Portfolios are very essential in any business since they are the “doors” for new and potential clients. They determine your unique style and if you are the right person for the job. It’s important to keep your portfolio site updated and built to it’s best. But what if you portfolio is old and useless?

Have you ever thought of redesigning you website – someday – but never actually knew when? Here are 8 tips that might help you understand why you might need to get a fresh redesign:

1. When your portfolio isn't actually a portfolio
I see quite often portfolio websites that have the usual homepage, about, services, works and contact pages. What I hate though is to see that everything is there except the portfolio works themselves. A portfolio website should contain it's portfolio items, because without the works it shouldn't be called a portfolio but rather a simple information site. I say, focus on creating your collection of works page before you get to anything else. People won't care who you are nor want to contact you if they don't have the reason to.

2. When your portfolio is messy and doesn't Keep It Simple (Stupid?)
I personally really like this acronym, it explains so much in such a simple word - KISS. People tend to go crazy on their portfolio website design, and why? Because it's theirs, they can do anything they want with it and are not afraid to add "stuff" to it. As we all know already, it's hard to follow websites that are messy and disorganized. If you got some none-related-images and texts stuck all around the website, chances are that your visitors may get confused. This shouldn't happen and especially to your portfolio. If you present your work in a messy way, you might get low results for it.

Even though you say it's not messy, that might be because you built it, meaning you have been looking at this site for couple of days now and understand what everything is. Compare it to others, who haven't seen this site before - "messy and confusing" might be their first impression of the site. Try avoiding it.

3. When your content is no content
In portfolio websites, content isn't the most important element (unless you also have a blog), but rather your portfolio works. That's why you shouldn't be lazy to write good content, because it's not much to do! Write your best for your “services” and “about”, that’s all, it's as simple as that. This way, your portfolio will be built to its top regarding both, design and content.

4. When your site is old and out of style
Is your site's design looking like it was designed in 1998? If it's still slow loading, table/framed coded and contains none-related animation just for the show off, therefore your website is going to die soon if not already! A websites life span shouldn’t be more than a 2-3 years, for the most! After that, it's already called "out of style". Today, new ideas and trends are always invented, and it's important we keep up with them so we stick to the best. Having an old design can conclude that you don't care about your business. Keep it modern and stylish and you'll get better outcomes.

5. When your portfolio uses tables
You still design in Photoshop and slice it for the web to get it in tables!? Where do you live my friend? Learn some CSS for your own good! Forget the whole CSS vs. Tables issue; tables are history and harder to manage! With other technologies, such as CSS, you have the flexibility to manage the look of your website easily which can also be an advantage for the future when you feel like giving your site a little redesign.

6. When your portfolio doesn't work on IE, Opera, and Safari
Come on people, do you know how many visitors you are losing just because your site doesn't show correctly on different browsers? IE hacks are annoying, but that's as evil as it gets, yet. Although from another perspective, just try to avoid different hacks - build you code as good as possible, then you'll also have less problems with other browsers in the future. Download or test as in many popular browsers as possible. Here are some: Firefox, IE6 and IE7, Opera and Safari. I’m sure there are plenty more.

7. When you are “far far away” from your competitors level
This is the situation when you got nothing to compare between your portfolio and your competitors portfolio. Or in other words, his site is so much better than yours that you can't even see similarities. It's always important to "spy" on others and see what's their "next move", that way you are more into the competition. See what you competitors have that makes them so successful, and try to make those ideas your own.

8. When you go to the kitchen while your portfolio Site loads up
I used to do that on my old PC, where Photoshop took 3 minutes to load up. While it loaded, I used to go to the kitchen and grab me something to eat. But hey, it shouldn't be happening to your website, and especially your portfolio which got nothing more than 2 paragraphs and three or four images to load. Portfolio sites today must load rapidly and shouldn't take more than 3-4 seconds to load, maximum!

So here are the 8 signs to when and why redesigning you portfolio websites is important. Keep opinion and thoughts coming people!