- I have 10 years of experience building responsive websites;
- I’m an Adobe certified expert;
- I’m proficient in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Sign #1: Business Has Been Slow
There are many reasons why business may be slow for you. What I’d suggest is taking a look at your Google Analytics account to get a sense for why.Do You Have Steady Traffic?
If the answer is “no”, then there’s an issue with visibility in search. You’ll need to address either your indexing issues or problems with SEO to fix the problem.Is Your Bounce Rate High (>90%) & Time on Page Low (< 10 seconds)?
There’s likely something wrong with loading speeds. Check your speed through PageSpeed Insights and Google will tell you how to repair the issue.Do You Have Traffic But Zero Leads?
Then the issue is most likely your portfolio. Even then, there are so many things that could be happening here. The work samples might be underwhelming, outdated, or not geared towards the audience you’re targeting. The copy might be too confusing or vague. Next steps might be unclear or inaccessible (like a broken contact form). Use Google Analytics to look at your Users Flow (under Audience > Users Flow):![Google Analytics Users Flow tool](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/googleanalytics-usersflow.png)
Sign #2: Business Has Been Extremely Busy
When you first built your portfolio website, you probably selected the best of the best to represent your body of work, right? But that was then. What about now? As business picks up, it’s easy to lose sight of your portfolio because you’re so busy tending to clients that need help. However, if you want to keep those numbers up, then you should make time to update your portfolio so it accurately reflects your best work up to the minute. Let me show you an example: This is 10up’s “Work” page as of May 2020:![10up agency's portfolio website in 2020](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/10up-2020-portfolio-website.png)
![10up agency's portfolio website in 2019](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/10up-2019-portfolio-website.png)
Sign #3: You Recently Acquired a New Skill
A portfolio should be a reflection of your current skill set. And what that translates to is showing off websites that align with current web design practices and ideals. It also means redesigning your website so that it accurately depicts what’s going on with web design today. Considering how quickly design trends come or go, this means you’ll need to update your portfolio site about once a year or so. It doesn’t need to be a major overhaul, but it should at least help you “sell” new clients on more modern designs and website features. For example: Client: My friend has a chatbot on her site and she said it’s been a big help in getting her more appointments. Is that something we can do?You: As a matter a fact, it is. And it’s something I’ve personally had a lot of success with. You would then show the prospect your portfolio site equipped with a chatbot. That said, you don’t need to litter your site with all the trendy new features. All you need is a portfolio site that reflects the very best in design today. The portfolio website for Kati Forner Design, for example, went under the knife to reflect this type of modernization of design: This was how the website looked in 2019:
![Kati Forner's portfolio website and introduction in 2019](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/katiforner-2019-website.png)
![Kati Forner Studio Words page in 2019](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/katiforner-2019-works.png)
![Kati Forner's portfolio website and introduction in 2020](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/katiforner-2020-website.png)
![katiforner-work-2020](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/katiforner-work-2020.png)
Sign #4: You Recently Switched Niches
For web designers that work on their own, it makes a lot of sense to niche down. By carving out a singular niche for yourself, it’s easier to find clients as you’re not having to sell yourself as a jack of all trades or to constantly be changing gears from job to job. Design agencies, on the other hand, may decide that it’s worth catering to various niches because they have the amount of capacity to do so. And that’s fine, too, so long as the resources and expertise are there. Regardless of which boat you find yourself in, a change in niche or an addition of a new one is not unheard of. When that happens, though, your portfolio website needs to reflect this change. Let’s look at the example of Gravitate Design. This was Gravitate's areas of expertise in 2016:![Gravitate studio's list of niches in 2016](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/gravitate-2016-niches.png)
- Medical
- Financial
- Creative
- E-commerce
- Non-Profit
- Construction
- B2B
- Start-Ups
![Gravitate studio list of niches 2020](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2020/05/gravitate-2020-niches.png)
- Medical
- Financial
- Travel/Tourism
- B2B
- e-Commerce
- Nonprofit
- Construction
- Legal
When In Doubt, Update Your Portfolio Website
I know it’s not easy finding the time to give your design business the love and attention it deserves. But your portfolio website is something you can’t afford to ignore. It’s the web designer’s version of a résumé and it’s an essential part of your marketing and sales strategy. Just keep in mind that a portfolio website is just like any other website. There’s no setting it and forgetting it. It needs to be updated so that it’s always the most accurate reflection of your body of work, skills, and area of expertise. Even if you take a few hours every year to look in on it and make sure the design, copy, and samples are up to snuff, that may be all you really need to do to maintain it.Suzanne Scacca
Suzanne Scacca is a freelance writer by day, specializing in web design, marketing, and technology topics. By night, she writes about, well, pretty much the same thing, only those stories are set under strange and sometimes horrific circumstances.
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