What to Put in the “Personal Website” Field on a Job Application

That box is optional on almost every form, and leaving it empty won’t sink your application. But it’s also one of the few places on a form where you can show something a resume can’t. We read 60 live US job applications to see what employers actually ask for. Here’s what to put there, based on what you have today.

Why application forms have a “Website” field

The field isn’t a test, and no software is grading it. When you submit, the applicant tracking system (ATS) saves what you typed as a link on your candidate profile. In Greenhouse it goes into a Websites field, which can be marked personal, portfolio, blog, company or other. Later, a recruiter or hiring manager can click it while they look at your application.

Two details matter more than people think:

• Each employer builds its own form. Greenhouse says it has no system-default application questions. Lever and Ashby give employers a starting form they can edit. That’s why one company asks for “Website”, another for “Portfolio URL”, and a third doesn’t ask at all.
• A person decides whether to click. First looks are short. In Ladders’ 2018 eye-tracking study, the average initial resume screen was 7.4 seconds. A link only gets clicked if it’s clean, obvious and clearly worth it.

We found no Greenhouse, Lever or Ashby documentation saying the ATS crawls, reads or scores your website. Write for the human who clicks, not for a robot.

What we found in 60 real job applications

On October 11, 2026, we read the application forms of 60 open US job postings at 30 companies: 20 on Greenhouse, 20 on Lever and 20 on Ashby. They covered engineering, design, marketing, sales, operations and other roles. For every form we recorded each link field, its exact label, and whether it was required.

The website field is common, and it’s almost always optional. It was required on 3 forms out of 60. All 3 were custom questions for creative or product roles, and all asked for work, not just a link:

• Carvana, Producer, Social: “Please share a link to your website or professional Instagram”
• Spotify, Head of Product Management: “Please provide a link to your portfolio/work samples below”
• Match Group, Associate Manager, Culture & Content: “You must submit a portfolio link to be considered for this position”

The standard fields (“Website”, “Portfolio URL”, “Other website”) were never required on any form.

Which link fields you see depends on the employer’s ATS. Lever’s forms come with link fields built in, and nearly every Lever employer kept them. Ashby forms asked for a website least often, but were far more likely to make LinkedIn required.

The field goes by many names. If you’re searching for “personal website” on a form, it might be called any of these:

Engineering forms didn’t ask for more links. 6 of 12 engineering forms had a website field, against 28 of 48 for other roles. Only 3 of 12 engineering forms had a GitHub field. Developers who want their GitHub seen usually have to put it in the website field.

Almost every form had somewhere to put a link. 54 of 60 forms had at least one link field of some kind. Meanwhile, 51 of 60 still required a resume file. A link doesn’t replace your resume on the form. It adds to it.

Your options, ranked

If you have more than one choice, this is the order we’d pick them in for the website field. LinkedIn sits lower only because most forms already give it its own field.

1. 1

   Option 1: Your own resume website or portfolio

   The strongest answer for almost any role.

   Best for

   Anyone, and especially roles where people want to see your work or your story in more depth than a resume allows.

   What it tells them

   You took the time to present yourself, and everything is in one place, one click away.

   Watch out

   It has to stay online for the whole hiring process, and it has to look good on a phone.

   Looks likehttps://yourname.aboutstack.com

2. 2

   Option 2: A work profile (Behance, Dribbble, Substack, a published writing page)

   Great when the work itself is the point.

   Best for

   Design, writing, content, marketing and creative roles.

   What it tells them

   Real examples of what you can do, not just claims.

   Watch out

   Put your best and most relevant work at the top. Old or unrelated pieces dilute it.

   Looks likehttps://yourname.substack.com

3. 3

   Option 3: Your GitHub profile

   Strong for technical roles, if it's tidy.

   Best for

   Engineering, data and other technical roles.

   What it tells them

   Code you’ve actually written, and how you work.

   Watch out

   An empty or chaotic profile hurts. Pin your best repos and add a profile README first.

   Looks likehttps://github.com/yourname

4. 4

   Option 4: Your LinkedIn profile

   Fine when the form has no LinkedIn field of its own.

   Best for

   Any role, as a fallback.

   What it tells them

   Your work history and network, in a format they know.

   Watch out

   Don’t paste it twice. 90% of forms in our study already had a LinkedIn field.

   Looks likehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname

5. 5

   Option 5: Leave it blank

   Perfectly fine when the field is optional.

   Best for

   When you have nothing good to link to yet.

   What it tells them

   Nothing, good or bad.

   Watch out

   Never type “N/A”, and never link a page you haven’t finished.

sarah.aboutstack.com

Can I put my LinkedIn in the website field?

Yes, as long as the form has no separate LinkedIn field. LinkedIn is a real web page about your work, and plenty of hiring teams are happy to click it. Two things to check first:

1. The profile is current. Your headline, latest role and dates should match your resume. A stale profile is worse than no link.
2. People who aren’t signed in can see it. LinkedIn shows a simplified public version of your profile to people who aren’t signed in, and you control how much appears. Open your link in a private window to see what they’ll see.

If the form already has a LinkedIn field, which 54 of the 60 forms in our study did, put LinkedIn there. Then either put something different in the website field, or leave it blank.

Is it OK to leave the personal website field blank?

Yes, when it’s optional. In our study, the field was required on only 3 of the 34 forms that had one. Employers make it optional because plenty of strong candidates don’t have a website.

What hurts more than a blank box:

• “N/A”, “none” or “-” typed into an optional field. It reads like you didn’t understand the form.
• A link to a page that’s private, unfinished or broken.
• A link to something unrelated, like a personal Instagram for an accounting role.

A good link does get looked at when it’s there. In a 2017 Hover survey of 121 people involved in hiring (most of them Hover customers, so it leans pro-portfolio), only 38% said having a portfolio site is important, yet 86% said they’d visit one if a candidate offered it. So it isn’t expected, but it does get clicked when you provide one.

How to type the link so it works

Most broken links in application forms come from copying the wrong thing: a share-sheet link full of tracking codes, a shortened link, or a Drive file nobody else can open. Paste your link below to check it before you submit.

Make sure the link still works in three months

A hiring process can take weeks or months, and someone might open your link long after you apply. The link has to work the whole time.

1. Day 1

   You apply

   The link is saved to your candidate profile, exactly as you typed it.

2. First screen

   A recruiter takes a first look

   Short and fast. The link is a bonus if it’s clean and obvious.

3. Interviews

   The hiring team digs in

   This is when links get clicked most, often by people you haven’t met yet.

4. Weeks later

   Final decision, or a different role

   Your profile can resurface for a new opening. A dead link here costs you.

Common ways links die: deleting or renaming a GitHub repo, renaming a handle, making a profile private, letting a website plan lapse, or moving a Drive file. If you change something, update your other links too. If you use AboutStack, keep your plan active while you’re job hunting. If a trial ends without a payment method, the page goes offline.

Have nothing to put there? A quick fix for next time

You don’t need a designer or a week of evenings. Pick the option that matches you:

1. Claim a clean LinkedIn URL (about two minutes). Go to Me → View profile → Edit public profile & URL and set linkedin.com/in/yourname. Then update your headline and latest role.
2. Tidy your GitHub (developers, about 15 minutes). Pin your best 3 to 6 repositories and add a profile README: a public repo with the same name as your username, with a README.md file in it.
3. Publish a one-page resume website. A page with your summary, experience, skills and links that you can reuse on every application. Your options:

Whatever you choose, the test is the same. Would you be happy for the hiring manager to open it on their phone right now? If yes, paste it in. If not, leave the box blank for this one and fix it before the next.