Every developer eventually needs one link that points to everything — GitHub, a portfolio, a Twitter/X profile, maybe a resume. The default answer is a link-in-bio tool, and the default result is a page that looks exactly like every other link-in-bio page: a stack of pill-shaped buttons on a gradient background, indistinguishable from a thousand others.
That’s fine for some use cases. It’s not fine when the page is meant to represent your work — a hiring manager, a recruiter, or someone who found your open-source project clicking through and landing on something that looks templated undercuts the thing you’re trying to show them. This guide covers how to build a link-in-bio page that’s still genuinely a one-page site, just one that looks like you built it on purpose.
Why the default link-in-bio look happens
Most link-in-bio tools are optimized for a specific job: creators linking out to five different platforms as fast as possible, with zero design decisions required. That’s a reasonable product to build, but it means the entire tool is structured around one layout — vertical list of buttons — with a handful of preset themes on top. Everyone using the free tier ends up with a recognizable look, because the tool is deliberately not asking you to make choices.
For most creators that’s a fair trade. For a developer, it’s usually the wrong trade — you already have opinions about layout and typography from doing this professionally, and a page that ignores all of that reads as an afterthought rather than a portfolio piece.
What actually needs to be true instead
Stepping back from “which link-in-bio tool” to “what does this page actually need,” the real requirements are narrower than the tools suggest:
- Full control over layout, not just theme colors. Even a simple two-column layout, or text-first instead of button-first, already breaks the templated look.
- Your own typography. Swapping the default rounded sans-serif for something with more character does more for “this looks intentional” than almost anything else.
- No platform branding. A watermark or a “Made with X” badge undercuts the whole point of a page meant to look like yours.
- Fast enough to actually finish. If the tool requires learning a page builder’s quirks for an hour, most people give up and go back to the five-button list — the tool needs to be simple enough to reach a good result quickly, not just capable of one in theory.
Where a general-purpose one-page builder wins
This is the gap between a link-in-bio product specifically and a general one-page site builder used for the same job. A tool built for link-in-bio pages constrains you to its template system on purpose — that’s the product. A general one-page builder like Carrd has no opinion about what your page is for, which means nothing stops you from building something that doesn’t look like a link-in-bio page at all — real typography choices, custom spacing, a layout that isn’t a vertical button stack, while still finishing in about the same amount of time.
A layout that doesn’t read as a template
A few structural choices that move a page away from the generic look, without needing custom code:
Lead with a sentence, not a name
“Jane Doe” followed by five buttons tells a visitor nothing. One sentence about what you actually do — “I build backend infrastructure for developer tools” — gives them a reason to click any of the links at all.
Group links instead of stacking them
Splitting “Work” (GitHub, portfolio) from “Elsewhere” (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) as two labeled sections, rather than five identical buttons, immediately reads as more deliberate than the default pattern, and it’s a five-minute change.
Use real hierarchy
Not every link deserves the same visual weight. Your most important link — the portfolio, the current project — can be a full button. The rest can be smaller text links underneath. A page where everything shouts at the same volume is part of what makes the generic version forgettable.
What to skip
It’s tempting to keep going once you have this much control — an embedded video, an animated background, a contact form. Resist most of it. The entire value of a link-in-bio page is that it’s fast to scan and fast to load; every extra element is friction between a visitor arriving and them clicking the one link you actually want them to click. If something needs more explanation than a page like this can give it, that’s what your actual portfolio site or README is for — link to that instead of trying to cram it in here.
Don’t forget the boring technical details
The design decisions get the attention, but a link-in-bio page has a couple of unglamorous requirements that matter more than any layout choice:
- It has to load fast on mobile data, not just Wi-Fi. Most traffic to a link-in-bio page comes from a social app’s in-app browser, often on a phone with a mediocre connection. A page bloated with animations or large uncompressed images loses people before it finishes loading.
- Links need to survive platform changes. Companies rename handles, migrate domains, and deprecate old URL formats more often than you’d expect. A page you can edit directly in a minute means a renamed account is a two-minute fix; a page baked into a template you no longer remember how to access is a problem you’ll put off for months.
- It should work without JavaScript doing anything clever. In-app browsers (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn) are notoriously inconsistent about what they render correctly. The safest page is a plain, mostly static one — which is exactly what a one-page site builder produces by default, without you having to think about it.
Keeping it current
The other advantage of building this yourself rather than picking a rigid template: updating it later doesn’t mean starting over. Changed jobs, shipped a new project, deprecated an old link — a direct edit and republish takes under a minute, the same as it would in a dedicated link-in-bio tool, but without being locked into that tool’s layout constraints every time you make a change.
Quick checklist
- Write one sentence that says what you actually do, above the links.
- Group related links instead of listing everything at the same visual weight.
- Pick a typeface that isn’t the tool’s rounded default — this alone changes the page’s whole feel.
- Cut anything that isn’t a link out — no embeds, no forms, no extra sections.
- Revisit it whenever something changes; a page that’s a minute to update is a page that stays accurate.
The bar isn’t “impressive” — it’s “doesn’t look like a template someone filled out in ninety seconds.” A page with real typography, grouped links, and one clear sentence about who you are clears that bar without needing to be a design project in itself.
Tested firsthand
