Perfect for Complete Beginners
Wix is one of the best websites for increasing traffic to your site.
It is easy to use as it is a website builder; hence, most technical issues are handled on your behalf.
Since launching in 2006, the site has fast become a leading website builder that allows you to create an impressive website without coding, which makes it one of the preferred options for beginners.
To achieve a functional and attractive portfolio website, you just have to follow a series of instructions to set up the basics.
Wix Features and Benefits
- With Wix, you can stay up-to-date with new trends without coding skills.
- Whether you are a Whiz kid (an expert) or someone who only knows the basics, Wix is considerably easy to navigate for everyone.
- You can either use the Wix Editor or Wix ADI to design your website.
- The Wix editor utilizes a drag-and-drop feature to reposition and move anything about on the site.
- The Wix ADI designs your site based on the answers you provide to a few questions. However, you can always make edits to the design.
- Wix can be tailored to meet your particular needs.
- For example, it is ideal for business, blogging, e-commerce, and personal websites.
- All the templates are impressive, and there are more than 500 to select from.
- The templates are ideal for creating professional portfolios since all you need to do is find a design you can work with.
- The templates are grouped into types and are mobile responsive.
- You can design your website to adjust and fit mobile phones and other screen types.
- It also lets you rank high with its google search engine optimization (SEO).
- SEO can be challenging to get right, especially for beginners.
- Wix offers built-in SEO tools that allow you to edit meta descriptions, titles and customize your description.
Steps to Build a Portfolio With Wix
Step 1- Sign Up With Wix
Signing up on Wix is the most straightforward stage to complete, as the process is relatively simple.
When you open the homepage, click on ‘Get Started’ and follow the instructions to sign up.
You can either register with your email address, Facebook account, or Gmail.
After this, Wix will ask a couple of questions about how you want to create your site.
Like we mentioned above, you can either use the Wix Editor or Wix ADI to create your portfolio website. You can also look through the pricing plan above for a guide on what plan to pick.
Step 2 – Work on Your Template And Design
After signing up, the next step is to choose your Wix template.
Select the Create a New Site function at the top right corner of your dashboard via the drop-down menu.
Wix will ask for the type of website you wish to build and show relevant templates based on your selection. However, as far as templates are concerned, you don’t need to bother about ever running out of them.
Scroll through the templates to find the ones that match your style. We recommend you view the demos of each until you choose a final template, this will give you inspiration in order to choose a good design.
The reason is that once you choose the template, you cannot change it. Hence, you must be satisfied with whatever template you select.
You might happen to find it difficult navigating through your way on the editing of your website template, Wix already provided a short video clip that you can watch.
Step 3 – Insert the Right Content in the Right Places
You have done well so far; keep going.
After choosing your template, you will be taken to another page to preview the chosen template. At this point, you can play around with the different editing features to add texts and designs in the boxes.
Since the templates are existent, you only need to click on the details you would like to update and rewrite them. For example, you can add your portfolio and other details by editing an existing sample. You can also adjust and customize the color, typeface, font size, and other cool extras.
In case your chosen template comes with images, you can change it into what you want. As we explained above, Wix allows you to design a site and makes it your own.
However, if you don’t like something, you can switch it out for something more interesting. Remember, there are different templates that you can choose from.
Step 4 – Decide a Befitting Layout With a Hierarchy
Your background will affect how your website speaks back to you. Therefore, you should consider changing the background template if you don’t like it.
A huge plus is adding a video to the background to generate more interest. There are toolbars on either side of the screen that you can use to customize your background. Once you’ve stirred changes here and there, you can settle for a final background look.
After this, add a few pages that will include everything your visitors want. For example, you can add a “Contact Us” or “About Us” page.
To add any page, click on Site Menu and Manages Pages. Like you did with the pages, you can also add images to your site. However, if you want, you can leave it bare.
You can wander through the different apps on the system to pick the one you want. Each app features a thumbnail preview that tells you the price of each and both.
The big idea behind this step is to add as many features as you want to customize your site and make it look presentable.
Step 5 – Choose a Hosting Plan
We already gave a breakdown of the different hosting plans in the Wix section; you can refer to it for reference.
Nonetheless, a few pointers you can use; the type of hosting plan you choose will be affected by the bandwidth and storage. Extra bandwidth allows visitors to download and stream your content. Buying more storage options also lets you store images, videos, music, and other files.
Step 6 – Pick a Name to Project Your Brand
It is essential to choose a name that expresses your business without looking too far. Not just this, the name should be precise and appeal to people’s attention. Besides, your name is another thing your clients and potential clients will attach to you more than the brand.
An idea is this, use a short name that is easy to pronounce but reflects your value as a brand. It must also be catchy and easy to spell.
If you have difficulty picking a name for yourself, try the business name generator.
To use the name generator, you will be required to fill a blank field and industry. The system automatically generates an exhaustive list of names that are available for pickup.
If you flip through the list without finding any that suits your taste, you might resort to creating one yourself.
Step 7 – Create a Domain Name That Matches Your Brand
Your business name is different from your domain name.
The domain name is your website’s address that is displayed in the browser. With that, before any visitor can access your website, it must have a domain name.
As you did with your business name, you must also choose a professional, concise, and easy-to-type name.
The domain name makes your brand look professional and credible.
It also makes your site easy to search for and contributes to search engine optimization.
We recommend that you stick to alphabetical letters and only include appropriate keywords.
You should also let it reflect your brand, but it should be such that it won’t stir legal troubles. Search to know if the name is available to avoid conflict.
The final choice step is to check for the appropriate extension.
After choosing and approving a domain name, you need to buy and register it before using it. Do note, though; you need to renew the domain after a specified or agreed period. Don’t worry; you will be notified before it expires.
Step 8 – Incorporate Professional Email Address and Logo Designs
A business or professional email is another feature that lends credibility to your website. It is a personalized address that allows potential clients to communicate with you.
A custom email address adds strength to your brand and improves your general perception. Therefore, when clients reach out to you, they are rest assured that you are not a fraud.
Another symbol of credibility and authenticity is your logo.
Unlike the name, it conveys a subtle yet emphatic statement of vision and values. Since people relate more to graphics and images, you can pass messages without long notes.
By implication, the logo must be designed to make a strong impression and grab attention. It must also set you apart from your competitors.
Although, you can come up with one by yourself or hire a professional graphics designer preferably on a freelancing platform like upwork or fiverr to help you out. But if not, you can use the Logo Maker feature of Wix to make one.
Like the name generator, click on Create a Logo and answer a few questions to customize your logo.
Step 9 – Make the Most Out of Your Portfolio With SEO
Search engine optimization is crucial to your online discovery; hence, you want your website to be as optimized as possible.
On your homepage, click on the menus and select a portfolio. Point at the ellipses and wait till it brings up the right panel setting that lists SEO.
After this, click to permit to influence your SEO for astounding discovery.
When someone searches for you on Google, it displays your sites’ basic descriptions. Since you can edit them anytime, you can customize the search result to include what you want it to reflect.
Step 10 – Optimize Your Design Ffor Different Browsers
Improve your site and customize its appearance so it looks good on a mobile browser.
Since most people search with their mobile phones, it will help if your site can be accessed via smartphones.
Hover your mouse atop the desktop screen and locate the mobile icon. It tells you to edit your site for a phone screen; it is hard to miss.
More often than not, Wix would have improved the mobile site view on your behalf. However, you should still check it for improvements.
Not to worry, changes to the mobile version won’t affect the other version.
Step 11 – Work on Your Feedback
It will help if you put a form in place for feedback and testimonials since it is the only way to know whether visitors like your site or not. Hence, look for features that let you add a feedback channel and add them.
Step 12 – Publish Your Portfolio Site
After a thorough edit, you are good to go live.
However, we recommend you preview your site before going live.
Use the button at the top right corner to check for mistakes and excesses.
If you are satisfied, click on publish.
You can monitor your success with analytics to gain insight into managing and growing your business with google analytics.
Conclusion
Wix is a platform that allows you to create your portfolio website while optimized for mobile devices and web pages that are displayed correctly from any web browser.
If you put your mind to it and learn about it, you can achieve excellent results without any web development knowledge.
Dare to create your website, and you will see how your career or business benefits.