Why have a personal site
- Immediate differentiation: 95% of candidates don't have one
- Total control over your image (vs limiting LinkedIn)
- Google SEO: your name + role must rank first page
- Soft skills demonstration: design, writing, attention to detail
- Self-management capacity: proof you can deliver a project A to Z
Minimum viable content
Home page:
- 1-sentence pitch: "I'm [role] helping [audience] achieve [result]."
- Professional photo
- 2-3 buttons: CV (PDF), LinkedIn, Contact
About page:
- Short story (200-300 words): journey, values, vision
- More personal photo
- Key mentions: permit, languages, mobility
Achievements / Portfolio page:
- 3-7 quantified projects or achievements
- For each: context, role, result
Contact page:
- Direct email (not complicated form)
- Calendly link for meetings
- LinkedIn, GitHub links if relevant
Technical choices
For non-developers:
- Carrd: USD 19/year, elegant one-pager
- Notion + Super.so: USD 12/month, simple, rich
- Squarespace: CHF 25/month, pro templates
- Webflow: CHF 14-49/month, pro design
For developers:
- Next.js + Vercel: free hosting, top performance
- Astro: ultra-fast, ideal static site
- Hugo / Jekyll: pure static, GitHub Pages hosting
Domain:
- firstnamelastname.ch: CHF 15-30/year
- firstnamelastname.com: CHF 12-25/year
- Prefer .ch if targeting exclusively Switzerland
Basic SEO
Your site must rank on Google when typing "First Last" + role. For this:
- Page title: "First Last — [Role] in [City]"
- Meta description: 150-160 chars, catchy
- Unique H1: your name + role
- Natural text with trade keywords
- Google Search Console indexing: declare your site
- Backlinks: from LinkedIn, GitHub, Behance
Differentiating elements
To stand out (by profile):
- Technical blog: 5-10 detailed trade articles
- Newsletter: email capture + monthly resources
- Speakings: list of your conferences and podcasts
- Open source: links to GitHub contributions
- Testimonials: 3-5 colleague/client quotes
- Embedded Calendly for automatic booking
Fatal mistakes
- Slow site: > 2 sec = lost visitor, annoyed recruiter
- Broken mobile: 50% of traffic is mobile
- Dead links: immediate red flag
- Content copy-pasted from LinkedIn: no value-add
- Amateur photos: breaks credibility
- Too many effects: excessive animations = amateur
- Not updated for 2 years: signal of disinterest
Keep alive
- Quarterly update: new achievement, blog
- Analytics enabled: Plausible (free, privacy-friendly) or Google Analytics
- Link in email signature, LinkedIn, CV
- Monthly backups (download content)
A personal site isn't an option for technical, creative, and ambitious executive profiles: it's a 2026 market standard.
