They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Why? Because images (and videos) can convey information more powerfully and personally than text alone. 

That’s why creating a website can be a great way to visually showcase a student’s talent, passion, business, or nonprofit organization. By sharing the link in a student’s application, it becomes a valuable window into who the student is and what they will bring to a college campus. 

While it may sound daunting, creating a website is easy in today’s world. All it takes is some planning and a few clicks on a template to build a website that effectively communicates your unique story.

Step 1: Decide what you want to communicate with your site. Are you marketing your own business, such as a tutoring or lawn mowing service? Do you want to display your talent for photography, art, or creative writing? Have you started a nonprofit organization or a fundraising initiative? Have you completed a research project with results you want to share?

Step 2: Plan out the pages of your website that visitors will be able to click on. You might want to search for similar websites to get ideas. A simple Google search should lead you to examples. Some pages you will definitely want are:

• An About Me page
• A Contact page so visitors can communicate with you
• A Home page describing what the website is about
• If it’s a business, a Services page that lists what you offer
• If it’s a site to show your creative work or research activities, a tab that houses that work; you can name it something that indicates the nature of the work, such as Poems or Drawings or Research Results

Step 3: Choose and register a domain name and pick a web hosting service you will use. Choose a template for your site. Here are a few services that offer web hosting and easy templates for websites.

• Wix
• Squarespace
• iPage

Step 4: With the template in mind, create the content (text, photos, video, etc.) that will appear on each page. Use a Google Doc so the information is saved and you can just copy and paste it into the template. Make sure to have someone proofread your work or use a service like Grammarly to check for errors.

Pro Tip: For the About Me page, you might consider recording a short video introduction of yourself talking about why you chose to create the website. Short videos can be more compelling than text for a website visitor.

Step 5: Have someone you trust click through the site to make sure everything works before you publish the site.

That’s it! And remember to continue to update your site with new work, new information, or new results.

Ideas for where to include a website in your college application

• Depending on what type of website you create, you might include the link in the body of your resume that you upload on the Common Application for colleges that accept resumes.
• You could include it in the Additional Information section of the Common Application with an explanation about what it is and why you created it.
• You include the website address in an essay
• You could add the address to an activity description in the Activities section of the application