How to Customize Your Showit Website

Can I customize this Showit website template for my specific industry?  

This is the question we hear most often. So we thought it would be fun to show you how to easily customize any of our Showit website templates from start to finish. 

Whether you’re a physical therapist, fine artist, portrait photographer, restaurant owner, etc., this ten-step process will finetune a template for your specific niche. 

To add to the excitement, we decided to complete an extra challenge. We asked ChatGPT to create a “business” for us – industry, client avatar, testimonials, and more. To add to the fun, we had no idea what it was going to generate until we started recording the video. 

Then, we customized our Rosemary Design to match this fake business. 

This video will do a few things: 

1. Teach you how we customize a template (from start to finish) in about 30 minutes. 
2. Give you ChatGPT prompts to steal to help with your own site customization. 
3. Show you how you can make a template work for just about any business. If you want another fun example of this, watch us redesign Amelia Island for the Pumpkin Spice Latte or Magens Bay for Taco Bell.  

Now, on to the ten steps to transform any Showit template into your website.

1. Know Your Client Avatar

The first step to any website customization is determining who your client avatar is. 

Who are you speaking to? Who is your ideal customer?

Understanding your client avatar enables you to tailor your template to the specific needs and preferences of your target audience.

Keep your client avatar in mind as you customize your template to resonate with your clients, address their pain points, and provide solutions to their specific problems. 

You can actually ask ChatGPT to give you an avatar for a particular (well known) business if you think your avatar is similar to that avatar. 

Prompt: Generate a client avatar for Anthropologie.

Related: Understanding Your Ideal Client

2. Customize Your Color Palette

One of the earliest customizations you should make to a template is adding your brand colors. 

A color palette will set the tone for your website and show your personality, immediately transforming the feel of the site. We like to think of it like painting the walls of a house before you move in. It helps it feel a bit more like your space instead of someone else’s space (or more like your website instead of a template.) 

If you haven’t finalized your brand color palette yet, check out these 17 Trending Color Palettes for Websites. We put together a list of our favorite color palette combinations to help you find the perfect fit. 

You may also enjoy listening to this podcast episode with one of our designers, Sara Metzger: How to Choose the Perfect Colors for Your Brand. We walk you through the exact process we use to define aesthetics and create color palettes for our clients. 

Related: Our New Semi-Custom Brands

Updating the color palette on a Showit template is simple and fast. Just follow the steps in this video and watch the colors transform across all of the pages: How to Apply a Color Palette to Your Showit Design.

3. Change the Fonts

Next, it’s time to update the fonts on your website template. 

If you haven’t finalized your fonts yet, look over this font guide we created: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Fonts for Your Website. We’ll walk you through everything you need to consider to elevate your brand and website. 

We also put together a list of beloved Free Google Fonts for 2024. Hope you find it helpful! 

If you’re looking for extra special fonts, you may enjoy looking at one of our favorite font designers, Jen Wagner. Her fonts are impeccable and we used her font Editor’s Note in the site design. 

Once you’ve finalized your fonts, it’s time to update them on your website template. Follow the instructions in this video, and you’ll be well on your way.

4. Change the Font Headings

After you change your fonts on the template, update the font headings following the same process. This will batch apply your new font styles to the site and save you from having to click on every heading or bit of text on the pages.

5. Add Your Images

This is where the magic happens. You have your colors, fonts, and headings. Now it’s time to add your images. 

Adding images is what really makes the site feel like yours. When we’re first customizing a site, we’re often not picky about which images we put in particular spots. As we go through the customization process, we’ll fine tune, but at first, we just like to get on-brand images added to replace the placeholders. 

Aim to gather a hundred images to utilize throughout your various website pages. You want to have enough material to move the photos around until they fit their location seamlessly.  

Don’t worry, you don’t have to take all of these photos yourself or necessarily book a photoshoot. 

One of our favorite sources for images is stock photo sites. Here is a list of 15 of the best stock photo sites, where you can access countless photos for your website. 

Our current go-to for image curation is Élevae Visuals (the example we used in the video.) Élevae offers a wide range of images, including lifestyle, mockup, and flat lay images. 

Podcast Episode: Image Curation

If you’d like help resizing your images as you customize your website template, watch this video: How to Reduce Website Image Size. 

6. Prepare Your Copy

We find it’s most helpful to write out your copy, or text, for each website page in a separate Google document. This way, you won’t delete any of the design elements while you brainstorm and fine-tune. 

If this part of the template customization process feels overwhelming. That’s okay. We’re here to help. 

Here are our top resources for making your copy sound like you: 

• 11 Ways to Make Your Copy More Persuasive 
• 4 Tips for Higher Converting Copy
• Ashlyn Carter’s copywriting resources (these are seriously GOLD!)

We also have a number of copywriter friends we recommend to clients. Find those here. 

Note: all of our website templates have starter copy to guide you in this process. Hopefully this saves you from asking the question: “What should I put here?” 

7. Place Your Text

Once you’ve filled your Google document with all of the copy you need for your customized website, it’s time to fill in the blank spaces. 

Place your text throughout the design, alternating between the desktop and mobile views. This will keep your text consistent across both display versions of your website. 

Seriously – don’t save mobile until the end or it’s going to be a HOT MESS! This is one of the biggest mistakes we see people make when customizing on Showit. Get in the habit of designing desktop and then immediately designing the mobile view. 

8. Sync Your Pages and Links

You’re in the final stretch! It’s time to connect any additional pages and test your hyperlinks. 

One of the additional pages we recommend setting up is a lead magnet page. This is a page that allows you to give your audience something free in exchange for their email address. Email lists > social media every.damn.time.

If you aren’t familiar with what a lead magnet is or how to add a page to your Showit template, watch this video: Create and Send a Lead Magnet with Flodesk. 

Related: Flodesk Email Templates

We also designed a free lead landing page for you to use:

Download: Free Lead Landing Page

Another tool we love for lead gen? BDOW! 

This tool makes it easy to create forms and pop-ups for your website. We actually designed several of the newer forms ourselves. We know that a lot of email list providers have pop ups built in, but the thing we love about BDOW! forms is how intuitive they are. You can really fine tune who sees what form and when in a way that standard pop ups cannot. 

Use the code DAVEYANDKRISTA for 50% off BDOW!

You will also want to take this time to double-check all of your website’s hyperlinks. Yes, we know it’s tedious, but trust us, this step is worth it. 

9. Connect Your Domain

Connecting your domain on Showit is simple! In the Settings tab, select Site Info, Custom Domain, and then Add Domain. 

Enter your domain name and click Save. Next, you’ll need to update your DNS settings to include Showit’s DNS information. Showit is always extremely helpful with this step. They know it can be scary to change those DNS records so they’ll hold your hand through the entire process.

10. Hit Publish

See that big blue publish button on the top corner of your page? Click it! You’re ready to publish your – fully customized, completely tailored to your niche – website! 

Wrap Up 

Can I customize this Showit website template for my specific industry?  

Yes, absolutely. 

All of our Showit website templates are designed to be customized for your particular niche. The fun part is simply deciding which design you’d like to start with! 

Our current favorites?

Our Medano Design (chic, minimalistic) and our Rosemary Design (high-end, timeless).