UGC portfolio checker

The short version

A UGC portfolio site is ready for brands when it opens securely and quickly on a phone, names you and your niche in its title, plays or links to your sample videos, and shows an email address and your social accounts, with no dead links.

The checker above tests those eight things in a few seconds. Paste the address you send brands: your own site, a Notion or Canva page, a link-in-bio page or a Google Drive folder. It doesn’t store the address.

Each check comes back as looks good, worth fixing, fix this or couldn’t check, with a one-line fix. Couldn’t check means the page blocked automated visits, asked for a sign-in, took too long, or builds its content with scripts the checker can’t read. It isn’t a good result, so open the page on your phone, in a private tab, and look for yourself.

This guide covers the page, not the work on it. For what to film and what to include, start with How to build a UGC portfolio. These fixes solve most results:

1. 01Turn on HTTPS in your site settings, and send the https:// address.
2. 02Resize your photos, and embed only your best three or four videos.
3. 03Give the page a title with your name and niche, and a one-sentence description.
4. 04Put your business email near the top, as text a brand can copy.
5. 05Make every sample public, and test it logged out.
6. 06Link your social accounts, and open every link on the page once a month.

What a brand does in the first minute on your portfolio

A brand opening your portfolio is deciding whether to email you, not yet whether to hire you. They need the page to open, your work to play and a way to reach you. Each step below is a point where a small technical gap can end the visit.

None of these is about talent, and all are quick to fix. Fix them first, because a brand who never sees your best video can’t judge it.

The basics: a secure address, a clear title and working links

Secure address

This check confirms your page loads over https:// with a valid security certificate. Without one, most browsers show a full-page warning that the connection isn’t private, and a brand opening a link from a stranger has every reason to leave.

Most website builders include a free certificate. Turn on the SSL or HTTPS setting in your site or domain settings. A newly connected domain can take a while to get its certificate, so test again later. Check that both the www and the plain version of your address open, and renew your domain before it lapses.

Title and description

The title is the text in the browser tab and the headline in search results and many link previews. The description is the line under it. A brand with several creator tabs open finds you again by your title.

Set both in your builder’s SEO or page settings. Lead the title with your name and what you make. Keep the description to one sentence of about 150 characters, because longer ones are often cut off.

Broken links

The checker follows a sample of the links on your page and flags any that return an error, such as a page that no longer exists. A dead link next to a sample looks like work that isn’t there anymore. Some platforms refuse automated visits, so their links show as couldn’t check, not broken.

Open every link on your page once a month, logged out, and again whenever you delete or hide a video, change a handle or move files. Remove the links your template came with, such as an empty shop or blog page.

Speed and phones

A brand may open your link on a phone, on mobile data, between other tasks. Test your page the same way.

Load time

This check times how long your page takes to load. A slow result usually means the page carries more than it needs. The usual causes, and their fixes:

• Full-size photos. A photo straight from a phone camera is several thousand pixels wide. Export images at about the width they appear on the page, as JPEG or WebP. A full-width image rarely needs more than 2,000 pixels.
• Too many embeds. Each TikTok, Instagram or YouTube embed loads that platform’s own player. Embed your best three or four, and show the rest as cover images that link to the video.
• Uploaded video files. Don’t upload camera originals. Compress them first, or post the video and embed it.
• Extras. Background videos, animated intros, chat widgets and pop-ups all add weight. Remove any that don’t help a brand decide.

For a detailed report, Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tests any public page and lists what slows it down.

Works on phones

This check looks for the viewport setting, which tells a phone to fit the page to its screen. Website builders add it for you. On a page you coded yourself, put <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> in the head.

Looks good means the page is set up for phones. Then open it on your own phone and check what the checker can’t: text you can read without zooming, buttons big enough to tap, nothing wider than the screen, and no pop-up covering your first video.

Sample videos that load and play

This check looks for links to, or embeds of, TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Vimeo or video files. It can see that your samples are there. It can’t see whether they play for a brand, so check that yourself.

Embeds or links

Make sure they play

• Keep every sample public. Videos from private accounts don’t play for anyone else.
• Open each sample logged out, in a private tab, on your phone.
• On Instagram, reels with licensed music may open on Instagram instead of playing on your page. Use original audio for the reels you embed.
• Check that vertical videos show in full, not cropped into a wide box.

Order and covers

Put your first video on the first screen, or one scroll below it. Pick a cover frame that shows your face or the product, not a blurry transition. TikTok, Instagram and YouTube let you choose one when you post. Which videos to show, and how many, is covered in Choosing sample videos that get you booked.

Contact, rates and social accounts

A brand that likes your samples needs to reach you and to know roughly what you cost. Put both on the same page as your videos.

Contact

The contact check looks for an email address, an email link (mailto) or a contact form. Email matters most, because briefs, quotes and contracts arrive by email.

• Write your business email out as text a brand can copy, and link it with mailto: so one tap opens their email app.
• Put it near the top of the page and again at the bottom.
• Don’t put it only inside an image or a graphic. A phone can’t copy it, and the checker can’t read it.
• Keep a contact form as a second option, and send yourself a test message to make sure it arrives.

Rates

The checker doesn’t look for rates, but brands do. A starting rate per video, with what it includes, tells a brand with a fixed budget whether to write. Put it near your email. How to price your first UGC videos explains how to set one.

Social accounts

This check looks for links to your social profiles. Brands open them to see more of you on camera and to check you’re active. Followers aren’t required for UGC, but working links are.

• Link the full profile address, not just your @handle as text.
• Link only public accounts you still use, with the same handles your samples come from.

Fixing it on your platform

Each kind of platform has its own usual problems. Find yours below.

A Drive folder is likely to show several worth fixing or fix this results however you set it up, because it has no place for your email or a description. It’s built for sharing files, so put a page in front of it.

What the checker can’t judge

The checker tests whether a brand can open your page, watch your work and reach you. It can’t tell whether they’ll want to. It doesn’t judge:

• Whether your hooks, sound and delivery hold attention.
• Whether your first screen says what you make and for whom.
• Whether your style fits the brands you pitch, and whether you look and sound like their customer.
• Whether your samples are in the best order for those brands.
• Whether your wording and rates build trust or raise questions.

For those you need a person. Ask another creator, or someone like the customers you want to reach, to open your page on their phone and tell you in one sentence what you make. If their answer isn’t what you meant, start with your first screen.

For a detailed written opinion, the Portfolio website review costs $39. Murat, the founder of UGCStars, looks at your page the way a brand manager does and sends your top three fixes and suggested wording within 5 working days. For your UGCStars profile, The UGCStars profile checklist covers every field.

Before you send your portfolio link

Run the checker again after your changes, then go through this list on your phone.

A page that opens, plays and gives a brand a way to reach you lets your work do the rest. To be found by brands who search by niche as well, join UGCStars free: there’s no fee and no commission.