This guide will walk you through CUSTOMIZING and LAUNCHING your template.
Welcome to your new Showit website
Want the quick version? Grab the checklist.
Most website DIY-ers make a big mistake by blindly diving into editing their website without doing any prep work first. I know you’re excited to play with the design and officially launch your site, but doing this prep first will not only make it easier to build your site, but also make for a much more successful website too.
PREP Work
step one
01
download the strategy guide
You’ll start off by setting your website goals and establishing the site organization and navigation. This is an important step because it guides the rest of your website so you want to take time to think through the foundation of your site. Knowing the overarching goal of your website will help you create better content and flow for your site. Grab the website strategy guide to work through this step.
Create your website STRATEGY
Once you know the overall purpose of your site and flow of the navigation, you can start creating the content for each page. I’ve provided you with detailed outlines of what should go on each page to get you started, but be sure to spend some time getting your copy and messaging right. The design of your site is only half the battle, you want the content within your site to say the right thing to the right person too. You can use the website content outline you got with your template to work through this step but it's also helpful to follow along with the layout of the template too.
Write your website CONTENT
Recommended copywriters
DOwnload the image guide
Along with the copy, one of the most important aspects of your website is your images. The photos you use on your website can make or break the design. Make sure you have all the images you need curated and collected. I recommend organizing them in folders by page or type of image and uploading them to Showit with the same system. You also want to make sure to optimize your images for size and SEO. You can use tinypng.com to optimize the size and name your images appropriately so they are ready to go.
Gather and optimize IMAGES
Recommended stock photo resources
get a brand identity kit
Your brand will set the tone for your entire website. If you already have a brand style guide, then refer to that for fonts and colors as you customize your site. You'll be able to add any custom brand fonts to your Showit site in .woff format (web format), or you can choose to keep the fonts and colors that come with your template (font licenses will need to be purchased separately). Make sure you have high resolution PNG files for all your logos and brand assets so they appear clear and crisp on your site.
If you don’t have your brand style established, I recommend taking a step back and doing that first because it will result in a better outcome for your website. You can simply define your brand style with my guidance, or grab a brand identity kit that can provide you with all the assets you need for your website.
Prep your BRANDING
Brand assets you need for your site
PNG files of your primary logo and logo variations
Favicon
Color hex codes
Font names and files
Patterns, graphics, or illustrations
The last thing to prep are the technical logistics. You'll need to make sure you have your domain ready. You can register your domain through a hosting service like Google or Godaddy if you don't already have one. You also want to set up your Showit account. If you don’t already have a Showit account, you can create a new account and pick the plan that is best for you. I typically recommend the Showit Basic account unless you have a large number of blog posts you need migrated over to Showit from another platform. Then you can install your new template by clicking on your name in the bottom left corner then clicking on add to library and pasting in the template share key that was on the PDF you received after purchase.
Set up the LOGISTICS
Now that you have all the elements of your site ready, you can start putting it together. If you did the prep work from step one, this should be pretty easy to plug in all the copy and images.
CUSTOMIZE your template
step two
02
You've got all the pieces ready to plug into your template, but now is a good time to take a minute and learn a little but more about the Showit platform before you start clicking around.
more tutorials and support
Getting started with Showit
learn Showit in 30 minutes
let's learn a little more about showit
BEFORE you dive in
stop here
You can upload all of your brand assets, stock photos, brand photos, and misc. media to your media library for easy access as you build your site. Your photos should already be optimized and ready to go so now you just need to upload them. I recommend creating folders to keep things organized as you go.
Upload your MEDIA
source custom fonts here
Under the design settings, you can customize your site design with your own brand colors and fonts. Showit recommends adding your colors from darkest to lightest and that will work best for swapping out the colors the way they are used on the site. You can click on the fonts tab to add your brand fonts and then click back over to site styles to set your type styles for mobile and desktop separately. You can learn how to add custom brand fonts here.
Edit FONTS and COLORS
Now it’s time to work on the individual pages. Using the content you wrote and the images you curated, you can plug it into the template as needed. Start by editing your header, footer, and other site canvases so that your branding and navigation are set and site-wide info is updated. Then go page by page and customize for what you need. Helpful tip: it's better to hide what's not needed instead of deleting.
This is when you might need to visit the support page and check out a few tutorials to help you learn the ropes of Showit and tricks for customizing, but I’ve built these templates so that you can simply swap your images and paste in your text without having to do a lot of rearranging.
Add your IMAGES and COPY
Now you'll want to polish off your site by taking care of all the little details. This includes things like links, galleries, canvas views, and forms. You'll also want to check the mobile site for formatting and add in your SEO.
Take care of the DETAILS
More about SEO with Showit
How to edit the mobile site
Once all the pages are set up and ready to go, you want to make sure that you are connected to any external services that you might be using on your site. This includes your email list, shopping cart apps, Instagram, etc.
Connect your INTEGRATIONS
recommended tools
How to add your IG feed
more about specific integrations
The hard work is done and now it’s time to get to the details and prep your site for launch. Before you can launch your site you want to take a little time looking at the tech details and making sure everything is squared away behind the scenes. Then you can hit publish and CELEBRATE!
LAUNCH your website
step three
03
Grab the launch guide to help you check all the boxes and make sure everything is ready for launch. In that guide, you’ll find a launch checklist that will take you through all the nitty-gritty details to polish off your site plus templates for graphics and copy that will get you ready for the launch of your site.
Prep for LAUNCH
get the launch kit
Before you go live you'll want to test your site on desktop and mobile to make sure everything looks good and works well. You can preview your site in Showit before publishing so you can do a once over and make sure there are no issues.
TEST your site
how to preview your site
If your site is brand new or you just want to have a landing page up to hype up the launch, you can go ahead and set up the coming soon page included with your template. Once you have it set the way you want it, you can click on the three dots next to the page name in the left-hand dashboard and set it as your homepage. This will be the page that displays once your domain is connected and your site is live.
Set up your COMING SOON page
One of the best things about Showit is that they will help with this part. If you have blog posts to migrate over from another platform and are ready to connect your domain, all you have to do is notify Showit that you are ready and they will walk you through the steps. This is also a good time to add a few blog posts if your blog is new. Please keep in mind that blog migration may take some time on Showit’s end so prepare for that in your timeline. Once your posts are migrated, you may have to edit the format of some things to make them fit with your new site.
Connect your DOMAIN and BLOG
more about domain connection
Once your domain is connected and blog is ready, you can officially publish your site! If you set a coming soon page as the home page, you'll have to change to your main home page and hit publish. And if you've got a home page that displays blog posts, you'll want to follow these steps here.
Make your site LIVE
learn how to go live with showit
submit your site to be featured
There's nothing I love more than celebrating the launch of your site with you! Let me know you're launching so I can join in the celebration + submit your site for the showcase.
Let's CELEBRATE
is your site live?
I've provided some of the most basic and helpful tutorials here, but I know there is always something else that comes up. Showit has great support that can help with anything, and I am always happy to help when I can too.