A user's guide to making an academic website for mathematicians

I will hopefully probably change this page a bit in the future, based on feedback etc. In particular at this point it's pretty basic and probably not that great. Please send feedback if you have any!

Why, though ? 

I often tell people that they should absolutely have a website, so before I try to give ideas about how to make one, let me answer the question I systematically get as an answer: Why ? Answering the why will also yield first hints as to how to build your own website - it can only be good if you know why you're doing it ! 

• Visibility: Having a website makes you visible to other academics (students, researchers in your field or nearby fields, hiring committees). It helps put you on a map (what you do, what you like to think about, what you have done, where you are...) and indicate that you're part of a certain community or certain communities. This is particularly helpful when you're trying to get hired but is also just good for people to get an idea of who you are when you send an email, or when they meet you at a conference or something.

• Contactibility: Putting stuff like contact information on your website allows people to... contact you! If they have questions or comments or just want to start a discussion about something you're thinking about, it's just helpful to know what email adress to use, or how to adress you etc. 

• Sharing: The previous two points are somewhat "career-oriented", to help you build a network etc. but with a website you can also share some stuff you've done (it doesn't have to be papers!! I often get a "I don't have papers yet" response but most people who tell me this do have sets of notes that they wrote, maybe slides or even handwritten notes, exercises etc.; or they know of helpful resources - math related or otherwise! - that they could link to) to help others and share your math/your knowledge of whatever things/your excitement! This is maybe the part that motivated me most in making this website originally (at a point where I also didn't have papers to link to...)

• Beyond names: Some people might have heard your name being mentioned ("oh they're a student of blah's") or seen your name in conferences or papers. Having a website can help go beyond that and make people see a person a bit beyond the mathematician. A lot of really good websites have pictures of the relevant person, and some outside-of-math stuff like music or art that the person made or is excited about. It gives a vibe of who you are beyond potentially-dry academic things and can make you more approachable!

• Whatever you think is a good reason! 

What, then ? 

Now that you're fully convinced it's a great idea to have an academic website, you may wonder what you should put on it. It's partly impossible for me to give a good list because it's also a highly personal thing, but I can give a few ideas: 

• Personal info: Who you are, where you are, how to contact you, what you like to think about, who are your collaborators, your mentors/advisors, ... are all interesting pieces of information for people who want to learn about you for whatever reason. You don't have to say everything about you even if you do put some information, but it's probably good for people to be able to place you. 

• Writings: Papers, preprints, notes, anything you've written and feel comfortable sharing is worth putting up, even if it's not original, not the best thing you've done etc. Of course, what you write and make publically available reflects on you, so be a bit careful with how you describe the documents you upload, but disclaimers like "this has not been reviewed" or "use at your own risks" are usually enough for people not to care too much about mistakes or inaccuracies that they may find. But keep in mind that we all have our own perspectives on math, so even if you think no one would benefit from notes you wrote to help yourself understand a classical topic, that's probably not true! I benefitted and still benefit a huge amount from random notes about classical things on people's websites that shed a new light on something, or explain something in a way that makes me finally understand it. So please, please, put up notes !!

• Other academic ventures: Academic math isn't all about writing things, maybe you've organized reading groups with detailed plans, or conferences with video recordings, or you've taught some class or god-knows-what. Information about those things and relevant documents, links etc. is always welcome and helpful for others. 

• Random stuff: As I mentioned in "Why", part of the appeal of a website can be to make you more human, more personal or more approachable to people who may only know you as a name or a "private communication" footnote. It's not unprofessional and it is actually helpful to put non-academic stuff on your website: a picture of yourself if you're comfortable with that, various art miscellanea that you made or care about, anything that makes you a person outside of math and that you want to share/would be happy to chat about at a conference when you're mathed out. 

Ok, but how ? 

If like me, you're a bit technologically impaired, there's no need to try and go for something fancy: google sites is a perfectly fine method (though morally questionable these days - actually please do let me know if you know an alternative that is on a similar level of user-friendliness) and actually quite easy to start with. If you link to your site on a couple of other platforms like MO or Bluesky or some friends' websites, it should appear high enough when people look you up. 

If you're into fancy html coding stuff, then go nuts, but there I have no advice to give you. 

Good luck!!