Last week, we launched a brand new website. This project has been months in the making, and finally seeing it live feels like we can check off one of the major goals for the year.
In this blog post, we’ll share why we moved our website back to Showit and how we did it. If you are considering building a website or changing website platforms, hopefully, this encourages you and provides a framework for the process.
Let’s begin with the backstory…
The Backstory
The business first began in 2010. The inaugural iteration of our site was built with straight HTML, but it quickly became apparent that those were the dark times, and I realized I was going to need WordPress. Fast forward a few years, and I discovered the design flexibility of Showit. We switched our site to Showit in 2016. That same year, our product shop launched with a cart system built on Shopify. Shortly after, we transitioned our cart system to Thrivecart.
We later included add-on pages to our product lineup and came to realize that customers couldn’t purchase multiple products from the shop at once. To buy both a full website template and an add-on, they had to go through the checkout process twice, which certainly put a damper on shop sales.
In 2018, as our team grew, we began exploring WooCommerce. Our shop had quite a few products, and adjusting pricing for sales or manually moving products around in Showit was becoming increasingly tedious. At that time, Showit didn’t support WooCommerce. (Note: They still don’t technically support it, but it functions better now.) We decided to migrate our site to Elementor + WooCommerce in 2019 to manage the growing shop.
Related: How to Sell Products on Your Showit Website
This combination worked well for years. However, by 2024, Elementor updates posed significant challenges for us in controlling design. Fonts became unlinked with each plugin update, images broke, and site speed became sluggish. We found ourselves needing to upgrade our hosting plan to a service costing us hundreds of dollars a month just to keep the site functional.
We’ve observed more and more people dissatisfied with Elementor and switching to Showit for its ease and stability.
As a web designer, I started to feel very limited by the design of our site. Making updates to the pages was difficult, and I simply didn’t feel proud of my site anymore, which is not an acceptable feeling for a web designer.
So, I made the decision to move our site back to Showit.
This was a massive undertaking because our site consists of over 150 pages, with more than 60 live products and many active payment plans. We also share several new pieces of content each week, making our site a busy hub.
Related: Saying ‘Yes’ and Doing Things Scared
Moving Our Site to Showit
The move required a lot of planning due to the hefty size of our site.
1. Outline the Design
As with nearly all of my design work, I started by designing the site’s framework in Sketch. I even used our Medano template as a base because it’s one of my favorites.
Related: Our Favorite Tools for Designers
2. Create a Spreadsheet
My team created a spreadsheet of all the pages on our site, noting which could be redirected to a new page, which needed updates, and which contained special content, such as embedded forms.
3. Start Building
Once I had the design styles set, I built the first few pages. Then, my team and I tackled the site page by page.
We started by building our site in Showit and requested their team to perform an initial copy of our current site to a staging site. Because we retained WooCommerce functionality, we needed a working copy of WordPress to test.
4. Test Everything
After the pages were built, we tested links, mobile responsiveness, grammar, consistency, etc. I also set up a 99% off coupon to test ordering and ensure payment processing worked correctly.
Download: Website QA Checklist Guide
5. Integrate Codes
We made sure to integrate all our tracking codes on the new site:
- Google Analytics
- Facebook Pixel
- BDOW! Pop-Ups
- Social Proof
Related: How to Quickly Connect BDOW! + Showit
6. Collaborate with Showit
As the site neared perfection, we collaborated with the Showit team to go live. This included a final content pull to synchronize payments and any updated or added content, as well as updating DNS records to point to Showit’s servers.
Related: Why Showit is Our Favorite
7. Redirect pages
I also employed the Redirection plugin through RankMath to manage redirects for any old pages not included on the new site.
8. Prepare Launch Strategy
Our marketing team prepared social graphics and emails for the new site launch. Additionally, we decided to host a sale to capitalize on the increased traffic. This required preparation for emails, a countdown timer, Facebook ads, and several other graphics.
Related: Create a Website Launch Marketing Plan
We created a free Website Launch Checklist for you! Click here to download your printable checklist.
9. Check SEO Optimization
After the site had been live for a day or so, we conducted an SEO audit with Ubersuggest to check for any broken links, missing heading tags, etc.
We tested our site for a full week before making a public announcement to ensure a seamless experience with ordering. We also put a ‘vacation’ mode on our store for a day or so before our public launch.
10. Celebrate Your Hard Work
The final step is to announce your new website and celebrate! This project consumed a tremendous portion of our time this summer, with each team member dedicating a few hours daily to the site revamp, all while managing our regular client workload.
Wrap Up
In conclusion, this entire journey of revamping our site and migrating back to Showit has been a labor of love, reflecting our unwavering dedication to both innovation and user satisfaction. We are thrilled to finally unveil our new website to you.
We warmly invite you to explore the fresh look and feel, the intuitive navigation, and the new features we’ve integrated. Your experience on our site matters deeply to us, and we’re committed to making it as enjoyable and efficient as possible.
Please do not hesitate to share your thoughts on the changes. Feedback from our community is invaluable as it drives our continuous improvement. We look forward to hearing your impressions.
Thank you for joining us in this exciting chapter of our story. Here’s to forging ahead with creativity and connection at the forefront!
Krista is the co-founder of Davey & Krista, a creative studio known for high-converting Showit website templates crafted for photographers, creatives, and entrepreneurs. With over 15 years of branding and marketing experience, she helps business owners launch stunning websites without the tech overwhelm. Krista also teaches designers how to turn their creative skills into a thriving business—through templates, courses, and behind-the-scenes strategy. When she’s not designing, you’ll find her chasing sunshine, color palettes, and gluten-free pizza.
Explore website templates and free resources at daveyandkrista.com.
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