A Top Webflow Agency Owner Roasts My Portfolio Website - 9 Most Important Pieces Of Advice

The more portfolio’s I see, the more I realise that my portfolio is not as good as it could be. I know that (almost) everyone feels that their portfolio website is lacking in some way. Especially after seeing the quality of some portfolios out there in the Webflow community (check some out here). I’ve spoken to other freelancers and it seems that only a few weeks after finishing a portfolio website, Webflowers want to re-do it all over again.

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I finished my portfolio website last year and, since then, a lot has changed for me and I haven’t touched it in a while. Getting clients hasn’t been such a priority for me since retainer work and webflail sponsorships have sustained me. However, I want to improve the portfolio website since some projects are coming to an end in the next 2 months.

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Before working on my portfolio in a silo, I asked a top webflow agency owner to roast it.

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Why Share This Publicly?

I want you to have a shit hot portfolio. If you can learn from my mistakes to improve your own portfolio, then great! But note - if you read this article and learn from it but don’t implement any changes then nothing will change for you. Take action if you think this information will help you!

Alright - let’s get in to the roast dinner.

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9 Bits Of Feedback On My Portfolio

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1. Niche

Your copy doesn’t explain why I should hire you over other people clearly enough. Your portfolio work is filled with quite random projects. If I was a company in a specific industry that wanted to work with an freelancer to rebuild my site, it’s not clear enough why I should chose you right now. Your portfolio is actually better to get hired by agencies because it is quite general but if you want to be hired by individual clients, it could be improved by 3 portfolio pieces all in the same industry with great case studies than 10 random builds.

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2. Above the Fold

From when I land on your website, you fail the grunt test. This is:

1. What do you offer?
2. How will it make my life better?
3. What do I need to do to buy it?

You have tried too hard to make something aesthetically pleasing and quirky as the user, apart from what you do, I don't know how it will make my life better or what action I need to take to buy it.

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Great, I know what you look like from the image but how does that help me?

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3. Header Tags

Agency owners and clients don’t just want Webflowers to build Webflow websites. They want Webflow websites that are built with on page SEO in mind. Having your header titles - h1, h2, h3 etc in order is crucial but also the h1 is important for search. Think more carefully about header titles throughout the site.

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4. CTA Request A Website Review

Requesting a website review with a 10 question form as the main CTA is not going to have a lot of engagement. Why? Because it’s too intense for someone landing on your website for the first time. That’s like asking someone to get married before asking them on a date. People may want to contact you so make it easy for them to contact you rather than filling out a form.

Also, if you say you are good at marketing, why not have some kind of high value lead magnet that captures their emails and you can follow up with them after they come on the site?

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5. Articles

Your most recent article is April 13th 2021…

Keep these updated ideally to show to clients you are active and engaged. Also, this can be used to re-engage with past clients to send them helpful articles to maintain or improve their websites potentially.

Also, bottom of articles, explain what you can do for them. Need a CTA.

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6. Show Social Proof

Great, you have some testimonials on the site. You have more projects than testimonials though. Get more testimonials and sprinkle them throughout your site. Can you get video testimonials? But what agencies have you worked for? What articles have you been in? What podcasts have you been on? Plenty more to be done here.

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7. Agency work mixed in with personal work

Currently just links out to the websites. If that’s all your work, tell us. If you only did the design, tell us who did the dev. If you only did the build, tell us who did the design. The clearer you are about what your involvement is in projects the clearer a client can identify whether they want to work with YOU.

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8. Case Studies

What are the results of working with you for your clients? What are the biggest client wins? What actual data can you back up what you say? Clients want business wins from working with you. Increases in traffic and conversions, more sales, better reputation, integrated systems, easier team control of the website. Numbers, facts, figures should all go in to a case study which explains what the goal was, how you achieved it and the results. Pictures, good presentation and clear results will help win you clients.

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9. Animations

As the website loads, there’s a slight glitch in the pre-loader before the home-screen pops up. Although this is minor, the first impression isn’t great. Too many webflowers rely too heavily on animations and this can impact the user experience of the site - it will slow it down and potentially cause people to have an epileptic fit. It’s also not great for accessibility scores if done poorly. If the animations adds to the user experience or is part of the storytelling of a website, it’s useful for it to to be there. If not, it’s not always necessary.

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Anything I missed? Roast my portfolio and send me a video.

Also, I recommend roasting your own portfolio. Look at it with a critical eye and ask others to do the same!