Design your portfolio with Google Sites; it’s FREE and built to rank well!

And, use these 5 proven tools to help your site stand out.

As a new designer you want to get up and running as soon as possible to be able to get that job or land clients, and Google can help you do just that. By combining Google Sites with some of their other tools, like Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Optimize, Data Studio, and Surveys, you can quickly compete with more experienced designers.

You’ve learned a lot, and I know it’s hard to reign in all of the new ideas swimming around in your head and focus them into a compelling portfolio full of your best work, but that’s where Google Sites can help. Use their templates and section builders to design a great portfolio that reflects your personality and shows off your case studies.

Previously, I promoted Webflow to build your portfolio site, but I’m beginning to rethink that logic. Webflow is an awesome site builder and fun to learn and use, but for someone like me, who tends to get lost in the possibilities, a more restrictive tool like Google Sites is helpful and has made my portfolio more cohesive. And, again, it’s FREE!

After watching a few micro-tutorials on YouTube about Google Sites, I was up and running with a site that came together easily.

We all want our sites to rank well on Google, so it makes sense to use their site builder and tools to drive traffic. When you use their templates, all of your pages will automatically be flawlessly responsive. Their engineers have worked out the kinks so you can trust that your design won’t break from one device to another.

Analytics

Keeping your end user in mind is the most important part of a UX or web designer’s job, and Google makes that a snap with Analytics. Once you have your site up and running, use Google Analytics to understand how people are engaging with your site. You’ll easily be able to see when you need to make changes, and it includes machine learning to get predictive insights.

If you are designing as a freelancer or starting your own business, you can connect analytics with some of Google’s other resources, like Google Ads, Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360, Google Cloud, and Google Search Console, to level up your site’s marketing proficiency.

Tag Manager

Track the activity happening on your site with Tag Manager. Google lets you manage all the tags you use, together with any third-party tags you’re using, and offers several easy ways to deploy them exactly where and when you need them. They allow you to control when they are triggered, and always take into account a user’s cookie consent choices.

To get started quickly, use a tag template created by the community in the Tag Manager Template Gallery. Just customize and add to your site.

Optimize

Use Optimize to test how different versions of your site are engaging your users.

Because it was built on and works along with Analytics, you’ll get superior insights through A/B testing, Multi-variate testing where you test specific elements in different combinations, Split URL testing where you’ll test different landing pages, and personalization for different types of users. The visual editor makes it easy for you to customize and understand the analytics you receive.

Data Studio

Once you’ve used these tools from Google to find the insights you need to improve your website, or specific parts of your site, use Data Studio to present the findings in useful graphs or charts that make it easy to visualize solutions.

Present your findings in a compelling dashboard to keep all of your data together.

All of these tools are designed for collaboration. You can easily work with team members and stay on the same page.

Surveys

Find out what your target audience is thinking with Google Surveys. When you need to research a case study to find thoughts from a specific audience, you can set up a survey.

For ten cents per completed survey, Google helps you quickly get the answers you need, as people browse the internet.

Google has a lot of tools to help new designers get where they are going. The ones I mention in this post are just a few that can help set your website apart from the masses. The most important thing is to get your portfolio looking polished so the people you are trying to reach will have faith in your abilities. Google Sites can help you do that quickly, whether you opt to use any of their other tools. I highly recommend browsing through their product page to see all that they offer. And, if you haven’t already, click on the “I’m feeling lucky” button the next time you do a Google search. What you’ll be taken to is always interesting, funny, insightful, or fascinating!

Good luck with your new website. Make your life easier by utilizing templates and tools that have been meticulously crafted to help you. Google does a great job of providing everything you could need to succeed as a new designer, so go out and get it!

You can do it!

Thanks for reading:)