Showit for Business Owners: Why Make the Switch?
TL;DR
- What is Showit?
- Why is Showit the Best Platform for Creatives?
- What are the Cons of Showit?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Thinking about making the switch to Showit? As a creative entrepreneur, I was pretty skeptical about switching platforms after spending countless hours investing in the one that I already had. But once I made the switch from Squarespace to Showit for my business, it was easy to see why so many business owners make the switch.
Still not totally convinced? Here’s why Showit is unmatched for photographers, course creators, and coaches compared to Squarespace, Wix, and other competitors.
What is Showit?
Showit is a hosting platform that allows you to build a custom website without any coding knowledge. Unlike other web design platforms, users have total creative freedom using the drag-and-drop interface. You can customize one of their free templates, purchase a template to upload and customize, or start entirely from scratch. This makes Showit perfect for creative entrepreneurs wanting to showcase work on a high-performing website without it looking like every other site in the creative community. Showit also offers a 30-day free trial, so you can test out all of the features before you make a commitment.
Why is Showit the Best Choice for Creatives?
Endless Design Capabilities
If you’ve ever worked with any web design platform, then you probably know the struggle of typography limitations or template spacing restrictions. Without using CSS, platforms like Squarespace or Wix only allow users to align elements a certain way or use a few colors and styles. This is where Showit crushes all other website builders.
Showit allows you to add any feature you want anywhere on your page. It is truly a blank canvas to unleash your creative freedom. I could go on for days about the limitless design features, but instead, here’s a quick example to show you what I mean:
Here’s what the backend of our site looks like. The blue circled text box is a header I formatted to match the rest of my site design. You can see the text style options on the right.
Now you can see what it looks like to customize one element without impacting any other elements on the page. No worries… I used the undo button after this screenshot, and my header jumped right back over into its original position and style.
Mobile Optimization and Design
Again, Showit kills it in the mobile department compared to other site-building platforms. This is especially important considering that mobile-friendly sites can now outrank non-mobile-friendly sites in Google searches. With Showit, you can customize a completely unique mobile experience.
Most website-building platforms create your mobile design based off of your desktop template layout. But with mobile users now generating up to half of website traffic, it just doesn’t make sense to put all of your time into customizing only desktop user experiences.
The cool part? Showit allows you to work on the desktop design and the mobile design simultaneously. You can view them both at the same time within the website builder, or (if you’re like me and that creates too many tabs for your brain) you can select to work with one at a time and use the side-by-side viewer for final touch-ups. Want to make a page exclusive to only mobile viewers? Showit is perfect for that! Need to hide content from mobile but keep it for desktops? Easily done with a simple checkbox!
No Code, No Problem
Using Squarespace with clients in the past, I felt limited using code because I didn’t want my clients to have a tough time trying to make changes in the future. But without using any code, I felt like I wasn’t able to achieve the exact branding that my clients were envisioning for their sites. The solution? Convincing my clients to switch to Showit.
If you are using a platform like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress, and you want to stand out against competitors and show up in Google searches, then it’s going to require some coding. Which seems fine when you hire a designer with in-depth CSS experience. But then months after launch, when it’s time to up your prices or edit your services, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to make the updates you want. Enter Showit.
Showit’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to update brand photos or make changes to copy without needing to pay a designer. Still not convinced?
Here’s a look at some of the free templates offered by Showit. While Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress all have a good selection of free, templates, Showit edges out the competition with their selection of drag-and-drop, premade designs.
The Showit Store also has paid templates to choose from where you can filter your options by price, style, or industry. But the best part… Showit collaborates with different designers so that users can pick out templates that aren’t just designed by one company or agency. These predesigned templates make it super easy to change out colors, fonts, and images, so users can customize any template to their own personal style.
Security
Personally, I’ve never experienced issues with hacking or bots on any of the platforms I’ve designed with. But I also know that there’s a lottttt more to website security than just hacking. Showit creates a secure hosting environment with SSL encryption, and they keep backups of your site designs.
So when you accidentally hit the delete button at 3 a.m. after playing around with the same webpage for 3 days and drinking way too many chai lattes…
OK, sorry! I’m talking to myself here.
Showit wins again because if you mess up a page or accidentally lose your files, the support team can revert your site to its most recent backup.
Support Team
So where does Showit rank in the support department?
Squarespace heavily advertises its 24/7 online support via email, Twitter, or chat. I’ve interacted with their support team through the chatline on several occasions, and while it is super convenient to speak to someone when you’re in mid-crisis mode at 3 a.m., I’ve found their support team to be a bit impersonal. A few times, I even left the chat without the right solution and just researched the issue myself until I found an answer.
I have less experience with Wix, WordPress, and Weebly customer support teams, but their platforms primarily work through email ticketing systems. This makes it tricky if you run into a site crash or an issue outside of business hours. But, they have community forums with enough tutorials and Q&As that you’re likely to find a solution to your problem by simply searching through the posts.
I’m sure you’ve caught on to the trend by this point, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that Showit takes the lead in customer support. While they don’t offer 24/7 member support, they do follow up quickly with questions and have an emergency line for website downtime issues. They also seem sincerely invested in your website’s success and stick around until the problem is solved.
Showit also launches your site for you. Yep, you read that right. I initially thought this would slow me down, but Showit blew me away with their responsiveness. Showit’s interactive support team takes care of your domain setup, blog migration, and your SSL certificate. Sure, there’s a few steps to do here and there, but they cover the hard part.
Killer Community
Once you join the Showit creative community, you don’t just get access to their amazing support team, but you also can join the free Facebook group. Seriously, this group is like a breath of fresh air!
Think online community of designers, photographers, course launching creatives, wedding planners — you name it — but without the typical judgment, discrimination, or salty keyboard warriors in most Facebook groups.
Joining this diverse group of creatives means there’s someone always online when you need color palette suggestions, someone to hype you up post-launch, or when you just can’t figure out how to correctly embed your contact form.
Blogging
Most bloggers would agree that WordPress is the most powerful blogging platform. Thankfully, Showit uses a WordPress integration, so you can easily put all your text, links, and photos into a WP post while still maintaining all of your design aspects inside of Showit. Showit’s support team sets up this entire process for you, so all you have to do is request your blog setup and wait for the team to email you the details for your WordPress admin account.
And for those who already have an established blog with subscribers: don’t let this stop you from making the switch! This is where Showit’s amazing team steps in and handles the blog migration for you. You don’t have to worry about losing your domain or any of your posts — or the headache of trying to figure it out yourself!
SEO
And last, and anything but least if you want a successful website, Showit takes the cake for search engine optimization. Because unless you are a word nerd like us at Ketch, then you might think of SEO as a pain. (Hey, we can take of that for you!) Luckily, Showit includes all of the settings you need to seamlessly improve your SEO ranking — meta descriptions, page titles, header tags and more.
Here’s a quick look at what Showit’s SEO settings tab looks like when you are designing your site. Showit also makes it easy to organize and add hierarchy to your content with header tags. Plus, don’t forget about that WordPress blog integration. This lets you use plugins like Yoast to make sure that your blog SEO is showing up the way you deserve.
OK… But What’s the Catch?
Just because Showit is #1 in my heart, doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge the drawbacks. Showit isn’t always going to be the right choice for every business owner. Depending on your goals or how you want to run your business, another platform might help leverage your business potential more.
E-Commerce
Platforms specializing in merchant sales, like Shopify or Square, are better options if you plan to sell hundreds of products. But, if you only want to sell a small number of products at a time, launch a course, or host a members-only page, Showit integrates with several plugins that make all of these features possible.
Learning Curve
If you have an eye for design or are familiar with Adobe Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), then Showit will feel like a breeze. However, if you aren’t super tech-savvy or lack any design background, Showit may be a bit of a challenge. But don’t let this scare you from making the switch!
This is why Showit offers several free templates that make it easy to copy and paste your text into a premade design. With just a few color and font adjustments, your site can still achieve a modern and professional look. Still too overwhelming? Hi…That’s what we’re here for!
The Cost
Showit pricing typically runs at about $20-30 a month, which seems expensive compared to sites like Wix or WordPress. But if you do it right, your website will be working for you.
From a sales perspective, it should fulfill its return on investment (ROI). So yes… things like paying for your Showit subscription, hiring a creative designer, or investing in the perfect copywriter cost more upfront. But in the long run, this allows you to have a streamlined, back-end system that doesn’t require any training and works for you 24/7.
Hello, money-making machine!
FAQs
Do I Need to hire a designer?
Nope! Since Showit doesn’t require any coding knowledge to achieve a beautiful design, it is totally possible to DIY your website the way you want. However, this can be a lengthy process, and hiring a creative allows you to get an inviting, user-friendly website without you having to take time away from running your business.
We might just know a good one.
Is showit good for seo?
When it comes to search engine optimization, content is king! A beautifully designed site will impress your clients, but without the right content, they’ll have no way to get there to see it. Then support your content by using rich keywords, creating unique meta descriptions, and using all of your image alt tag features.
Showit makes all of these SEO features easily accessible when designing each page. Plus, Showit’s integration with WordPress gives you free access to the Yoast plugin, making it simple to optimize each of your blog posts.
Or you can save yourself the Google searches, and let us take care of all of that.
What types of businesses use showit?
Showit is popular in the photography industry because it’s perfect for showcasing a professional portfolio — wedding photographers, lifestyle and portrait photography, etc. And while Showit used to market mostly in that direction, they now host websites for all types of small businesses. In my experience, I’ve helped clients with copywriting or design in some of these industries:
- bloggers
- service-based businesses
- designers & developers
- copywriters
- artists
- photographers
- virtual assistants
- coaches & course creators
- wedding & event planners
- travel agents
- stylists
- florists
- small product-based businesses
Have a question of your own?
Let me know in the comments! Or if you’ve made it this far and convinced you need Showit in your life too, but you’re still a bit overwhelmed, reach out. Let’s create the website that builds your online presence!
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