Most portfolios are built to be admired. The good ones are built to filter. If your site is bringing you enquiries you do not want, it is doing its job perfectly. You have simply pointed it at the wrong target.
Before touching layout, decide what enquiry you want more of, and what you would happily never receive again. Every subsequent decision follows from that.
Lead with outcomes, not screenshots
Clients browse for pictures but they hire for outcomes. A case study that opens with the commercial problem and the measurable result will out-convert one that opens with a beautiful hero image every single time, even though the second one gets more saves on social.
Put the picture second. It will still be seen.
Publish your prices
The most effective filter I have ever added to a site is a pricing page. It costs you the enquiries that were never going to convert and it starts the remaining conversations several steps further along, with both sides already knowing the number is workable.
The objection is always that competitors will see it. They will, and they already ask their clients what you quoted.
Make it trivial to update
The best portfolio is the one that gets updated. If publishing a new project involves a CMS you have forgotten how to log into, it will not happen, and in two years your site will represent who you were.
Flat files and a git push. One file per project. It sounds austere and it is the only system I have seen people actually maintain.
If you take four things away
- Decide which enquiries you want before you design anything
- Open case studies with the problem and the result
- Publishing prices filters out the conversations that were never going to convert
- Optimise ruthlessly for how easy it is to publish an update
Get the next one when it lands.
Questions about anything in this piece? Email me directly.
Next: What a slow website actually costs you
