I had a conversation recently with a recruiter friend who told me she reviews upwards of 40 portfolios a week. I asked her how long she spends on each one. “Depends,” she said. “Some get thirty seconds. Some get five minutes. Some get closed before the page finishes loading.”

That last bit stuck with me. Your portfolio might be brilliant, but if it triggers certain red flags early, it won’t matter. The tab gets closed, and you never know it happened.

Here are the mistakes that cause that instant close — and what to do about each one.

Broken Links and Dead Pages

Nothing says “I don’t pay attention to detail” quite like a portfolio full of broken links. That case study you linked to a client’s old website? It’s now a parking page. That PDF of your project report? The link expired three months ago.

Recruiters notice immediately. If your portfolio has broken elements, they’ll wonder what your work looks like.

The fix: Run your portfolio through a free link checker like Dead Link Checker once a month. Swap out any external links that have died with updated URLs or, better yet, screenshots or PDFs you host yourself.

Outdated Work Taking Centre Stage

If the first thing a recruiter sees is a project from 2019, they’re going to question what you’ve been doing since. Your portfolio needs to lead with recent, relevant work.

This doesn’t mean you have to delete older projects entirely. But they should be below the fold, clearly dated, and ideally contextualised — “This earlier project demonstrates my foundation in X, which I’ve since built on with Y.”

The fix: Put your two or three most recent projects first. If you haven’t done recent portfolio-worthy work, create something. A personal project, a volunteer contribution, even a well-documented analysis of a trend in your field counts.

Walls of Text With No Visuals

Recruiters are scanning, not reading. If they land on a page that’s 800 words of unbroken text with no images, headings, or visual hierarchy, they’ll bounce. It doesn’t matter how good the writing is.

Your portfolio isn’t a novel. It’s a presentation. Every page should be visually scannable in under five seconds. Someone should be able to glance at a case study and understand the gist before they decide whether to read the details.

The fix: Break text into short paragraphs. Use descriptive headings. Add visuals — screenshots, diagrams, before-and-after comparisons. If you’re not a designer, Canva makes it straightforward to create clean supporting graphics.

No Clear Contact Information

This one is baffling, but it happens constantly. I’ve reviewed portfolios where I genuinely couldn’t figure out how to contact the person. No email, no LinkedIn link, no contact form. Just a beautifully designed portfolio with no way to follow up. Recruiters want to reach you quickly. Make it obvious.

The fix: Put your email address and LinkedIn profile link on every page, or at minimum in a persistent header or footer. A contact form is fine as an option, but always include a direct email too. Some people won’t fill in a form.

”Under Construction” Anything

If any part of your portfolio says “coming soon,” “under construction,” or “this page is being updated,” take it down. Right now. An incomplete page is worse than no page, because it tells the recruiter you launched something before it was ready.

The same goes for placeholder content. Lorem ipsum text, stock photos where your work should be, empty sections with “Content TBA” — none of it is acceptable.

The fix: Only publish pages that are finished. Hide anything incomplete. A smaller, complete portfolio always beats a larger, half-finished one.

Slow Loading Times

Remember my recruiter friend? “Some get closed before the page finishes loading.” She wasn’t exaggerating. If your portfolio takes more than three seconds to load, you’re losing visitors. According to Google’s web performance research, 53% of mobile visitors abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load.

The usual culprits are massive image files, unoptimised video embeds, heavy JavaScript from third-party widgets, and bloated portfolio platforms.

The fix: Compress your images before uploading — TinyPNG and Squoosh both work well. If you have video, embed it from YouTube or Vimeo rather than hosting it directly. Test your speed with Google PageSpeed Insights and act on the recommendations.

Inconsistent or Confusing Navigation

If a recruiter can’t figure out how to move between sections of your portfolio within a few seconds, there’s a problem. Overly creative navigation, hidden menus, or layouts that scroll in unexpected directions all create friction.

Your portfolio navigation should be boring and predictable. A clear menu across the top or side. Logical section names — Work, About, Contact.

The fix: Ask someone who’s never seen your portfolio to find your best project and your contact details. If it takes more than fifteen seconds, simplify.

The Audit That Takes 30 Minutes

Here’s what I recommend: once a month, spend 30 minutes reviewing your portfolio as if you were a recruiter seeing it for the first time. Open it on your phone. Click every link. Check load times. Look for anything outdated.

Those 30 minutes could be the difference between a tab that stays open and one that gets closed. Your portfolio works for you around the clock — but only if it’s actually working properly.