a name for yourself through your blog, especially if you have valuable industry experience that you have to share. This helps you establish your credibility and knowledge as a professional, especially if you are able to write content that is valuable, educational and most importantly shareable. Blogging can give a significant boost to your professional career and add value to your personal website. Take a look at this article to learn how to start the perfect blog.
8. Take control of marketing yourself
Your personal website gives you an incredible degree of control over your personal brand and identity. Since you have full control over the customization and structure of your website you can use innovative web design, add CTAs, craft a brand identity, all at your discretion. A good personal website builder will also come with built-in marketing, branding and SEO tools that can help you take your personal website to the next level. This article will take you through the steps to setting up SEO for your website.
Marketing is essential to creating and maintaining a personal brand identity. But marketing takes a lot of effort and consistency. This can be made simpler when you have a single center of operations. A personal website is a simple,feasible and affordable solution for this.
Here are 10 best personal website examples to inspire you
Let us take a look at some beautiful and unique personal website examples. These examples are sure to inspire you to start your own personal website building journey!
1. Alana Dickens
Alana Dickens is 911 dispatcher, cartoonist and illustrator from Central California. Alana makes comics, illustrations and fanart. Her work deals with her life experiences as a 911 dispatcher and black queer woman in America.
Alana’s personal website is a stellar example of a casual, quirky but professional website for a cartoonist and illustrator. The landing page makes a bold statement with a purple background color but it works really well with Alana’s art style and font. The menu is prominent and accessible and leads to all the relevant information and links to Alana’s other platforms.
2. Veronika Stretska
Veronika Stretska is a New York based copywriter and brand strategist. She specializes in creating content strategies, social media strategies, marketing copywriting and branding.
Veronika’s personal website is an excellent example of a business website as well as a portfolio website. The landing page immediately tells us what we need to know about this website while maintaining a fairly casual but professional vibe. Her website also prominently features her copywriting and social media writing portfolio as well a contact form for business queries. It is simple, professional and effective.
Creating a copywriting portfolio is crucial for aspiring copywriters as it showcases their skills, expertise, and style to potential clients or employers. By presenting a well-curated portfolio, like Veronika's, copywriters can demonstrate their ability to craft compelling content and attract lucrative opportunities in the competitive industry.
3. Tracy Allen Rhoades
Tracy Allen Rhoades was a award-winning dancer and choreographer from California, USA, who tragically passed away on 13th January, 1993 as a victim of the AIDS crisis.
Tracy’s personal website is a beautiful tribute created for him by his friends and family. The website is a collection of images, videos and media articles from his life. There is a section for posting tributes and for sharing links to Tracy’s work that the original makers of the website couldn’t trace earlier. The tribute website also contains a short biography describing Tracy, his life and his work.
4. Paul Karukapillil
Paul Karukapillil is a New York based civic activist, religious leader and philanthropist. Paul is deeply involved in the diasporic Indian community of New York, especially the Malayali community.
Paul’s personal website does a great job of introducing him and his work. The first thing we see on the landing page is his photograph and a succinct tagline describing him and the organizational work he does among the diasporic Malayali community. Further on, we see more photographs, videos and a list of his work, positions held and accomplishments. Paul’s website is a perfect example of a well organized personal website.
5. Summer Avery
Summer Avery is a Tucson, Arizona based professional volleyball player and model. She played professional volleyball for two years in Cyprus. Currently she is working on building her modeling career, focusing on fitness and athleisure modeling.
Summer’s personal website beautifully straddles the line in showcasing her two sides as an athlete and as a model. The website immediately lets you know what her work is so visitors can know what to expect. There are prominent links to her instagram and to her bookings page which are crucial to a model. Summer also uses her personal website to showcase her modeling portfolio of fitness, swimwear as well as lifestyle modeling.
6. Malique Khan
Malique Khan is a young street photographer from New York City. His personal website is also his photography blog where he posts snapshots of New York City, including the buildings, landscapes and portraits of the people who inhabit it.
Malique’s personal website serves the purpose of being a platform of expression for him as well as a personal photography portfolio which he can use for promoting himself and his work and establish himself as a professional photographer.
7. Candie Brown
Candie Brown is a selfcare guru and health advocate. She is also a wife and a mother of three kids who has been through many difficulties and personal struggles to reach a place of peace, contentment and success. Candie’s blog is a place for her to share her thoughts, life lessons and experiences with the world.
Candie’s personal website is mainly a blog website. This is an excellent example of a personal website created for personal expression and sharing one’s personal journey. Candie’s personal website is a space for her to platform herself and communicate with the rest of the world.
The Contact Us page is one of the most visited and, one of the most important pages on any business website, here are some great example of contact us pages which will help your business success.
8. Rene & Maguitte
Rene and Maguitte are a couple who like to travel the world and take photographs and selfies on their film cameras to memorialize their experiences.
Rene and Maguitte’s personal photography website is a beautiful example of an expressive and unconventional personal website. Their website memorializes their travel journeys and experiences. At the same time, it also serves the purpose of being their own photography website and portfolio. This is a stellar example of how multi-purpose personal websites can be.
9. Wilma
Wilma is a Dutch branding and promotion specialist with over 40 years of experience. Wilma started her career as a fashion model and now works in brand promotion, sales and marketing as well as training services to educate other people on how to run a successful marketing campaign.
Wilma’s personal website is a beautifully designed business website. The landing page contains a professional photograph of her as well as a short, succinct but impactful introduction to her and her special expertise. It is a compact website but it contains all the relevant information one needs about Wilma, her background and the services she offers. It also contains the relevant contact information and contact forms for people looking to make business queries or appointments.
10. Evan Tetrault
Evan Tetrault is a 28 year old US army Veteran who likes to spend his day exploring with his Golden Retriever, Indiana. He was born on the central coast of California and likes to explore new areas of the United States, exploring the unexplored outdoors.
Evan is a professional photographer who uses his personal website to share photographs of his explorations and also as a portfolio for professional clients. He aims to bring an adventurous and exciting vibe to his photoshoots and his personal website conveys exactly that.
Create a stunning personal website with Pixpa
Now that you have had a look at some inspiring personal website examples, it's time to start working on a project of your own! Pixpa makes website building easier than a breeze. Even if you have no advanced technical knowledge or coding skills, you can build a stunning, professional website by using Pixpa’s intuitive, easy-to-use, no-code personal website builder. All you need to do is follow a few simple steps:
Sign up for Pixpa’s free 15-day trial
Pixpa offers a full-featured, 15-day free trial for all users so that you can test drive the personal website builder’s feature set. You do not need to enter any credit card information to sign up for the trial. Once you have signed up for Pixpa, you will be led to the Pixpa studio where you can choose a personal website template of your choice.
Pick your personal website template
Pixpa comes with a host of stunning, feature-rich and responsive personal website templates. All you need to do is pick a template that works best for you and start customizing! All Pixpa personal website templates are fully customizable without the use of code. The visual editor and drag and drop page builder enable you to modify all of the visual elements of your website, easily and without touching a single line of code. If you do have coding knowledge and want further customization, you can use custom CSS and HTML overrides.
Add your content
The next step is to add content to your personal website. Any website after all needs good content. The kind of content you add to your website will depend on the kind of website you are making. In general a short biography, a professional portrait, a contact form and a blog are excellent additions to any personal website.This guide can be handy in helping you learn how to create amazing website content!
Add the features you need
Add features according to your needs and requirements. Pixpa comes with a wide variety of features including featured galleries, client galleries, online store builder, and much more. You can also add third party integrations like booking tools, live chat features, Google analytics tools and much more. The features and integrations you choose will depend on the kind of functionality you want from your personal website.
Subscribe to a plan of your choice and take your website live!
Subscribe to one of our extremely affordable and feature-rich pricing plans and take your website live! Pixpa offers a 30-day money back guarantee for any users dissatisfied with their personal website builder experience.
Promote your website using Pixpa’s SEO and marketing tools
You can use Pixpa’s SEO and marketing tools to further promote your website and attract more visitors. With marketing features like announcement bars, marketing pop-ups and email marketing solutions, you can use your personal website as an all-in-one marketing tool. Pixpa also comes with an SEO manager tool that you can use to set sitewide metadata, generate sitemaps and optimize your website for search engines.
Here are a Few More Examples of Great Personal website templates :
Check out some of these stunning personal website templates available on Pixpa, to help you create your personal website.
Murray
Sophisticated, direct and professional, Murray is the perfect template for personal resume websites. It is a versatile template that helps you introduce yourself and your work while also keeping your landing page clean and modern. Murray is the personal website template of choice for young professionals.
Aperture
Aperture is another amazing personal website template for resume websites, business websites and professional websites. It is a clean, minimalist template which makes it perfect for all kinds of creative professionals, especially designers, architects, etc.
Tint
Tint is the perfect personal website template for blog websites. It is also perfect for travel websites, personal photography blogs and poetry websites. Tint gives you a comprehensive, expressive and customizable solution to creating the perfect personal blog website for professional or personal purposes.
Coral
Coral is another versatile personal website template that is modern, direct and eye-catching. Coral gives you the perfect solution to creating a comprehensive multipurpose website that can be used as a resume website, a personal blog website, a portfolio or a business website. It is the perfect personal website template for artists and creative professionals.
Palette
Palette is a wonderful example of a personal website template that is perfect for portfolio websites or personal blog websites. Palette puts your work at the forefront of your website and does a great job of introducing you through your work. If you are looking to create a travel website, a personal blog website or simply an online portfolio, Palette is the perfect website template for you.
Redwood
Redwood is a beautiful professional website template that is perfect for personal websites, in particular blog websites, personal portfolio websites, and fashion industry professional websites. Redwood is clean and minimalistic and does a great job on focusing on both the person and their work.
White
White is an amazing template for personal websites and business websites. It is a simple, uncluttered template with a lot of room for customization and personalization. White gives you a solid template that you can work with to create a personal website that is truly your own.
Do check out these How To Guides from Pixpa
Conclusion
Personal websites are an easy and effective way of levelling up your career and giving yourself a platform that is truly your own. Your personal website can be an incredibly versatile tool that gives you endless options and possibilities for creating your brand, marketing yourself, starting a side venture and expanding your horizons. What’s best? They’re not even difficult to build! We have given you a look at the best personal website examples and some of the most professional and versatile personal website templates. All that is left for you is to take the leap and start building your very own personal website today!