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If you’re just starting your career or you’re trying to get more quality clients, building a five-star WordPress developer portfolio is one of the best things you can do. While big-time website development agencies can afford to pay for big adverts seen by 100,000s of people, you need to get a little more creative to get the word out about your business and top-notch skills as an individual.
Why Your WordPress Developer Portfolio Is Important
One of the easiest and most efficient ways to tell people about your business is to showcase your finest projects in one single location. When applying for projects or reaching out to potential new clients, you can direct them to your portfolio so they can see some examples of your work and understand how talented you are.
Whatever people are buying, today almost everyone does a little bit of online research before making a purchase. This is especially true when it comes to online services, such as WordPress development. So people know you exist and are available for work, it’s imperative you get your name out there and claim a bit of online space for yourself.
But you can’t simply put together a list of URLs for websites that you’ve developed. You need to craft a beautiful website that accurately represents your expertise and turns potential customers into raving fans who recommend you to everyone in their network. You can do that by following in the footsteps of the most popular devs and building a winning WordPress developer portfolio.
How To Build A Winning Portfolio
Convince clients you’re the best fit for their project by crafting a stunning portfolio. Use it to show off the work you’re most proud of and prove to them why they should pick you over all the other WordPress devs out there.
1. Show Off Your Best Work
If you’ve worked on a considerable number of projects, only include your best work. If you got into the industry years ago, it’s likely your recent work is much better than the work you started off doing.
Don’t worry if you’re brand new to website development. Put together some personal projects for yourself and add them to your WordPress developer portfolio. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t create the websites for paying clients. The people browsing your portfolio care about your talents and skills — not where your projects came from.
2. Choose Your Words Carefully
Don’t be tricked into letting your work speak for itself. Take the time to describe the most important parts of each project. Show off and tell potential clients about the custom features you added for past customers and how they improved the user experience. This is your time to show off — don’t be shy.
3. Be Clear About Your Services
Many people viewing your WordPress developer portfolio won’t have a thorough understanding of what it takes to build a website. Because of this, you need to be as clear as possible about exactly what you offer. Make sure everything that could be confusing is clearly explained using easy-to-follow language so no one gets taken advantage of.
4. Push Your USP
There are thousands of WordPress developers out there looking for new clients. Encourage anyone viewing your dev portfolio to pick you by highlighting your USP (Unique Selling Point). Tell them what sets you apart from all the other developers and what makes you the best choice for their project.
5. Have a Clear CTA
When building a WordPress developer portfolio it’s easy to forget your final goal. You’re not putting your portfolio together to massage your ego — you’re doing it to get more clients, more work, and more money. Include clear CTAs (Call To Actions) throughout your website to get the people browsing it to do what you want them to do. This could be to email you for more details, sign up for your newsletter, or fill out a form for a quote.
6. Add a Personal Touch
There’s a reason the person viewing your WordPress developer portfolio is considering an independent freelancer instead of a large agency. They want to work with a friendly individual instead of a potentially faceless corporation. Use this to your advantage and add a personal touch to your website.
Add a few jokes into your copy, write the way you speak, or add a couple of silly doodles. Show potential clients that you’re a friendly, relatable human being while still being a professional developer.
7. Include Testimonials
Just as reviews are a big deal for restaurants, hotels, and online stores, testimonials are incredibly important for freelancers. You’re unlikely to visit a restaurant that hasn’t got a single review. Unfortunately, a client is also unlikely to hire you if you haven’t got any testimonials, either.
If you haven’t got any past testimonials to include in your portfolio, reach out to previous clients and employees. See if they’ll provide a couple of sentences you can include on your website. If that gets you nowhere, consider sharing your work on WordPress dev forums and see if you can get some complimentary testimonials from other developers.
8. Make It Easy to Use
Not only are the websites included in your WordPress developer portfolio an example of your work, but the portfolio itself is also a chance to show off your skills. If it’s slow to load, difficult to use, or only available on some devices, potential clients are going to click away before they’ve even seen your best work. Make your profile as smooth, quick, and easy to use as possible to provide everyone browsing with a great experience.
9. Highlight Contact Information
As a website developer, you’ll know that people hate searching for information. Avoid angering clients before you’ve even spoken to them by making your contact information clear and easy to find. It doesn’t matter where you put it, as long as it’s easy to see and understand, you’ll get a lot more inquiries than if it’s hidden behind multiple clicks or taps.
Conclusion
Website development is a competitive industry and a stellar WordPress developer portfolio will help you stand out from the masses of other devs your client-to-be could choose. It doesn’t matter if you’ve worked on 100 projects before — if potential clients can’t see your work, they’re not going to hire you. It’s that simple.
While you’re waiting for more work, spend time crafting the best WordPress developer portfolio you can. Remember to include the nine points above and you’ll be well on your way to becoming such a big name in the industry that you’ll be turning down work.
WordPress Developer Portfolio FAQs:
Still not sure about the best way to create your WordPress developer portfolio? Here are some of the most common questions devs have when it comes to showcasing their work, along with the answers.
Q1. How do I make a portfolio for a WordPress developer?
If you’re a WordPress developer, you probably already know how to build your website from scratch. But maybe it’s been a while since you delved into the other sides of creating a website, such as domain names and hosting. Here’s a quick guide on the steps you need to take to set up your WordPress developer portfolio:
01. Register your domain name
02. Sign up with a reliable host
03. Install WordPress on your hosting
04. Install your WordPress theme
05. Choose and install your chosen WordPress plugins
06. Build your homepage
07. Add your best projects and work examples
08. Create a stellar ‘About Me’ page
09. Build and insert a contact form
10. Add additional content as needed
Q2. Is WordPress good for portfolios?
Yes! If you’re a WordPress developer, WordPress is definitely the best platform to use for your portfolio. It’s most likely the CMS you’re most comfortable using and it’s got every functionality you need to show potential clients your previous work and sell your services to them. It’s also budget-friendly, which is a huge plus if you’re just starting out.
WordPress is even a great portfolio for people who don’t know much about website development. The platform is intuitive and you can build a decent portfolio in just a few hours, thanks to premade templates, drag-and-drop themes and a lot of tips from the Wordpress community.
Q3. What is a WordPress portfolio?
A WordPress portfolio is a list of your previous work and projects hosted on a WordPress-backed website. Whatever industry you’re in — online or offline — if you’re looking to spread the word about your business and get more work, a WordPress portfolio is an excellent choice.
It’s a way to show potential clients the quality of your work and tell them about the services you offer. A WordPress portfolio is one of the best ways of promoting your skills and attracting new clients.
