How to Create a Personal Website for Free? 8 Simple Steps

Table of contents

• 1. Purchase a domain name
• 2. Sign up with a content management system
• 3. Choose a web hosting provider
• 4. Create key pages for your personal website
• 1. Homepage
• 2. Contact page
• 3. About page
• 4. Monetization pages — portfolio, showcase, products, newsletter, course, etc.
• 5. Design your website to brand
• 6. Create content that enhances your personal brand
• 7. Optimize for search engines
• 8. Implement analytics and integrations
• Why use Super for building your personal website?
• 1. Simplify domain management
• 2. User-friendly CMS
• 4. Flexible design options
• 5. SEO and performance ready
• 6. Easy analytics and integrations
• Benefits of having a personal website
• 1. Builds your personal brand
• 2. Establishes credibility
• 3. Showcases your expertise
• 4. Offers complete control
• 5. Acts as a content hub
• 6. Improves discoverability
• 7. Creates networking opportunities
• 8. Supports monetization
• 9. Adapts to your growth
• 10. Stands out in competitive markets

Planning to start a side-hustle?

Already have a freelance career but want to set up a pivot for all digital assets?

Or simply have something to share, maybe your life or learning from your profession?

A personal site could help build your personal brand, build trust, and expand your audience base. It's a space you own and have complete control over acts like the online version of you, showcasing your expertise and personality, and selling your services. It's a great strategic asset for those who want to establish themselves as a thought leader.

And if you already have a website for your professional endeavours, your personal site could be a great supplement to it. When users visit your website and see your name in the 'About' section, they might want to look you up before considering working with you. A personal site could be a catalyst - it could show the human side of your business, inspiring people to reach out and establish professional relationships.

This guide provides a step-by-step approach to building a personal website that is not just on brand but also technically sound and trustworthy. Let's get started.

Let's get started.

Here’s the stepwise process to creating a personal website:

1. Purchase a domain name

Your custom domain name is what you are recognized with in the online space.

The closer this identity is to your in-person identity, the easier you are to be found by people. For example, you, Jon Doe, wrote a thought leadership post on LinkedIn demonstrating your expertise. Anyone who looks at the post and resonates with it, might type your name in the Google search bar with hopes of learning more about you.

The first thing you ideally want them to see is your website because it is what represents you to the tee. Sure that podcast and that guest post look great on the first page, but what you need to sell first is your personality and brand.

And that’s why your name makes the perfect domain name.

However, if your name is too common, there’s a chance that it’s already taken. In that case, you might want to add more qualifiers that could help with SEO. For instance, if jondoe.com is not available, you might want to add your service in and check for availability.

jondoedesigns.com for example, could be available.

We have covered more tips for choosing the right domain name over here. But we’ll briefly cover the most important one in this guide — consider purchasing a domain with a .com extension. This is really important for better discoverability and click-through-rates.

People trust non-country domains like .com, .co, .ai etc., but .com takes the cake because of familiarity. A country-specific domain extension like .co.uk, .in, etc. might dissuade people from reaching out due to subconscious bias.

2. Sign up with a content management system

A content management system (CMS) is where you can store, organize, and retrieve content. It could be your text assets like blog posts and landing pages, images, videos, etc. Every content asset that you see on your favorite website is managed through a CMS.

But not all CMS are built alike, each has a different ‘feel’ to them. They cater to different marketing channels, monetization methods, and design needs. And thus, even the popular CMS’ might not be the right fit for you. WordPress, for example, is amazing for large, bulky websites, but for a personal site… not really.

You need a light, easy-to-use CMS because a personal site usually contains few pages. A friendly and powerful no-code website builder like Super might be exactly what you need. It simplifies your go-to-market and helps you stay nimble with your Notion personal site.

3. Choose a web hosting provider

Managing content is easy with a CMS but even your CMS needs someplace to store your assets. And that’s where a reliable web hosting provider comes into the picture. You need a web hosting service to make your website accessible on the internet by connecting it with your domain name.

Furthermore, a good web hosting platform provides security and reliability to your website, ensuring it functions without a glitch and remains protected. They provide SSL certificates for encrypting data transmission which safeguards sensitive information like user credentials and payment details. It’s such an important SEO feature that domains without an SSL certificate — an https:// prefix, instead of http:// are usually not indexed by Google.

A good host also provides better uptime. You probably noticed 5xx errors on some websites — that occurs because the host is unable to access the server to retrieve your content. This happens when the host fails at its job.

A web host also supports regular backups, ensuring your data is not lost in case of unexpected issues. It could also include email hosting, which is a good value-add if you want to build your personal brand with newsletters in addition to your personal website.

4. Create key pages for your personal website

You can have hundreds of thousands of pages and articles on your personal site depending on factors such as the purpose of the site, monetization method used, etc. However, we will talk only about the key pages, those that make it to your website’s navigation bar, and potentially make you money — if that’s the purpose of your personal site.

1. Homepage

Your homepage is the first thing people see when they search for your domain name and so it carries a lot of responsibility.

It must leave a strong impression on visitors and sell your brand at first glance. It must also gently guide people to the pages that you want them to visit by clearly spelling out value propositions.

With so much riding on it, strive to make your homepage the perfect blend of design and information.

Write a crisp copy.

Choose colors and fonts that go with your brand and offering.

But most importantly, provide just enough value to keep people on your domain and explore other pages. Don't try to cram everything into the homepage. Instead, use it as an entry point for visitors who would eventually go to more important and informative pages.

There is a good chance that people visit your homepage by typing in your domain name in the address bar or looking you up on Google. So they first need confirmation that the site they visited is yours. And thus, it might be worth adding a short bio in the homepage — and also a few photos of yourself.

Once they are like, “Yep, this is the same person I saw on LinkedIn”, they would be in a better place to explore more pages of your personal site.

Example of a personal website homepage

Roxana from notionflow.com built a solid personal website homepage that looks beautiful and sells the services well.

With the perfect color scheme and font play, it keeps readers engaged. It displays a tiny circular window with Roxana speaking about her services, adding a personal element.

Furthermore, the homepage has neat images and a relevant badge that builds trust with visitors. And with CTA buttons, the homepage guides them to her contact page which is essentially a Calendly where people can book a slot.

Here’s a study on her approach to creating her personal website.

2. Contact page

For personal websites selling services, the Contact page is the most important ‘Money’ page. All other pages should directly or indirectly link to it.

While it’s common to use Calendly as the contact page, it might come across impersonal — you let go of a great opportunity to nudge visitors to contact you. You could, for example, add more testimonials, photos of yourself, or even a video speaking about your services and customer experience.

It’s a great place to build social proof.

And of course, the page should have some way to contact you — a form, links to social handles, email, etc.

3. About page

Don’t be surprised if a big chunk of homepage visitors find their way to the ‘About’ page. That’s the purpose of your personal site — having a hub where people get to learn more about you, as a business prospect and a person. So make sure you share ample information about yourself and your business to build a strong personal brand and encourage visitors to avail your services.

4. Monetization pages — portfolio, showcase, products, newsletter, course, etc.

Depending upon the purpose of your website, you would need to create additional ‘money’ pages. For example, if you are a developer who is planning to sell tools and calculators through your personal site, it’s worth creating a sales page instead of directly leading people to Gumroad or similar tools. You could create a showcase page to present your free tools as well.

If you are a content writer, a portfolio could help visitors decide if your writing style, tone, and experience aligns with what they are looking for.

On another note, if you already have your portfolio on Notion, by connecting it with Super you can enhance your brand and design beyond what Notion has to offer. You can even add custom code to make your portfolio truly stand out from the crowd.

While these four categories are mandatory for most personal sites, you can go on to create many other pages like blogs, compliance, etc.

5. Design your website to brand

Imagine your personal website as a 24x7, online version of yourself. How would you like to be seen? What’s your personality? What’s the first impression you hope to leave?

The answers to those questions will determine your brand which should reflect from your website. You must decide your font style and size, what color makes your logo and become a part of your brand palette, what your navbar and footer contain and what they look like, etc.

And that’s not it. There are many intricate details you could consider like what your CTA buttons look like, how thick is their border, how blurred is their shadow, and what happens when people hover over it.

And of course, you need a CMS that supports these deep features. Your chosen CMS should provide customizable personal site templates to get you started right away. This way, you won’t have to build your site from scratch.

6. Create content that enhances your personal brand

By creating a professional and aesthetic personal website, you have set up the infrastructure for crafting content that resonates with a specific set of audience.

Build content that truly sells your brand and puts you forth as a trustworthy, and experienced professional. Use your personal website as a hub for all content activities. You could create on social media, YouTube, or even external blog platforms like Medium, but every asset leads people to your personal site because that’s where they learn more about you and what you offer.

Always keep your brand in consideration while crafting content. Try to align content with your brand color palette, tone, and vibe. Doing that is important to build familiarity with your business. When people notice the same brand personality across all platforms, they are more likely to associate you with it.

7. Optimize for search engines

We briefly covered some marketing channels in the previous section but deliberately we skipped one - SEO, because it is super-important and deserves a section of its own.

Search Engine Optimization is one of the most efficient methods of reaching the right audience. People go to Google when they want to search for anything. So when they look for the services you provide or products you sell, your personal site must appear on the first page.

While you could optimize your content for better positions on Google on any CMS, you need a technically sound platform to ensure that your backend is primed for SEO. For example, your pages must load fast, code must be light, and features like lazy-loading must be available.

Your CMS must also make SEO easy by enabling easy update of meta tags, auto-generating site-map, and being responsive on all screen-sizes. Most of the mentioned capabilities are key ranking factors. They are key signals to search engines like Google about the quality and performance of your site.

8. Implement analytics and integrations

With so much effort invested into your personal site, it’s only reasonable that you track what people do after visiting it. Analytics offer valuable insights into visitor interactions, enabling data-driven decisions to enhance your site's effectiveness.

For example, Google Analytics is a cornerstone tool, providing detailed insights into visitor behavior, demographics, and engagement. It reveals key metrics like page popularity, session duration, and navigation paths, enabling you to refine your content strategy based on audience preferences.

The tools you integrate your site with depend on your preferred monetization methods. For email marketing, for example, platforms like MailChimp go beyond sending emails. They track open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber growth, offering segmentation and A/B testing for optimizing communication strategies.

User behavior tools like Hotjar provide visual insights into site interactions. Heatmaps, scroll depth analysis, and session recordings help identify user experience improvements that traditional analytics might miss.

And if you want to monetize your personal site through Ads, integrating with platforms like Google AdSense, Mediavine, and Media.net not only generate ad revenue but also offer performance metrics to optimize your strategy.

A robust content ecosystem further supports success. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs aid keyword research, Notion manages editorial calendars, Grammarly ensures writing quality, and Buffer streamlines social media scheduling.

The list of tools you could integrate is endless, and all of them require you to add a tracking code to the site’s header, making it necessary to choose a CMS that allows you to edit the custom code.

Why use Super for building your personal website?

Super makes the process of building a personal website effortless by combining ease of use, powerful features, and seamless integration with Notion, allowing you to create a professional and personalized website that truly represents you.

Here are some reasons to choose Super to build a personal website:

1. Simplify domain management

With Super, connecting your personal domain becomes possible. A strong domain name, ideally reflecting your identity or service, ensures discoverability and sets the stage for your personal brand. Super simplifies domain setup, so you can focus on building your online presence.

2. User-friendly CMS

Super’s no-code website builder integrates with Notion, making it a perfect choice for personal websites. Unlike heavier CMS platforms, Super offers a lightweight, intuitive experience. It’s designed for ease of use, helping you launch a professional-looking site without hassle, often in just a few minutes.

4. Flexible design options

Super provides customizable templates to align your website’s design with your personal brand. From font styles to color palettes, Super ensures that your site reflects your personality while being visually engaging and professional.

5. SEO and performance ready

Optimizing your website for search engines is simple with Super. It supports features like fast-loading pages, responsive design, and easy meta tag updates, ensuring your site performs well in search rankings and offers a great user experience.

6. Easy analytics and integrations

Super allows seamless integration of analytics tools like Google Analytics and marketing platforms like MailChimp. These integrations enable you to track visitor behavior and fine-tune your site for better engagement and monetization opportunities.

Benefits of having a personal website

1. Builds your personal brand

Your website serves as the foundation of your personal brand. It gives you a place to express your values, personality, and unique strengths in a way that is consistent and professional.

Through design elements, copy, and content, you can shape the narrative around who you are and how you want to be perceived. A personal website is an ideal space to define what sets you apart from others in your industry.

It allows you to present yourself authentically, whether through blog posts that reflect your insights, testimonials from clients that highlight your work ethic, or content that showcases your personality. A strong personal brand helps differentiate you from competitors and makes a lasting impression on your audience.

2. Establishes credibility

A personal website is one of the most effective ways to establish your professional credibility. It acts as a digital portfolio, offering a space where you can present your work, skills, and experiences in a polished and cohesive manner.

Unlike social media profiles, which are often informal and not always perceived as professional, a well-designed website demonstrates that you’re serious about your career. It sends a clear message that you’re committed to presenting yourself in a professional light, which can help you stand out in a competitive industry.

Moreover, having your own site shows that you’ve invested time and resources into building your personal brand, which increases trust among potential clients or employers.

3. Showcases your expertise

Your website provides the perfect platform to showcase your skills and expertise. Whether through a portfolio of your work, detailed case studies, or in-depth blog posts, your website allows you to demonstrate your value to potential clients, collaborators, or employers.

This gives you the opportunity to control how your work is presented and ensure that your most impressive accomplishments are front and center. By consistently sharing your knowledge, whether through articles, videos, or other forms of content, you build authority in your field. This not only attracts more attention but also helps position you as a go-to expert in your niche, making it easier to earn the trust and business of your target audience.

4. Offers complete control

One of the biggest advantages of having your own website is the complete control it gives you over your online presence. Social media platforms are constantly changing their algorithms, terms of service, and features, meaning you might not always have the same level of control over how your content is displayed or who sees it.

With a personal website, you own your space, and you decide everything from the design to the messaging. You can make updates, refine your content, and tweak your branding whenever you want, without relying on third-party platforms that can limit your visibility or reach.

5. Acts as a content hub

Instead of scattering your content across multiple platforms, a personal website consolidates everything in one place. This makes it easier for your audience to access everything you’ve created and helps reinforce your personal brand.

By organizing your content effectively, you ensure that visitors can easily navigate through your work and engage with it in a meaningful way. Additionally, having a content hub allows you to provide value to your audience consistently, making your website an essential resource for anyone interested in your expertise.

6. Improves discoverability

Having a website that is optimized for search engines makes it easier for people to find you online. Through search engine optimization (SEO), you can ensure that when someone searches for your name or your area of expertise, your website appears prominently in search results.

This is especially important as it allows you to take advantage of organic traffic, meaning you don’t need to rely solely on paid advertising or social media algorithms to reach your audience. SEO helps you build a strong online presence over time, ensuring that your website continues to draw traffic, even as you add more content or update your site with fresh information.

7. Creates networking opportunities

A personal website isn’t just a place for showcasing your work; it’s also an effective tool for networking. By adding a contact form, including your professional links, or offering a “Work With Me” page, you create a direct pathway for potential clients, collaborators, and employers to get in touch with you.

The visibility that comes with a website increases the likelihood of valuable professional connections. Whether it's a client reaching out to inquire about your services or a fellow industry professional offering a collaboration, your website serves as a bridge to new opportunities.

8. Supports monetization

For many people, a personal website becomes a key tool for monetizing their expertise. Whether you’re selling digital products, offering consultations, or providing services, your website is the central hub for these activities.

By setting up an online shop, offering downloadable resources, or providing a booking system for your services, your website becomes a revenue-generating platform.

9. Adapts to your growth

As you evolve in your career, your website should grow with you. It’s a dynamic platform that can easily adapt to reflect your changing goals, accomplishments, and skills. Whether you’re expanding your services, launching new projects, or adding new content, your website allows you to incorporate these changes seamlessly.

The flexibility of a personal website ensures that it remains relevant as your career progresses, allowing you to showcase the most up-to-date information about yourself and your work.

10. Stands out in competitive markets

In today’s digital world, having a personal website sets you apart from those who rely only on social media profiles or third-party platforms to represent themselves. A well-designed, content-rich website signals that you are serious about your career and have invested in building a professional online presence.

It also shows that you’re capable of managing and presenting yourself effectively in the digital space. In a crowded market, a personal website helps you differentiate yourself from the competition and positions you as a professional who understands the value of a strong online presence.

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