How to Build a Website

Upload your work.

A lot of people get stuck on this part, but when you’re building a portfolio website it’s important to spend just as much time curating your work as you spend designing your site. In the beginning, it’s a good idea to keep things simple: select no more than ten images to create your first gallery. You can go back later and add more as you further build out your website.

Display Your Best

When you’ve narrowed down your images, it’s time to make your first gallery. Select “Gallery” from the “Create New” tab in your Format dashboard and add your selections. You can also add captions to give more context or explain the story behind specific work.

Curate Your Images

It can be difficult to narrow your creative work down to just ten images, so it might be helpful to think of them as serving the same function as a movie trailer: you want to hook your audience in while also leaving them wanting more. Creating a clear, cohesive narrative with your work is a crucial step in building your website and it starts with curation.

Sometimes people struggle when they try to narrow down their work because they’re emotionally invested—creative work is often highly personal. One way to help detach from the process is to think about how someone who has never seen your work would make selections. You might also consider including anything you’ve received positive feedback or awards for in the past. Solicit feedback from someone you trust: ask for their opinion on which pieces to include and what to leave out.

Here are a few best practices when it comes to creating impactful galleries:

• Stick to no more than three images from a series. Showing a connection is great, but you don’t want things to get too repetitive.
• Don’t make the galleries too long. We suggest limiting any collection to 20 images, otherwise it makes the audience feel like they are endlessly scrolling. Why not make several different galleries instead?
• Consider the story you want to tell with your work and organize your content accordingly. Make sure there’s a clear narrative rather than random images throughout your site.

Customize your design.

Now that you’ve got a theme and you’ve edited the way your website flows, it’s time to have a bit of fun customizing things! With a simple website builder like Format, you don’t need a background in web design or experience coding to create your own website. In the “Design” tab of your dashboard, you can change up your theme, try out the different presets (color palettes) and tweak the overall look and aesthetic of your website.

You can also choose the font, change your logo dimensions, add your own logo, customize style details for things like text, footer, links, and headlines in your dashboard under “General.” Format also has custom typography you can choose from if you want to build a website that has a distinct look.

It’s important to make sure your website design aligns with your personal brand’s style. Keep the following questions in mind as you build your website.

• What types and styles of fonts are you attracted to? Which ones work with your brand?
• Which colors work (and which don’t) for your style?
• Do you need a custom logo, or will you use your name?
• How do different presets affect the design of your website?
• What websites do you consider among your favorites? What design elements do they have in common?

Add SEO.

One of the keys to online success when you build a website is to set up your site for SEO—search engine optimization. You can make a few tweaks behind the scenes to help search engines like Google find your site and list it properly.

When you use a website builder like Format, we take the mystery out of SEO and simplify it for you. In your dashboard, you’ll see prompts in both the general and page settings to add things like site titles, keywords, and meta descriptions, all of which help search engines more effectively crawl your website.

Connect your social accounts.

When building your website with Format, you can connect up to five social media accounts directly to your page. In the “Design” tab of your dashboard, simply select “Social” and add any of your professional or creative social network handles. It’s a good idea to make separate professional accounts rather than using your personal ones, especially with Facebook and Instagram. Prospective clients or people interested in following your creative work want to see your work, not your dinner or dog (as amazing as they might be). Including your LinkedIn account if you have one is great as it already has a professional focus.

Set up your online store.

Not every creator who builds a website wants to open a store, but with Format you have the option of e-commerce built right in. Unlike many online store options, you keep 100% of what you sell—no fees. Even if you don’t create physical products, there are still plenty of things you can offer: digital downloads, prints, workshops, bookings, e-books, or whatever else you can come up with. Simply click on the “Store” tab in your dashboard and you’re ready to start.

You’ve put in a lot of work! Now that you’ve used our simple website builder and curated your work, designed your site, and created a gallery (or two or more!), it’s time to share your work with the world. If you made it to the end of this and haven’t started to build your own website—what are you waiting for? It’s easy, and you can try it for free for two weeks to make sure it’s the right decision for you.