How to Make Your Portfolio ATS-Friendly

If you've applied to jobs recently, you've probably heard the acronym ATS thrown around a lot. Applicant Tracking Systems — the software companies use to manage the flood of applications they receive. Roughly 97.8% of Fortune 500 companies use one, and they've become standard even at much smaller companies.

There's a lot of anxiety floating around about ATS. People worry about getting "filtered out by robots" before a human ever sees their application. And while some of that worry is justified, the conversation around ATS and portfolios is full of misconceptions that end up confusing more than they help.

So let's sort out what's actually going on and what you can do about it.

First, a clarification that matters

Here's something important that a lot of advice articles skip over: ATS systems parse resumes, not portfolios. When you upload a PDF or paste your work history into an application form, that's what the ATS is reading and indexing. It's looking at your resume text for keywords, job titles, company names, dates, and skills.

Your portfolio — the website where you showcase your work — doesn't go through the ATS in the same way. The ATS doesn't crawl your portfolio URL and analyze the content. It's not rejecting you because your portfolio doesn't have the right keywords in the right places.

This is important because a lot of people waste time trying to "optimize their portfolio for ATS" in ways that don't actually matter. You don't need to stuff keywords into your portfolio headline or worry about whether your portfolio's HTML structure is ATS-parseable.

What you do need to worry about is how your portfolio and resume work together in the broader hiring process.

How ATS and portfolios actually interact

Think of it as a two-step process. The ATS handles the first filter — scanning resumes for baseline qualifications. If your resume passes, a human starts looking at your application more carefully.

That's where your portfolio comes in. Once a recruiter or hiring manager is actually looking at your application, a portfolio link gives them something concrete to evaluate beyond your resume. It's not being parsed by software — it's being viewed by a person.

This means your resume needs to get through the ATS, and your portfolio needs to impress the human who looks at it afterward. They have different jobs, and optimizing for one doesn't mean ignoring the other.

Making your resume ATS-friendly (the short version)

Since this is the part that actually gets parsed by software, here are the basics:

Use standard section headings. "Experience," "Education," "Skills" — not creative alternatives like "My Journey" or "Things I'm Good At." ATS systems are looking for conventional formatting.

Include relevant keywords naturally. Look at the job description and make sure the technologies, skills, and role-specific terms appear in your resume. If they want "React" and "TypeScript," those words should be in there — not just "frontend development."

Keep the formatting simple. Columns, tables, headers and footers, and text embedded in images can all confuse ATS parsers. Stick to a clean, single-column layout. Save the design creativity for your portfolio.

Use a standard file format. PDF is generally safest, though some systems prefer .docx. If the application doesn't specify, PDF is usually the right call.

Don't try to game the system. Some people hide white text with keywords, use invisible characters, or stuff their resume with every possible term. ATS systems have gotten better at detecting this, and even if they don't, the human who eventually reads your resume will notice something's off.

Where your portfolio fits into the ATS world

Okay, so your resume is optimized for the ATS. Now how do you make sure your portfolio is doing its job in the process?

Include your portfolio URL on your resume. This sounds obvious, but it's worth emphasizing: put it somewhere prominent. Near the top, next to your contact information. Make it a clickable link in your PDF. Some people bury it at the bottom or leave it off entirely, which defeats the whole purpose.

Make the URL clean and professional. yourname.remoteworks.pro reads very differently from sites.google.com/site/myportfolio2024final. A clean, memorable URL looks professional and is easy for someone to type in if they're reading a printed version of your resume.

Link to your portfolio in the "additional information" field. Most ATS application forms have a field for a website or portfolio link. Always fill it in. Some systems even have a dedicated "portfolio URL" field — use it.

Mirror the keywords in both places. While your portfolio isn't being parsed by ATS, the human reviewing it is still the same person who saw your resume. If your resume mentions React and Node.js, your portfolio projects should prominently feature those technologies too. Consistency reinforces the message.

Portfolio SEO: the other reason keywords matter

Here's something people don't think about enough. When a recruiter is interested in you, the first thing many of them do is Google your name. What shows up in those results matters — a lot.

A portfolio with good SEO practices means it's more likely to appear when someone searches for you. And "good SEO" for a portfolio is actually pretty straightforward:

Use your real name in the page title and meta description. Your portfolio should come up when someone searches "[Your Name] developer" or "[Your Name] designer."

Write descriptive project titles. "E-commerce Platform" is searchable. "Project X" is not. Use real words that describe what the project actually is.

Include the technologies you work with in your project descriptions. Not as keyword stuffing — just as natural parts of explaining what you built. "Built with React, Node.js, and PostgreSQL" is both informative to readers and useful for search engines.

Have a proper meta description. Something like "Frontend developer specializing in React and design systems. View my projects and get in touch." Short, descriptive, and it tells both Google and anyone who sees the search result exactly what they'll find.

Making your portfolio URL work harder

Your portfolio URL shows up in more places than you might think — your resume, your LinkedIn, your email signature, your GitHub profile, your cover letters. Every time someone sees it, they're making a micro-judgment about your professionalism.

Keep it short and clean. Ideally your name or something very close to it. Avoid numbers, hyphens, and unnecessary words. The goal is something someone could remember after seeing it once and type in without making a mistake.

This is one of those small details that seems trivial but actually contributes to how seriously people take your application. A polished URL signals that you pay attention to details — which is exactly the kind of thing that registers, even subconsciously, when someone is evaluating a candidate.

Putting it all together

The relationship between ATS and your portfolio isn't adversarial. They serve different purposes at different stages of the hiring process, and your job is to make sure both are doing their work.

Your resume gets you past the software. Your portfolio convinces the human. They're a team.

Make your resume clean, keyword-appropriate, and ATS-parseable. Make your portfolio clear, visually professional, and full of work that demonstrates what you can do. Link them together everywhere you can.

If you're looking for a portfolio that handles the SEO, clean URLs, and professional presentation out of the box, that's exactly what RemoteWorks is built for. You get a polished portfolio on a clean subdomain, so you can focus on the content while the technical details are handled for you.