How to Build Your Portfolio Website with Notion? | No-code & Free (+ 10 best tips)

Whether you're a designer, artist, photographer, or any professional looking to display your projects, our Portfolio Website Notion Template can help you get started with your freelancing journey. Let’s dive in and see how we can build a no-code, completely free, aesthetic website in Notion!

Why build a portfolio website in Notion?

Notion allows you to create a professional and visually pleasing portfolio without the need for coding. Its features allow for a highly customizable space where you can showcase your best work, highlight your skills, and share important details about your career or your projects. A Notion portfolio website can be easily updated or modified according to your needs. Plus, you can incorporate various forms of content like text, images, and links, and even embed videos and other media. Lastly, Notion's collaborative features make it easy to share your portfolio with others, gather feedback, and make real-time updates.

Pros of building a website in Notion

• Friendly interface: Notion is excellent for creating simple websites due to its versatility and user-friendly interface, from company websites, blogs, personal resumes, and portfolios.

• Easy & no-code solution: A website can be built in seconds with Notion, without needing any coding skills. With Notion, there's no need for web developers and a website can be created without any coding.

• Publish pages yourself - All it takes to publish a page to the web is a single click. There's no need to worry about enlisting designers or engineers to build or expand your site. You can swiftly and effortlessly make any Notion page public. It will be accessible via a link you share, or even searchable through search engines.

Source: The Organized Notebook, 2024

Cons of building a website in Notion

• Limited customization: While Notion offers a high degree of flexibility in terms of layout and organization, it doesn't provide as much design customization as a dedicated web development platform. You may not be able to achieve the exact look and feel you want for your website.
• SEO limitations: Notion is not designed as a web development tool and thus, lacks some of the SEO features that a dedicated website builder or CMS would offer. This could potentially affect the visibility of your website in search engine results.
• Performance: Notion pages may not load as quickly as websites built with dedicated web development tools. This could impact user experience, especially for users with slower internet connections.

Want to learn more about how to build a website in Notion?

Check out Notion’s Official Guide

Build a website with Notion in seconds, no coding required

Building and publishing a simple website in Notion

Website Building Notion Templates

Publish anything, fast: The easiest way to get a website up and running

Tips to Build a Portfolio Website in Notion

Source: The Organized Notebook, 2024

Tip 1. Define Your Goals

Before you start building your portfolio website, it's important to define what you want to achieve with it. Are you looking to showcase your work, attract potential clients, or simply share your ideas? Your goals will guide the structure and content of your website.

Tip 2. Choose the right template

Notion, as a versatile tool, provides a diverse range of templates that can be utilized in accordance with your work and aesthetic preferences. Whether you're a student, a teacher, a writer, a project manager, or any other professional, there's a template designed to cater to your specific needs. You are free to pick the one that resonates best with your work style and aesthetic sense. The beauty of these templates lies in their flexibility. They are not rigid or confined but can be customized and modified as per your requirements. You can add or remove elements, change colors, adjust layouts, and more. In the end, you can tailor the template to fit your needs perfectly, making it a tool that truly works for you.

Tip 3. Highlight Your Best Work

Your portfolio should showcase your best work. Choose projects that demonstrate your skills and creativity. You can organize your work by categories or themes to make it easy for visitors to navigate.

Along with showcasing your work, provide context. Write brief descriptions for each project to explain the purpose, your role, and the results. This provides insights into your work process and problem-solving abilities.

Tip 4. Include Testimonials & Reviews

Whenever possible, try to include testimonials from either clients or colleagues. These testimonials are a vital component that can add a significant amount of credibility to your work. By including these, you're not just making a claim about your skills or services, but providing evidence to support it. These testimonials can provide a clear picture of what it's like to work with you, your work ethic, and the quality of the work you provide. They offer potential clients or partners a glimpse into the experience of working with you, which can be incredibly beneficial in their decision-making process.

Tip 5. Add a Personal Touch

We would recommend to include a comprehensive 'About Me' page on your platform. This page should contain detailed information about yourself, giving visitors an insight into who you are as an individual. Share your journey, the experiences that have shaped you, and the challenges you've overcome. Additionally, don't forget to mention your core values and beliefs. This might include what drives you, your passions, or the principles you adhere to in your daily life. Providing such in-depth information helps establish a personal connection with your visitors, making your platform more relatable and engaging.

Tip 6. Make Your Contact Information Easily Accessible

It is critical to ensure that your contact information is not only available but also easily accessible to visitors. One effective way to achieve this is by having a dedicated contact page. This page could include detailed contact information such as your email address, phone number, physical address, and even a contact form for visitors to reach out directly. Alternatively, you could also choose to include your contact details in the footer of every page. This way, no matter which page a visitor is on, they can always find how to get in touch with you without having to navigate away. Remember, the easier it is for people to contact you, the more likely they are to do so.

Tip 7. Keep your site updated

Consider your portfolio website as a living, breathing document. It should continuously grow and evolve as your professional journey progresses. Make a habit of regularly updating it with your latest projects and achievements. This could include any new skills you've acquired, milestones you've reached, or noteworthy tasks you've completed. Be sure to keep it fresh and up-to-date, reflecting your current capabilities and showcasing your ever-evolving talent and expertise.

Tip 8. Optimize for Mobile

Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is crucial. In today's digital age, many internet users access websites from their mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets. This trend is likely to continue as technology advances. Thus, it's vital that your website not only looks appealing but also functions well and offers a seamless user experience on all screen sizes. This enhances the user experience and can improve your site's search engine rankings. A mobile-friendly website is not just a luxury, but a necessity in this digital age.

Tip 9. Publishing & Sharing Your Portfolio Website

To share your portfolio website to the web, go to the top of the page to 'Share', then click 'Publish'. You can also change the domain in the settings to make it more personalized. Notion has recently revamped its publishing function and there are quite many useful features to leverage, including

• Site Customizations
• Search Engine Indexing
• Link Expiration
• Custom Domain

Site Customizations

With Notion Sites, you can easily adjust multiple elements of your website

• Website Theme: Light, Dark or Automatic by System
• Header: where you can select hide or display breadcrumbs, search button, duplicate template button, and Notion Watermark
• Navigation Bar: You can choose which page to display in the top bar
• Google Analytics: where you can track the Google performance statistics of your site; you will need to add your Google Analytics measurement ID and publish the changes.

Search engine indexing

You can turn on settings to have you be able to have your site discoverable on the web. You can set up your SEO Preview and description right here!

Custom Domain

Great news for all Notion users - you can now connect a custom domain to Notion. This feature is very useful for individuals wanting to publish an official landing page, as well as businesses or companies needing to swiftly make their information public.

To link an existing domain that you already own, an additional fee is required for this service. However, the Notion domain will continue to be free! Note that one workspace can connect to one unique domain.

If you select Notion's settings, you can find a section labeled "Sites". This section is dedicated to managing the sites or pages you have made public and published on the web through Notion. Here, you can adjust various settings for your published sites and connect to a new domain if you need.

Tip 10. Leverage Third-Party Embedded Widgets

In today's digital age, there are a multitude of third-party tools readily available that can significantly enhance the functionality of a website. These tools, ranging from analytics trackers to social media widgets, can provide additional features that improve not only user experience but also site performance and efficiency.

What's even more impressive is that these tools can be easily embedded into your webpage. This seamless integration of third-party tools into a website's design means that even those without extensive knowledge in coding can take advantage of these advanced features, making website creation and management a more accessible for everyone.

Check out some free widgets and tools to embed on Notion webpage: (Note some of the links in this page are affiliate links. If you click one of them it may help support us and our content)

How to Add Widgets to Notion (+10 best Widgets)

Senja.io - Collect testimonials & reviews from clients

Tally.so - Free Online Form Builder to collect respondents’ answers

Interested in having a Portfolio Website Template?

Whether you're a designer, artist, photographer, or any professional looking to display your projects, our Portfolio Website Notion Template can help you get started with your freelancing journey!

This template features a clean layout that allows you to organize your projects visually, with detailed sections for project descriptions, images, and relevant links. Additionally, it has space for client testimonials and contact information, making it not just a display of your work, but also a platform for potential clients to reach you. Optimized for seamless navigation, this template ensures your portfolio is always presented in the best light.