Your portfolio is often the first impression a recruiter, client, or fellow developer gets of you. If it loads slowly, ranks nowhere on Google, or is a pain to update, it's working against you instead of for you. Here's how I approached optimizing mine — covering performance, SEO, and everyday usability. 1. Start With a Lightweight Foundation The biggest performance wins come before you write a single line of custom code. Pick a lean stack. Static site generators (Astro, ...