In today's digital age, having a strong online presence is essential for public speakers looking to reach a wider audience and attract new opportunities. Having a public speaker website is one of the methods you can use to stand out and be taken seriously.
A well-designed website can serve as your digital business card, showcasing your expertise, testimonials, and past speaking engagements. Giving potential clients a taste of what you offer can also help the right ones find you.
Let's explore how to create an effective public speaker website, along with some examples you can learn from.
Here's what we'll cover:
Whether you're tech-savvy or not, you can figure out how to make a public speaker website. It's easier than you think, and with all the tutorials available online, you're not far off from having a good one.
That said, it is a process with several steps if you want it done right.
Selecting the right domain name is crucial for your website's success. Choose a name that reflects your brand and is easy to remember. Most speakers will use their name, or their stage name. It's super convenient because with a quick Google search, the domain should appear near the top. This is part of great personal branding, especially for speakers.
If your name is not available, you can use a variation of it, or put "speaker" at the end so potential clients can see that this is your main purpose.
In order to buy a domain, you'll go to one of the many domain sellers.
Here's a list of websites where you can buy domains:
Choose a website builder that suits your needs and technical skills. Popular options include WordPress, Squarespace, Carrd, and Wix. These platforms offer user-friendly interfaces and a variety of templates to choose from.
Basically, you can think of the builder as what your website will look like, and where you'll go to add blog posts, pages, and other content. Some of them are more complex than others, so keep that in mind when determining which to use.
Your level of tech-savviness will make a difference. For example, Squarespace and Carrd are meant to be simple for those who aren't super familiar with websites, whereas Wordpress is a much more customizable website that takes a bit more learning to use with confidence.
Typically, your domain registrar will have instructions for how to connect your domain with the website builder, and GoDaddy even has a system of steps you can go through to do it.
The builder is completely up to you, but do your research because switching from one to the other is extremely difficult to do.
Focus on creating a clean, professional design that highlights your brand and expertise. Use high-quality images and graphics to enhance your content. Ensure that your website is mobile-responsive to cater to users on smartphones and tablets.
Most free themes will do all of this for you. However, you might want to think about investing in a few paid options for more capabilities and functionalities. You want your public speaker website to stand out and be customized to your liking. Free theme options are usually limited in what you can change and how.
You may also want to think about purchasing a drag-and-drop builder as well. With Wordpress, there are many options. Divi is a popular builder that works well and can alter your design for mobile all on its own.
If you have some money to spare and want full and complete customization, then Showit is a great option for you. Essentially, this is a separate login you will have purely for the design of your website, with an immense level of control in how you want it to appear. But it does cost a monthly rate as opposed to a singular purchase.
Do your research and choose what's best for you!
Your website should clearly communicate who you are, what you do, and why you're the right choice as a speaker. Include a professional bio, information about your speaking topics, testimonials from past clients, and videos of your past speaking engagements.
You'll also want to make it clear what you speak about. Most speakers have a certain area of expertise, along with a few different types of speeches they give.
Note if you're a keynote speaker or if you do different types.
Ultimately, your website should have the following pages:
Optimize your website for search engines by using relevant keywords in your content, meta tags, and image descriptions. This will help improve your website's visibility in search engine results pages.
A quick Google search for "SEO basics for a website" will help you understand what's necessary for the pages above.
For your blog, however, you can do more. If your goal is to appear in searches and broaden your reach, you want to have content around your area of expertise. Blog posts that help educate and teach others who may be searching for the information.
For example, if you teach people how to be a good parent, you'll want to write blog posts about all of the topics you can think of that go into that goal—that someone will type in on Google.
One way you can do that is to take the main topic you talk about and type it into Google.
From here, look at the "People Also Ask" section. This will give you questions many searchers who have used that term are looking for.
In order to expand this list and get more questions in the "People also ask" area, click on a few of these result arrows. When you click on one, a few more will appear beneath them that are related to the topic you clicked.
This helps you see what topics people are searching for most. You can write blog posts about these topics using the keyword (the question) you see.
Do this with several different keywords and you'll start to see how much content you can really add to your public speaker website.
It's often best to learn from great speaker websites. Of course, some of these are highly well known people who can hire others to create and manage their sites. Use these as inspiration for the type of content you want, and the overall layout of the homepage and speaking pages specifically.
Tony Robbins' website features a clean, modern design that reflects his brand. The homepage highlights his upcoming events and offers visitors the option to watch videos of his past speaking engagements.
Obviously, someone like Tony Robbins has much more to showcase than just his speaking. But you can see by the header image of his site that this is primarily what he showcases. Instead of a page that says "Speaker" he has one that says "Events" because he's risen to the level of also being the host of the places he speaks at.
Brené Brown's website is visually appealing and user-friendly. It features a blog where she shares insights and thoughts on various topics related to her work as a public speaker and author.
You know exactly what you're going to get with Brené. Her tagline even displays her tone and style in "Keeping it awkward, brave, and kind". Plus, she is literally speaking into a mic on the homepage, so people know what she's about. Notably though, she is in an era of promoting more of her podcast speaking than she is her stage speaking, though she does have a speaking page in an expanded menu when you hover over "About".
This page better displays her active speaking on stage, as well as provides a link to invite Brené to speak at your event.
Simon Sinek's website is simple yet effective. It features a prominent video on the homepage, where he shares his thoughts on leadership and other topics. The website also includes information about his books and speaking engagements.
It is certainly a trend that we see speakers speaking on stage as the main image used on their websites, specifically when promoting their speaking products. Sinek is no different.
He, like Tony Robbins, has many options for people for his website, as it's not solely for his speaking. That's just one of the many things he does. However, if you navigate under "For Business," you'll find a page dedicated to keynotes and how you can work with him.
This site is a great example of what you can hope to achieve if you continue to reach and expand your speaking abilities.
It's easy to see big names having quality sites, but it's another to see someone who's not necessarily world-known have a quality website. Mike Acker is an author and a speaker, and his website displays both evidently.
When you visit his homepage, there's a big header video that spans through the various speaking opportunities he's had, which is an immediate view of what he looks like in front of an audience. Not to mention, this is really unique. Many public speaker websites only have still images.
Even this much can help potential clients gauge interest in hiring him.
This process can be lengthy and seem complicated, but if you follow these tips, you'll have a public speaker website that rivals most others.
By following these tips and examples, you can create a compelling public speaker website that effectively showcases your expertise and attracts new opportunities. A well-designed website can be a powerful tool in your arsenal as a public speaker, helping you reach a wider audience and grow your brand.