Cynthia Oswald

Surface Design, Fine Art + Branding for Creatives

web development

Choosing the Best Website Platform for You

Which website platform is right for you?

Almost daily I’m running into the question from small business owners—which website platform is right for me? There isn’t one right answer. The answer depends on how large your business is, what type of business you are running, and what you plan to do with your site and offers over time. I personally work in WordPress and Shopify. Do I recommend WordPress or Shopify to everyone? Absolutely not. I wholeheartedly believe in guiding people to the best platform for them. That means that I have questions for them. I look for the best answer based on their unique needs. All that said, let’s dive into the different platforms I’m most familiar with—who they are for and what are some of the positives for each. And just because you might not see a platform on this list doesn’t mean it’s not a good fit. Just be sure to understand who the platform is best serving, what the limitations might be based on your unique needs, and what the investment will be from (considering design, development, and hosting) in order to assess whether a website platform is right for you and your business. 

WordPress

Who is WordPress for?

WordPress is an excellent option for anyone who is blogging long-form content to grow their audience. It works well for service providers who aren’t selling products on their site. It’s an excellent option for anyone looking to build a static website to promote their business. It can also work as an educational platform by integrating a plugin. If you have a multi-faceted business with multiple streams and offers, WordPress may be a solution for you.

The Positives:

  • As an open-source platform, anyone can contribute to the platform making it flexible and compatible with most integrations.
  • There is always a plugin solution for almost anything you can imagine with WordPress.
  • The platform started out heavy in the blogging arena and therefore is one of the best blogging solutions out there.
  • It’s also a desirable option if you are looking to optimize your content for organic searches—SEO.
  • It can be fully customized by your designer/developer to match your brand exactly as you wish.
  • With the latest page builder interface—Gutenberg—it is something you can maintain on your own vs. hiring a web designer/developer to continue editing over time.
ShowIt

Who is ShowIt for?

ShowIt is also an excellent solution for bloggers, service providers, and anyone looking for mostly static websites. They have an extremely attractive theme library, making it a desirable option for someone how wants a beautiful blogging site without a ton of work. ShowIt is gaining more traction online these days due to influencers who have marketed the platform. It actually utilizes the WordPress platform—meaning that it’s building off of WordPress. That said, depending on your specific needs and your budget you might consider using WordPress instead.

The Positives:

  • Showit offers a drag-and-drop website builder that makes it easy to create a professional-looking website without any coding skills.
  • It has a wide range of customizable templates and design options to choose from, making it easy to create a unique and attractive website.
  • Showit offers seamless integration with WordPress, making it a good option for bloggers who want to combine the flexibility of WordPress with the ease of use of Showit.
  • It offers excellent customer support and resources, including a helpful community forum and chat support.
Shopify

Who is Shopify for?

Shopify is for small to medium-sized businesses that want to create an online store to sell products or services (e-commerce).

The Positives:

  • Shopify is a user-friendly platform that allows you to set up an online store quickly and easily.
  • The platform offers a range of templates and customization options, which makes it easy to create a professional-looking website.
  • Shopify provides a range of features, including payment processing, inventory management, and shipping integration.
  • The platform has a large app store that allows you to add extra functionality to your store.
Squarespace

Who is Squarespace for?

Squarespace is for small businesses, freelancers, and individuals who want to create a professional-looking website without the need for coding or technical skills.

The Positives:

  • Squarespace provides a range of beautiful templates that are easy to customize, making it easy to create a professional-looking website.
  • The platform offers a range of features, including e-commerce functionality, blogging, and social media integration.
  • Squarespace provides good support and resources to help users create and manage their websites.
  • The platform is mobile-responsive, which means that your website will look good on all devices.
Kajabi

Who is Kajabi for?

Kajabi is designed specifically for entrepreneurs, coaches, and online course creators who want to create and sell digital products and courses.

The Positives:

  • Kajabi offers an all-in-one platform that includes website hosting, email marketing, landing pages, and sales funnel tools, making it easy to manage all aspects of your online business in one place.
  • It has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and customize your website, even if you don’t have any coding experience.
  • Kajabi offers advanced marketing and analytics tools, including the ability to track customer behavior and create targeted marketing campaigns.
  • It has excellent customer support, including live chat and email support.
Thinkific

Who is Thinkific for?

Thinkific is designed specifically for online course creators who want to create and sell digital courses.

The Positives:

  • Thinkific offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and customize your online course, even if you don’t have any coding experience.
  • It has a wide range of customizable templates and design options to choose from, making it easy to create a unique and attractive online course.
  • Thinkific offers advanced marketing and analytics tools, including the ability to track customer behavior and create targeted marketing campaigns.
  • It has excellent customer support, including live chat and email support.
Circle

Who is Circle for?

Circle is an online community platform that can be used by businesses, creators, and organizations to build a community around their brand. It’s an excellent option for those who want to create a private community or membership site where members can interact with each other and access exclusive content.

The Positives:

  • Circle provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to create a community and membership site quickly and easily.
  • You can customize the design of your community to match your brand and create a personalized experience for your members.
  • Circle integrates with various payment gateways, making it easy to charge for membership or access to exclusive content.
  • You can create multiple membership levels, each with its own pricing, content, and access.
  • You can also create automated email sequences to engage with your members and keep them up to date on new content or community events.
Mighty Networks

Who is Mighty Networks for?

Mighty Networks is for creators, entrepreneurs, and organizations who want to build their own community or membership site to connect with like-minded people, share content, and sell products or services.

The Positives:

  • Mighty Networks provides a simple and easy-to-use platform for building online communities and membership sites.
  • It offers features like discussion forums, event management, and course creation tools, which are useful for creators and entrepreneurs.
  • Mighty Networks allows you to monetize your community by selling courses, digital products, and subscriptions.
  • The platform provides a white-label option, which allows you to customize the look and feel of your community to match your brand.

In closing, choosing the right website platform is an important decision for any small business owner. The best platform depends on the size of the business, the type of business, and the website’s intended purpose. When considering which platform to choose, it is important to consider the investment, including design, development, and hosting costs. While each platform has its positives and negatives, it is essential to assess which platform best serves a business’s unique needs.

Please note: website platforms are changing and growing everyday. The information above may change overtime. This is a short and inconclusive list to help guide you and point you in the right direction. Thorough research is needed on your part in order to determine the best platform for you.

Consistent Spacing on Your Website & Why It’s Important

Website success tips

Key areas to have consistent spacing on your website

Set up rules for spacing throughout your site, consider creating rules for the following:

  1. Space around images
  2. Space below headers
  3. Space between paragraphs
  4. Space within page sections

For the final tip of the top 10 tips to make your website a success I’m sharing about creating consistent spacing. It’s really a pretty simple concept, but it’s something that’s easy to overlook. When you’re setting up your standards for your fonts, I recommend creating some rules around the spacing as well. 

You want to consider the space around your images and make sure that that spacing is always consistent. For example, you might have a few different ways that your images are showing up (2-column, full-width, etc.). Create rules for each instance so you can establish consistency throughout the site.

Also consider space below and above your headings, making sure that it’s always the same depending on the heading that you’re using, and then also have consistent spacing between paragraphs and in between the different sections within your page. I have previously talked about page breaks, or the page fold, making sure that the space in that page section is consistent throughout so your white spaces throughout is looking cohesive. The whole purpose of this is to create brand cohesion and create some rules around the spacing in your brand so that it feels put together it elevates the way it comes across. 

Want to see the full list of website success tips? Download my FREE Website Checklist!

Adding CTAs to Your Website

website success tips

Best placement for calls to action on your website

Top 3 Things to Consider When Adding CTAs to Your Website

  1. What’s the number 1 goal of your website? Be sure to create CTAs (calls to action) throughout pointing users to that goal/next steps
  2. Include one above the page fold on each page, and throughout the content, as well as the bottom of every page
  3. Make it easy for your user to know what their next action should be

Today’s tip is all about creating calls to action throughout your website and making sure that you share it in the most important locations on your site. You are going to include it in your menu, which essentially are different calls to action, but you also want to have a button or some specific highlighted call to action below the intro copy so that people know exactly where they should be going next after they read that information. Always be thinking about what the number one goal of the page is and then make sure that your call to action relates specifically to that goal and points the user to the next logical location. 

Examples of CTA’s are: 

  • make a purchase
  • sign up for your email newsletter
  • learn more about a service
  • contact
  • schedule a call

You want to relate back to what’s the number one goal for that page and the content and really, your website overall. You would think that creating calls to action would be very natural, but a lot of times we overlook it and just think that people will find what they need to do by looking through the menu. As the user is scrolling through content, they may decide to jump off the page and take action on what you are sharing so include CTAs throughout the copy/pages in natural locations. Sometimes it looks like having four different links that all lead to the exact same location from one page. Website visitors are looking for next steps, so making it really obvious is going to be helpful for them and it’s going to make the user experience better. 

I have one more tip in this series all about consistent spacing and then I’ll be moving on to the next series. If you want to see a full list of all my top website tips, download my FREE Website Checklist!

Ways to create visual hierarchy on your website

website success tips

Visual hierarchy and how to use it effectively on your website

Today’s tip is about creating a visual hierarchy on your website. I want you to be thinking about what happens when you land on your website homepage or any other corresponding page secondary page. How is it that your eye moves through the page? Sometimes it’s really hard to look at that when you’re the one building your own site. I always recommend starting with wireframes for this purpose. If you’re struggling to create a visual hierarchy on your own site, I suggest taking a look at websites that you like to frequent and taking note of how they create visual hierarchy. How are they creating balance and how are you as the viewer moving through the page naturally? 

Here are a few things you can do to create this on your own site:

  1. You can use images and color blocking as a way to create a visual hierarchy by breaking the page into sections. It allows your eye to focus on different locations. 
  2. You can also utilize scale in your imagery and copy. Creating standard looks for headlines, subheads, and body copy is just going to help people understand where they should look first, second, and third, and finally where they should land. 
  3. Finally be thinking about that call to action and how does that fit into the visual hierarchy? This is important because your call to action is what you want people to gravitate toward on your website. 

A visual hierarchy works quickly and subconsciously to guide users through your content. We just look at a page or a composition and we’re naturally moving through the information/imagery. Again, try to take a look at some sites that you enjoy visiting and you’ll start to see what’s working and how they’re doing it. Then you can take some ideas you pulled from looking at those other sites and begin implementing them into your own brand visuals. 

Want to know more website success tips? Download my FREE Website Checklist!

Top 3 Things to Think About Regarding Your Website Page Fold

Website Success Tips

Consideration of the page fold

What is a page fold? For physical projects consider a brochure, a natural break occurs when you open up a panel. It’s when you literally turn the page — creating those very apparent, natural breaks in the text and visuals. In the digital world, a page fold is considered anything you can see within the screen on the device you are using to view the web page, when you find yourself needing to scroll down to see more, you have found the page fold. 

On a website, there are a few things that you want to consider before a visitor starts to scroll down your web page. Below are my top 3 things to think about when viewing your website with the consideration of the page fold in mind.

1. Understand what is showing up on the screen when someone lands on our site from all devices

The first thing to consider is: what does the web visitor see when landing on your webpage? Do they see everything you are wanting them to see or are they not seeing enough? Make sure to consider the devices that someone could be using to view your website (phone, laptop, tablet, desktop). Every device has a different page fold, so you want to make sure to use the viewfinder to see what the screen view looks like on each device. Usually, your website should be responsive to different devices, but it never hurts to double-check that everything translates properly.

2. Including a CTA 

At the top of the page (and this goes for all web pages, not just your home page), you want to make sure that you always have a call to action above the fold. Consider having a call-out section above the fold that includes a header, a little bit of copy that articulates what they can expect to learn or find on this page, and a quick button so they can easily click into the goal location. Some web visitors are coming to your website to take immediate action, so you want to make sure that the CTA is up-front and center so they don’t have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the webpage to find the link they are looking for.

3. Create Natural Breaks

In the case that a visitor decides not to immediately click on the CTA at the top of the webpage, and begins to scroll, you will want to make sure that you have created natural breaks on the page. Why is this important? You don’t want it to feel like an endless scroll with no hierarchy.  It’s not visually pleasing and can cause your visitor to lose interest. Try these design elements to help create natural feeling page breaks:

  • color blocking
  • images
  • lines
  • whitespace

These options can create mental indicators to the reader which content belongs together and when the next thought has begun. Creating those natural breaks in the page allows the end-user to have a pleasing overall experience when viewing your website. It’s a way to create breathing room online versus the physical world. 

Want to know more website success tips? Download my FREE Website Checklist!

Creating a Style Guide

Website Success Tips

Creating your brand cheat sheet

I am excited to share some important things you want to be considering when it comes to the visuals you have on your website and something I always create for my clients is a brand cheat sheet (also known as a style guide). 

A style guide is a cheat sheet for yourself that helps you stay consistent and cohesive throughout your website and your communication platforms. Examples of this would be when building an email template, building or editing different aspects of your website, or when creating social media graphics. In addition to creating brand cohesion, having a brand cheat sheet allows you to work so much faster! You aren’t wasting time trying to figure out what color you used last time, what font did I use as my body font, etc. 

Brand cheat sheets are pretty simple to make, I would suggest using Canva or Adobe Express to make one for your business if you don’t have one already. Listed below are some things to include in your brand cheat sheet if you are creating your own.

What to include on your website brand cheat sheet

Hex Colors

What are hex colors? They are color codes that have a hashtag followed by a combination of six digits (can be letters or numbers or both!). For example, one of my hex codes is #3C462D — the super secret code for the dark green in my branding. 

How do I find out what the hex codes are for my brand colors? If you have the color makeup for your brand colors in CMYK or RBG you can convert to HEX here: https://g.co/kgs/Tynft2

I would suggest having 3-5 hex colors for your brand. You should be able to use these hex codes throughout your email marketing, social media, and website seamlessly.

Fonts

It is always nice to outline the fonts you are going to come across throughout your branding. Having two to four font treatments gives you some great variation to make your brand stand out. The two types of fonts you want to make sure you include are a headline font and body copy font and make sure they flow well together.

Logos

All variations of your logo—horizontal, vertical, square, emblems, one-color, full-color, etc.

Brand Imagery

Images you want to show alongside your logo. You want these to be cohesive with your brand and serve as examples of what type of imagery you want to use and want people to associate with your brand.

I hope the tips above help you create a quick style guide that serves as a catalyst for brand cohesion in your business if you do not have one already.