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Do you really need a personal website?

We get asked this question often. Making a personal website for yourself, business, services or company is the new way to showcase your resume, portfolio. It is also a good way to sell your achievements or success stories. This is simply because a personal website is a more acceptable and professional format of showcasing your personality and skills.

Building trust with personal websites
A personal website is necessary for people to trust you or want to do business with you. In fact, having a website may determine whether you will be hired for a job, internship, fellowship and scholarships. For those contemplating on the question, my answer is this, “Yes, you do need a personal website for a number of reasons”. I will explain the reasons and how to go about creating one.

Many employers are bombarded with CVs and resumes from potential employees. Although these employers have basic information about the candidates, they want more information . Google has proved to be a useful tool in this regard as it displays search results for any given name. Trust me, negative or positive results help employers to make decisions about the candidate in question.

What do people see when they do a search for your name on Google? There was a report of a graduate who created a website and got hired instantly because he stood out from job seekers contending for the same position. As a result of building a personal website, he got the job.

Promote your portfolio
Having a website gives you the opportunity to promote your portfolio and showcase your expertise. When people search for your name on Google, with proper Search Engine Optimisation, your name should come up among the first few results. Those considering you for a position or work seem to believe you are more “serious” for having a personal website.

Personal website helps you connect with the rest of the world
Another great benefit of creating one is the opportunity it gives you to connect to the rest of the world. Popular IT expert, Gbenga Sesan, mentioned how his personal website popped up when someone was doing a Google search for IT and youths in Nigeria and how he got an all-expense paid trip abroad—just because he has a portfolio on the web. A personal website makes you discoverable by people across the world.

I assume that you have a product or service that you sell. All business brands and founders need a personal website to grow their businesses and attract more customers. Some experts also believe that having an online portfolio in the form of website gives you good brand integrity and access to many customers beyond your circle of influence.

Good tool for social influence
Another important factor is that it is also a good tool for social Influence and opportunity to add value to people. With your personal website, you can share insight, knowledge and information in your area of expertise. The more knowledgeable you are in your field of interest, the more influential you are as people learn to trust you more based on the contents you churn out.

Personal website or social media?
There has been an argument about whether social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin can take the place of personal websites. The answer is very simple. One needs to use both platforms. My take is to use social media platforms and also have a website because billions of searches take place on Google daily.

For instance, according to SEO tribunal, “Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day. That’s the average figure of how many people use Google a day, which translates into at least 2 trillion searches per year, 3.8 million searches per minute, 228 million searches per hour, and 5.6 billion searches per day.” Having a website is a good way to position yourself or business for this unique opportunity by having a personal website.

How to make a personal website
This has been made easy with WordPress and good hosting service like Bluehost which I highly recommend because we can attest to the quality of their service. To build one, you will need a domain name, a hosting plan like bluehost and a simple wordpress theme. You can start with a simple wordpress theme and buy a more sophisticated theme later.

The best way is to get a domain name. For example, if your name is David John, you can buy a domain name and use a service like Bluehost to host it. You can get free website templates from WordPress. We can do this for you at cheap prices. Contact us today.