What to Include in a Web Developer Portfolio

## A Portfolio Is a Sales Tool, Not a Scrapbook Most web developer portfolios are a grid of screenshots. Pretty, forgettable, and silent on the only question a buyer is actually asking: *can this person solve my problem?* A portfolio that wins work reads like a short stack of case studies. Below is the checklist we use when we build our own — and when we advise clients building theirs. ## 1. Three to six projects, not twenty Depth beats breadth. Six well-documented projects will out-convert twenty thumbnails every time. Pick the work that matches the work you want next. ## 2. A case study structure for every project Each project should answer five things, in this order: 1. **Who it was for** — the client, the industry, the audience. 2. **The problem** — what was broken, slow, manual, or missing. 3. **What you built** — the stack, the architecture decisions, the tricky parts. 4. **The outcome** — what changed for the business. 5. **A live link** — let people click through and touch it. Two examples from our own work: - **[Grand Slam Training](https://grandslamtraining.com)** — a custom application with an AI-enabled baseball and softball batting coach that generates training plans against identified swing issues, plus integrated advertising and social media management. The interesting part isn't the UI; it's turning coaching heuristics into something a model can apply consistently. - **[My Home Ops](https://myhomeops.net)** — a home maintenance and updates tracker with integrated advertising and social media management. A scheduling-and-reminders domain that looks simple until you model recurring tasks, seasonality, and per-property history. You can browse the rest of our work in the [portfolio section](/#portfolio). ## 3. Live links and real screenshots Screenshots go stale. Live URLs prove the thing shipped and still runs. If a project is under NDA or has been taken down, say so plainly and show what you can — an architecture sketch, a redacted screen, a description of the constraints. ## 4. Range, shown deliberately Your set should demonstrate that you can work across contexts, not just one template. Ours spans: - Marketing and brand sites — [Jackson, Sjoberg LLP](https://jacksonsjoberg.com), [Cesco Magnetics](https://cesco-marketing.vercel.app/) - Community and organization sites — [Texas BMX Hall of Fame](https://txbmxhof.leftlane.io/) - Custom applications with real domain logic — [Hit Tool](https://hit-tool.org), [CG Performance Training](https://cgperformance.training) - Education and enrollment funnels — [Nuclear Prep Academy](https://nuclearprep.com) - Small-business commerce and craft brands — [TK Custom Leather Works](https://tkcustomleatherworks.com) If every project in your portfolio looks the same, a buyer assumes you can only build that one thing. ## 5. The technical detail that proves competence Name the stack, but go one level deeper than a logo wall. What did you choose, and why? Where did you trade speed for correctness? What broke, and how did you fix it? A single honest paragraph about a hard decision does more for your credibility than a list of thirty technologies. ## 6. Performance, accessibility, and SEO evidence These are the details that separate a developer from someone who ships templates: - Core Web Vitals or Lighthouse numbers for the live site - Keyboard navigation and screen-reader support - Semantic HTML and correct heading structure - Real metadata, canonical URLs, and a valid sitemap If you did the work, show the receipts. ## 7. A clear "about" and an obvious next step Say who you are, what you specialize in, and how someone hires you. Then put the contact path in front of them — on every page, not buried in a footer. A portfolio that ends without a call to action is a conversation that stops mid-sentence. ## 8. What to leave out - Unfinished tutorial projects and clones - Skill percentage bars - Stock hero images with no relationship to the work - Long autobiographies before the first project ## The Short Version Fewer projects, told properly. Problem, build, outcome, live link. Evidence over adjectives. A visible way to start a conversation. If you want a second set of eyes on your portfolio — or you need the work behind it built — [get in touch](/#contact). We keep teams in the fast lane. --- Want to see the structure applied to real projects? Read [web developer portfolio examples](/news/web-developer-portfolio-examples).