So let me guess—you’ve found yourself wandering down the virtual aisle, shopping for just-the-right Showit template for your business? And you’ve also quickly noticed that there’s a LOT of templates to choose from. Like possibly thousands to sift thru.
And every Showit template designer has a different style (myself included) so that throws another wrench into the discussion. Not to mention the price pointe. While most Showit templates land somewhere around $300-$700—there are also some that run up into the $1000+ range.
The good news though is that you have lots of options for choosing your Showit template.
And #spoileralert the vibe of a template matters way less than the actual layout. Because everything about the template can be customized.
So just to make sure everyone is on the same page…
“What is a Showit Template Anyway?”
A Showit is a premade website design—aka. template—that can be added to a new or existing Showit website. All Showit templates are completely customizable and duplicatable. You can easily add the entire template to your website. Or you can only add some of the template pages and/or canvases to your website. Or anything else in between—edit everything or change nothing the choice is up to you.
Why You Need to Choose the Right Showit Template the First Time
Saves You Money
If you buy the wrong template you may find when you start customizing your design you don’t like how it looks. Or it didn’t come with some of the pages that you desperately need for your website.
Saves You Time
Starting from the right template base when you’re customizing it will help you launch faster aka. give you more time to focus on other things in your business other than your website. This will also help you not get frustrated trying to customize the template. Which can cause you to procrastinate on launching your website because it got too overwhelming.
Why You Need to Focus on the Layout More than the Style of the Showit Template
Editing your Showit template with your branding, photos and content is fairly quick and easy to do. If you’re not having to change the layout much. While changing the layout of your templates canvas sections is still easy—it becomes more time-consuming than just swapping out the demo content for your own. Once you’ve bought a template it’s better for you to launch it sooner rather than later. So while you can go all out on customizing the layout of a template—it’s going to potentially become a roadblock if you’re not careful.
Tips for Choosing the Right Showit Template
Now that you know why choosing the right Showit template the first time is important—let’s go over how to actually choose a template.
Reminder: Everything (pages/elements/canvases) on Showit template can be duplicated & completely customized.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #1
Find a Template That’s Made for Your Specific Industry
Try and find a Showit template that’s specifically made for your type of business. Even though everything on the template can be customized—it’s a much quicker process to customize the colors, photos, logos, etc. on your template than changing the entire layout. And if you edit too much of the layout you’ll potentially lose all the strategy the designer infused into the template when creating it.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #2
Find a Template That’s Made for a Similar Industry
If you can’t find a Showit template that’s made exactly for your industry—try to choose one that’s in a neighboring industry.
For example, if you’re a brand photographer look at the wedding photographer templates that you like. Or if you’re a fine artist try and find one for an interior designer.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #3
Pay Attention to How Many & What Type of Pages Come With the Template
Even if the template isn’t marketed towards on specific industry you may be able to figure out if it’s the right fit for you based on what pages are included. This can also be a clue as to what kind of strategy was used when designing the template. After all, it won’t be very helpful to you if you need a blog page and the template you’ve chosen to buy doesn’t come with a blog page.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #4
View the Demo of Every Page that’s Included in the Template
Never just look at the home page of a website template and think “oh yeah this home page looks great I’m sure it’ll be fine!”. This is a recipe for a website disaster because there are quite a few one-page templates on the market. Just imagine how bad it would feel to think you’re getting a full website with your template and then coming to find out its only one page.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #5
Find Out if a License to Use the Photos & Fonts Used in the Template is Included With Your Purchase
Most Showit template shops are good about putting an easy-to-find disclaimer or FAQ going about whether the font and photos used in the template are included or not. But it’s important to figure it out before you buy because every designer does it differently.
For example, as of now, all the Showit templates in my shop use Google Fonts which already come loaded into Showit. But the Social Squares photos that are used in the template demo are not included with the template. You receive a copy of the template that has blank placeholders in place of the demo images. If you want to use the same photos on your website you’d need to sign-up for Social Squares to gain access to the images.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #6
Choose a Template that’s Made With a Strategy in Mind—Don’t Just Choose it Cause it’s Pretty
I’m a firm believer that your website needs to be pretty. But—that doesn’t mean that all website strategies should be ignored in order to make it pretty. What makes a website pretty is when it’s strategic and nice to look at design-wise.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #7
Choose a Template that has a Similar Vibe to Your Branding
Try and find a Showit template that’s general style matches the feelings you want someone to have when they interact with your website. This doesn’t mean that the template has to have the same colors as your branding. But it does mean that if your brand fits into the editorial category you should probably find a template that leans toward that style.
Choosing a Showit Template Tip #8
Look for Bonuses Included With the Template
Like I said, every designer has a different approach to their templates. Including whether or not there are any bonus resources that come with the template.
For example, all the Showit templates in my shop include a launch checklist specific to that template to help you get your website live and published in 2-weeks.
Showit Website Templates for Creatives
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