Today, we're talking about the things you need to do before you buy a new Showit Website Template. And I'm really ideally talking to people who are newish business owners or if this is one of your very first websites. However, if this is a rebrand for you and you already have a Showit site, some of these things will apply to you as well.
But first, good news—there's actually not a ton that I feel like you need to do because so much of the actions can take place once you have already purchased your template! But I also know choosing a template can be a really difficult decision, especially as a new business owner because there are so many steps you're taking at the same time (from choosing a business name to choosing what you'll offer and how you're pricing things).
It's easy to understand why buying a Showit website template could feel like another one of the many, many tasks on your big to-do list. And so as a website designer myself of many years (I've worked with clients on custom sites, I've sold thousands of templates at this point, and I'm considered a top Showit designer), today I’m going to share three things I think are worth doing before you buy your template.
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1. Research if your competitors are using the exact same template that you’re eyeing.
This is a huge one that you won’t typically hear template sellers talking about. A problem with templates is that it’s a template, therefore other people may end up with a website super super similar to yours. And this is absolutely ok in theory! And I really mean that.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a website template that is popular and used by many! And a thing I love about Showit templates is how customizable they are compared to templates on other platforms, like Squarespace for example, so you can have the same template and still have it not look like any one else’s.
However, something I’ve seen too many times is when your exact competitor is using the same big shop template as you.
For example, let’s talk about photography businesses. It’s fine if Kaitlyn in Idaho uses the same template that you in Arizona are wanting to use, but y’all are both local wedding photographers. Potential clients are going to notice that, right?
However, issues do come up when y’all are serving the same market with the same template. This is also something where not buying from the absolute biggest template shop can help because you’re less likely to have this issue with medium to small shops.
And if you don't know who your competitors are, there's a lot of different ways you can figure that out through Google searching keywords that you're going to use on your website if you are a location-based business, searching things around that location, and things like that and see what other people are using.
Plus, before we go to the next one, I just want to add here that I actually don't end up seeing this as an issue happening with my template customers because my shop is both small enough that not everyone on the planet is using my templates and also my shop serves such a wide variety of business types. So I do have wedding photographers buying my templates, but there's also copywriters, podcasters, content creators, social media managers, bookkeepers, counsellors. There's just such a wide variety that you're way less likely to end up with someone in your exact niche, in your exact market with the exact same template.
Read more: How to Know When It’s Time for a New Website
2. Get brand photos done OR have a video/photo plan for your website.
Basically, think about the photos and videos for your website ahead of time. This doesn’t mean you need everything finalized perfectly! But you need to start thinking about it because what you decide will help you in template selection.
For example, maybe you know you want to use some stock video/photos — I have an episode about using stock photos without looking cheesy here. Maybe you want to get fresh photos to match the new website as part of a rebrand, or maybe this is your FIRST TIME EVER doing brand photos and you have no photos of yourself at all so you need to find a photographer and do a shoot.
I do think this is something worth working on and booking before you buy the template. Even if you just start thinking about the COLORS you want on your website. Not all images need to “match”, in fact that can look like overkill when they do, but you’ll want some of the main imagery to match your brand colors. If you want more advice on this, head back to episode 15 for tips to plan an Instagram photo shoot.
If you choose to go for stock photos, I highly recommend Haute Stock (and you can use code ELIZABETH for a discount on your membership!).
I truly believe a great website is a combination of the website design, the words you say, and then the photos. Those are really the three things you're combining together to make the way the website looks on the exterior so to speak. So this is something you do want to focus on and think about.
3. If you’re a new business, choose a business name and secure your domain name.
The Domain name is the URL at which your website lives. People type that into their search bar and your website appears. This is something you don’t buy from Showit, but instead you “hook up” to Showit.
So for example, my domain name is elizabethmccravy.com and so I bought that on GoDaddy, and that's where I host all my domains. But there's so many different places you can buy domains and domains are really low cost compared to things like your website hosting or buying a website template. I would say paying less than $200 a year for sure should be your expectation. And if you're seeing thousands of dollars or something, that means it's a really, really high value domain and you need to be aware of that when you're buying it. It might even be trademarked.
So anyway, doing this prior is worth it I think because it's simple to just set up and get it done. And it is an important part of starting a business and also naming your business, right? That's the not so simple step. Buying a domain is really simple, it takes about 10 minutes total, but naming your business can be such a huge process, but obviously such an important thing as a new business owner.
If you need help naming your business, make sure to grab my free guide on naming your business here, or head to episode 50 where I share some of the biggest mistakes when naming your business.
Should you buy a Showit template before you write the copy?
I thought about adding to start on website copy prior to buying a template, BUT changed my mind on that, because I think copy is so overwhelming for so many people that you’ll actually be better off if you have a template to look at to help guide your copy writing. If you find copy comes more naturally to you, it can be a good idea, but isn’t necessary, in my opinion.
Read more: 3 Copywriting Mistakes that are Making People Leave Your Website (and how to fix them!)
What happens after you buy a Showit template as a new user?
If you buy directly from a designer like myself, you’ll purchase and then you’ll get a confirmation email, a receipt for your bookkeeping purposes, and some onboarding type of content to help you get started. You’ll also receive a “site key” that you will need to input into your Showit account to add the template.
This is seriously so easy. All you need to do is just make a free Showit account, then add the template. My templates actually come with video directions on how to do this if you need help (it only takes three minutes). I offer 1 month free of Showit for my customers and community too with the code “ELIZABETH”.
From there, you just start customizing your template using the training resources. Once you have it in your account, you start customizing your template using Showits resources or something from the Showit designer’s shop (for example, my template customers get access to my Showit blueprint course!).
Then once you're done customizing it, you hook it up to your domain name and you can launch it. You don't have to have everything perfect before you launch. Maybe you have all the key pages done, but you know you want to add some other pages later, you still launch it and you can keep editing it once you launch it. You can literally publish and re-publish your website a hundred times a day if you want to as you make updates.
7 Things to Look for in a Website Template
I need to do a whole episode on this, and this is not the most extensive list ever, but I was thinking just now as I outlined this, if I was going to tell someone just a short list of things to look for in any website template from any company, these are the things I would say. And I want to add to that my website templates, because I really care about offering the best experience and the best templates I can, to match all these boxes. So if you want to just shop templates that match these, head here.
Here are the 7 things to look for in a website template
- Designed by a legit designer to where you can trust that things are set up well behind the scenes. You would be shocked by how many templates that you buy, that are $50 full site templates on Etsy and it's actually just so poorly designed on the backend, it's a nightmare. You'll never be able to customize it, and you'll never rank on Google. You need something legit on the backend, not just something pretty.
- A design that you think your ideal clients/customers will find engaging and appealing. It’s not just about what you like. Think about your customers: Will they like this website? Will the design be engaging and appealing to them?
- SEO-friendly. So you can do some things on your end actually to see if the website template is SEO friendly or not. I also think it's worth just asking the designer like, “Hey, do you design for SEO optimization?” See if they have other customers who found themselves ranking on Google after using the template.
- Support and training. You may not need this if you’re already familiar with Showit, but if you feel like “I want help with this and I want good videos”, then that is something to look for, a shop that provides that kind of support and training.
- 300+ words on the home page. This is a more nuanced one, but sometimes website templates don't really have places for you to add copy. And you look at it and you're like start customizing. You're like, wait, I have words I need to put on my website, but it's all photos. So buying a website that focuses on words so you can actually sell your stuff… I think that's important.
- A template that doesn't look too custom, because that it'll be hard for you to customize. So some templates feel like they're not templates at all and therefore it gets really hard to actually customize. I know that doesn't really make sense when I say it, but I promise you when you see it, you'll know, you'll be like, oh yeah, Elizabeth said this, I feel this with this website.
- Copy prompts. Again, if copywriting feels something like intimidating you, and you're not working with a copywriter, this can be helpful. Most templates are going to use some of that lorem ipsum text that's just like gibberish basically. That's normal. But what I really mean is looking for headlines. Sometimes even the first sentence of a paragraph kind of explaining like, “Hey, here's what you should consider putting here”. If you want a really strong example of what I'm talking about with that one, look at my sales page templates because I do that really intensely in those ones.
Read more: Redesigning Your Showit Website? 6 Tips For Making The Process As Easy (And Fun) As Possible
Sign Up For My Black Friday Sale
I want to say my Black Friday sale is just around the corner. And this is the biggest sale of this year and honestly is always the biggest sale I do every year. I'm going all out for this with super, super awesome deals. Plus, something new I'm offering this year that as you're looking through these steps of things to do before you buy a Showit template that might be interesting to you, I'm doing a save now choose later option for the first time, which basically means you can lock in the Black Friday deal and then choose your website template before February 1st, 2025.
I have all kinds of other stuff too, including some new template launches actually for new add-ons launching as part of Black Friday. So anyway, really, really excited about that. You guys know me, I love sales, I love marketing, I love launches. And Black Friday is such a fun time for me as a business owner. So you can hop on the waitlist here for all the details (and an extra day to shop).
Links Mentioned:
Get on the waitlist for my Black Friday sale
Grab my free guide to naming your business (recently updated!)
Tune Into Episode 192: How to Use Paid Stock Photography to Completely Up Level Your Brand
Tune Into Episode 50: 8 Mistakes to Avoid When Naming Your Business, Course, or Program
Tune Into Episode 242: 3 SEO mistakes your website template might be guilty of without you realizing it
Tune Into Episode 201: SEO for Showit Hacks: Optimize Your Site to Be Found in 2023 with Sara Dunn
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