Introduction
A speaker website is the rest of the world’s introduction to your message and speaking services. It reflects your commitment to your career, sets you apart from competitors, showcases your expertise, shares your portfolio of work, and is very accessible.
Your website is often the first impression that potential clients have of your work. People are hard-wired to make immediate judgments so you want your website to form the right opinions with visitors. A modern, sleek design shows your professionalism and reliability; high-quality content reflects your attention to detail and expertise; a user-friendly structure ensures that visitors can find what they need quickly and easily; a solid visual appeal makes your site memorable; and a call-to-action helps visitors take the next step (hopefully hiring you or buying your services or products).
In this blog post, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step guide to building your speaker website from picking a domain, hosting, building out the site itself, what to include, and how to use it. A good speaker website is a very important way to establish yourself in the industry and among decision-makers and competitors. Let’s get started!
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Understanding the SPEAK Framework
Overview of the SPEAK Framework
The SPEAK framework that The Speaker Lab has designed is a roadmap that is meant to help speakers start and scale a professional speaking business from the ground up. It is easily remembered as an acronym:
Select a Problem to Solve
Prepare and Deliver Your Talk
Establish Your Expertise
Acquire Paid Speaking Gigs
Know When to Scale
For this article, we’ll be focusing on the E – Establish Your Expertise – because that is the primary goal of your speaker website (with the aim of leading to A – Acquiring Paid Speaking Gigs). It gives you an online presence and establishes you as a reputable, knowledgable speaker and expert in your niche.
Emphasis on Establishing Expertise
A good speaker website does five main things: First, it showcases your knowledge on whatever your particular topics are. You can create and post content that highlights your deep understanding of your niche, including sharing case studies and other research that reinforces your own expertise.
Second, your site gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your experience by including a detailed speaker history of notable engagements and achievements, including awards, certifications, or relevant recognitions you’ve received.
Third, you can use your website as a medium to post and publish your thought leadership. What does that mean? Include a blog section. You should regularly update your blog with insights and trends in your particular niche that resonate with your particular audience. You can include links to other websites and industry publications that show that you are connected and informed.
Fourth, a speaker website provides you an opportunity to engage with your audience. You can offer services like webinars, workshops, or live calls to interact with potential audience members and potential clients. You can also respond to comments or messages to build a sense of community around your expertise. Availability make you more relatable and easier to use as users navigate your site.
Finally, your website can be a source of extra resources to provide to visitors. Things like eBooks, guides, checklist – all sorts of downloadable resources – can be great ways to maintain engagement. Create value for your visitors and encourage them to return and to share your content.
Why Having A Professional Online Presence Matters
So your website does all these things, but why is a website so important in the first place?
Why can’t I just meet people at my gigs – you know, in person? In-person engagement is definitely more personal and memorable. It gives you the opportunity to really show your personality and relate. But let’s be serious – whether you like it or not, websites are often going to be the first point of contact for potential clients, such as event organizers. It is your first impression and first impressions matter. A well-designed, professional, thorough site can instill a lot of that confidence and trust that in-person meetings can, without you even needing to awake!
Another reason having an online presence is important is because it allows you to keep some consistency to your branding. If you make sure your website aligns with your personal brand, visitors won’t be likely to leave confused about your message. Having a consistent color scheme, fonts, and messaging across all pages emphasizes that consistency.
It is also very important to maximize your visibility as much as possible. This is what we call SEO (search engine optimization). By including the right things on your site and across all your pages – relevant keywords, tags, and high-quality backlinks – you can massively improve your site’s visibility and reach a much wider audience.
Maintaining a good website includes constant updating. You want to always make sure your website not only looks good but also functions well (including on devices like phones and tablets). (Better mobile-use will increase your search engine ranking and improve search engine results.) Keeping your content current and relevant and updating your site’s design and functionality to meet evolving standards are also good ways to stay top of people’s radars.
The Goal of Your Speaker Website
Remember, your speaker website has a twofold objective. Firstly, websites are there to help establish expertise in order to attract event planners and clients. You are an expert at what you talk about and your website should emphasize that. Secondly, your website can help communicate your personal brand and services in a clear and organized fashion, with a personal touch from yourself. Every single page should showcase your brand and expertise.
Essential Elements of a Speaker Website
Now that we’ve gone over the importance of a website and the goals of a good speaker website, let’s get into what you should actually include on your professional speaker website. We’ll go over six key elements to include on your website and the different pages you should include to keep visitors engaged. First up: demo videos.
1. Demo Video
The purpose of a demo video is to provide a visual and auditory demonstration of your speaking style and abilities. It helps potential clients visualize you in their event’s context. This is pretty huge when it comes to getting hired for a speaking engagement. You video footage should be high quality and include a compelling hook to grab people’s attention immediately. We have other posts that go into more detail about creating a really good demo video that you should check out!
2. Contact Information
The most important thing about your contact information is that is should be accessible. Put your info somewhere prominent on your home page and have another page that is solely your contact page. Use a clear call-to-action to encourage clients to get in touch with you. Including a simple, user-friendly contact form is ideal and easiest. Include the typical fields for name, email, phone number, and a message section.
You should provide multiple contact options on your website. Provide both an email address and a phone number for convenience. It doesn’t have to be your personal cell number, but providing that option makes you more accessible. You could also consider adding a scheduling tool for direct booking of consultations or meetings. Your contact information can also include your social media links. And if it’s relevant to your business operations, you could even include a physical mailing address.
3. Pictures
This may seem obvious but some websites really fail here. People are simple, visual creatures – we like pictures. Use some high-resolution images for headshots that reflect your professionalism and your personality, depending on your particular style and audience. Including a range of expressions, contexts, and poses across the website shows your versatility and expresses your personality. This should include action shots of you speaking at events and interacting with audiences.
Do your best to avoid stock photos on your speaker website. Using real images builds authenticity and professionalism. If all your photos are taken by professionals and are relevant to your career as a speaker and not just general photos of you, even better. Quality and relevance matter.
4. Recommendations
Recommendations are a big part of your website template. Testimonials demonstrate your reputation and reliability to potential clients. You should always ask past clients and audience members for written or video testimonials to put on your speaker site. Your speaker website should even include a simple process for submitting testimonials so people can do it on their own time like a form or email request. Do your best to gather testimonials from a variety of event types (and industries if you work in multiple fields). If you’ve worked as a keynote speaker or a motivational speaker, include something specific to that.
Once you have some good, impactful testimonials, place them prominently on your homepage and on a dedicated testimonials page. Whether you use rotating or static displays depends on your preference and branding style. Include the name, role, and organization of the person giving each testimonial. Where they in the audience? Did they hire you as a professional speaker? And if possible, a photo always enhances credibility. (Search engines also like photos!)
Don’t be afraid to start small. Even a few strong recommendations can make a significant impact. As you gather testimonials, just update and rotate them on your speaker website.
5. Bio
A comprehensive bio is your opportunity to write something for your speaker site that covers both your professional story as an amazing speaker and also your personal story that led you to where you are now. Highlight the key milestones and achievements in your life and in your speaking career. Humans elements in your bio will build connections and relatability, so share personal anecdotes or hobbies that reflect your personality. You are a great speaker, but you are also more than that. Include a section on your values and what drives you as a professional speaker.
Your bio can also include mention of any awards, certifications, and notable speaking engagements you’ve been privileged to have. Evidence of your expertise and authority in your niche should be included here. This may sound like a lot but your bio doesn’t have to tell your whole life story – it should give a good overview of who you are and what drives you while piquing curiosity that leads to more engagement. Use conversational language in order to create a more relatable and approachable tone.
6. Topics
The final element that we want to emphasize that you include on your professional speaker website is a section that shows what topics you cover. Create a dedicated page just for your speaking topics and styles. Use clear headings and subheadings to organize the different topics and make it easy to follow.
Each topic should have a detailed description that includes the key takeaways and benefits that you offer audiences and event planners. Mention the types of events where each topic would be most relevant. Specify your target audience for each topic. Event organizers also have a particular audience they are looking to serve so this helps them determine if you are the right fit for them.
Offer a range of topics within your niche that can cater to different needs and be willing to tailor your message slightly to fit an event planner’s needs, but ensure that your message adds unique value. You could consider adding downloadable PDFs for each topic or even videos of you speaking for each topic and event style.
Practical Tips for Setting Up Your Speaker Website
Now that we’ve gone over the different elements you should include on your website, let’s talk about actually starting the site itself. You don’t have to be an IT expert to do this, but don’t be afraid to seek help where necessary.
Domain Registration: Step-by-Step Guide
Choose Your Domain Name
First things first: let’s pick a domain name for you website. Ideally, if your name is available as a domain name, use that. Typically, professional speakers are their own brands and so it makes sense to have a domain name that is just your own name (www.johndoe.com). If your name is taken, you could try coming up with a more creative version of it (www.johndoespeaker.com OR www.itsjohndoe.com) that is still simple and unique. You really want your domain name to be easy to remember and easy to spell.
Check Domain Availability
Use domain registrar websites (see our list of recommendations below) to see if your preferred domain name is available.
Select a Domain Extension
This will almost always be .com for individual professional speaker websites since you are running a typical business. If your preferred extension is unavailable then consider alternatives (for example, .co or .me).
Buy Domain
Once you’ve landed on your preferred (and available) domain and extension, add it to your cart on the registrar of choice and get started on purchasing it. You’ll have to create an account with the registrar if you don’t have one already. Typically, you’ll be asked to choose a registration period (usually between 1-10 years). It is worth considering auto-renewal of your registration to prevent accidental expiration of your speaker site.
This is optional, but including some form of domain privacy protection is always a good option to consider. It will often come at an additional cost but it will enhance the security of your site.
At this point, you’re ready to purchase the domain and get started!
Recommendations for Domain Registrars
GoDaddy
Pros:
- Significant discounts for the initial term
- Comprehensive web services in one place
- 24/7 live chat and phone support
- Free domain with web hosting plans (starting at $5.99 per month)
Cons:
- High renewal pricing
Namecheap
Pros:
- Competitive registration prices
- Reasonable renewal costs
- Free WHOIS privacy protection
- Hosting services available
- Affordable SSL certificates
- 24/7 live chat support
Cons:
- No phone support
- Additional cost for DDoS protection
- High prices for .io extensions
- Increased pricing upon renewal
Bluehost
Pros:
- Free domain name for the first year with web hosting bundles
- Web hosting available
- Email services available
- Affordable web hosting plans starting at $2.95 per month
- 24/7 phone and live chat support
Cons:
- Expensive renewals
- Domain privacy costs an additional $11.88 per year
- Many additional costs
DIY Website Building
Site-building Platforms
There are a number of good website-building platforms and softwares to use to create eye catching speaker websites. Our recommendations are WordPress and Squarespace, which we overview below. But if you feel another software is better for your site’s style and goals, don’t limit yourself to these two.
WordPress:
WordPress is widely used as a site-building platform. It is an open-source platform with a massive community which means there are loads of resources to help you navigate use of this builder. It also comes with lots of plugins and themes for added functionality and is ideal for those who want maximum flexibility and control.
Squarespace:
Squarespace may not have all the plugins and extras that WordPress has but it is a very user-friendly, all-in-one platform. It has beautiful templates that are easy to customize with drag-and-drop features and is great for those who prefer a simpler, more streamlined setup.
Benefits of Using Customizable Themes
Both WordPress and Squarespace (and most other site-building platforms) give you access to a wide variety of professionally-designed, ready-made templates. These templates can then be tailored easily to different industries and styles. Using pre-designed templates and then re-purposing them for your brand speeds up the design process and allows you to launch your speaker website quickly.
The best part of these pre-designed templates is the flexibility it offers you in terms of design and functionality. You can easily personalize them to match your brand identity and add or remove features without needing to know anything about complex coding.
Selecting a Theme for Your Professional Speaker Website
When selecting and designing your theme, make sure to find one that can offer a cohesive reflection of your personal brand. It should look professional and consistent across your website. This consistency helps establish your identity and makes for a more memorable speaker website. It also reinforces the message and values that you want to convey to potential clients. Consider these factors when picking a theme:
- Design and Layout: Choose a theme with a layout that complements your content and highlights your key information effectively. (See above for the six key elements to include on your speaker website.)
- Customization Options: Look for themes that allow you to easily change colors, fonts, and layouts to match your brand.
- Responsiveness: Ensure the theme looks good and functions well on all devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
- Speed and Performance: Opt for a theme that is optimized for fast loading times to enhance user experience and improve search engine results.
- Support and Updates: Select a theme that is regularly updated and supported by the developer for security and compatibility.
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How to Design and Navigation Considerations
Put yourself in the shoes of the event planner. Think about what they are looking for when they visit your site. The most critical information (your topics, bio, contact details, etc.) should be easily accessible. Your site should answer common questions quickly and thoroughly so they don’t feel a need for back-and-forth communication. Use a clean, organized layout that highlights your unique points and expertise, making sure all your pages are connected and easy to access from the homepage.
If you need inspiration, just go to other speaker websites. Browse the sites of speakers in your niche and take note of their layouts, design elements, and features that speak to you. Figure out how to customize those elements to your brand and messaging.
Make a list of design features that you like – color schemes, fonts, images – and note elements that may seem confusing or cluttered to avoid those pitfalls yourself. You can use these insights to create a site that is appealing, user-friendly, and professional.
Hiring a Professional
Starting a website may seem daunting to some of you, especially if you have no prior experience. If you feel like it’s too much for you to do on your own and you have the budget to hire someone, do that. Outsourcing web design can be a good choice if you don’t have the expertise or time to manage a website yourself. Using freelancer platforms like Upwork or Fiverr can be a good way to find excellent web designers and developers to help you build out your speaker website. If that is still beyond your starting budget, use local colleges or your personal network to find someone who can help take some of that load off of you and create the site for you.
Conclusion
Building a professional speaker website is essential for establishing credibility and attracting clients. By following the steps outlined in this guide you can create a website that effectively showcases your expertise and helps you stand out in the speaking industry. Invest time and effort into making your website a true reflection of your brand, and you’ll be well on your way to booking more speaking engagements!
