TLDR: When creating an academic website, start small. And finish small. Then grow from there.

So you want an academic website, but you don’t have the time. That’s okay. You’re an academic. You’re busy.

Creating an academic website feels like a daunting task: pulling together all your publications, describing your projects, writing blog articles, etc. Just thinking about it makes you overwhelmed. I understand.

Here’s a pro-tip: Start small. And finish small. A small yet complete website is better than a large but incomplete website.

So what is the smallest complete academic website you can make? All you need to create is a website with your contact info and links to your academic profiles. Just those two things. That’s it.

Why is this enough? One of the purpose of an academic website is to inform people of how to contact you.

The other purpose is to inform people of your publications. Since there’s plenty of online places to list your publications, you can just link to your academic profile on these websites: Academia.edu, Google Scholar, ResearchGate.

Here’s a handy checklist for the smallest academic website:

Contact info:

Once you’ve created your academic website, you can grow it by adding more content, such as presentations, projects, people you work with, courses you’ve taught or taken, etc.