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Episode 129: Showit vs. Elementor
470 Plays3 years ago
In today's episode Krista and I or continuing to compare different platforms. Today which everything two popular website platforms Showit and Elementor. If you're thinking about switching website platforms or you're getting ready to design your first website and you want to know what type platform is best for you this absolutely will likely answer many of your questions.
For show notes visit...https://daveyandkrista.com/showit-vs-elementor-wordpress/
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Transcript
The Continuous Nature of SEO
00:00:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think a lot of people have this misconception that you do SEO and I have this in like quotes on your website once and then you never have to do it again and you're going to automatically rank. But SEO is an ongoing thing and like you said, it's going to depend on content.
Introduction to Brands at Book Show
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show where we help creative service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones.
Website Platform Comparison: Show It vs. Elementor
00:00:36
Speaker
In today's episode, Chris and I are continuing to compare different platforms. Today, we're chatting through two popular website platforms, Show It and Elementor. So if you're thinking about switching website platforms or you're getting ready to design your first website and you want to know what website platform is best for you, this episode will likely answer many of your questions.
00:00:58
Speaker
We've also recently relaunched our YouTube channel and you can find a five to seven minute YouTube video that compares Show and Elementor. So if you'd rather watch the YouTube video, head on over to YouTube and take a look at that. I'll also put the link in the show notes if you want to check that out. And from what I'm told, it really helps if you subscribe, like and comment on the video and watch the whole thing through. So please consider doing so if you are so inclined.
Community Engagement: Reviews and Social Media
00:01:25
Speaker
more of those YouTube videos to come each and every Wednesday. And if you haven't had a chance to leave a review of the podcast on iTunes, that also helps other people searching for content like this, find this podcast on channels like iTunes. Anyways, be sure to check out the show notes at DB and Krista.com for the resources we mentioned during the episode. And we want to hear from you. Let us know what kind of content you'd like to see on the Brands at Book podcast as we move forward.
00:01:52
Speaker
To leave your feedback, just send us a DM on Instagram, at DaveyandChrista. Now, on to the episode.
Recording Sessions and Personal Updates
00:02:03
Speaker
All right, welcome back to another episode of the Branslet Book Podcast. I'm here with Christa. Hi, I'm excited to be here.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yep, and we're doing a little bit of marathon recording day here, just in full transparency. This is our second in a row. I still have a cold, so if you listen to our last episode, bear with me. So she doesn't always have a cold, she just happens to have a cold today. In case you're listening and you're like, oh man, I've listened to a couple episodes, Krista always has a cold. I mean, it could also be pregnancy stuffiness, but this is definitely a sinus infection, so.
Deep Dive: Show It and Elementor for Website Building
00:02:37
Speaker
Well, we are in this episode talking about Show It and Elementor, some of the differences between the two platforms, so that hopefully you can pick the platform that's best for you. And this is probably our most asked question of all time. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, it's kind of at the core of what we do, right? So when people come to us for a website, they're often wondering what platform is better, right? Yes. And so we have, I think, a nuanced answer for that. But I think we should start by saying we love both platforms. We do. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:06
Speaker
We do really love show it. We do really love show it. And that has a lot to do with the people behind show it too. We're not friends with the elementary people. We don't know them at all. So I mean, I would say the way you say it makes it sound like we're not, we just don't know them. We don't know who we are.
00:03:22
Speaker
Yeah. So anyways, we're going to get into all of that. And of course, if you're interested in Show It in Elementor and how they look, you should go to our website, davianchrista.com, click the button that says shop, and you can check out our Show It in Elementor website designs. And these are designs that you can purchase, customize on your own, and launch on your own if you'd like.
00:03:43
Speaker
So head over to our shop and you'll be able to see our latest releases. You'll be able to see all of our designs for both show it in Elementor. Most of our designs, we have both a show it version and Elementor version. We have probably more show it versions right available than Elementor.
00:03:59
Speaker
there's just a couple more than Elementor ones. But for the most part, right? And the ones that we don't have available for Elementor will probably one day be available for Elementor, except in maybe just a few instances. Anyways, head on over to davidandchrista.com forward slash shop to check those out.
00:04:16
Speaker
But when it comes to these platforms, we build on both of them. So right off the bat, I should let you know that we like both platforms.
SEO Capabilities of Modern Website Builders
00:04:23
Speaker
And we've tried lots of other platforms, Squarespace, Divi, Wix. Really, these are the only two that we recommend because one, both are better for search engine optimization. And I think that two, both are better visual editors.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think I would disagree that I it's a pet peeve. I think when somebody says they're better for search engine optimization, then like some platforms that still use very outdated technology. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So what I would say is that, you know, from an SEO standpoint, there are definitely platforms out there that will make things harder for you. Right. Right. But I would say with most modern website builders,
00:05:07
Speaker
and maybe that's being too broad. But I would say, if you're on a Squarespace, people, there are Squarespace websites out there where people are ranking for the searches that they wanna rank for. So anyway, so I push back, I guess a little bit about point one, but point two, for sure, from a visual editor standpoint. In case you guys think we agree on everything. Yeah, exactly. In case you think we agree on everything. I'm sure all of our friends are like, no, we agree on nothing. They need to agree on nothing.
00:05:36
Speaker
But as far as search engine optimization goes, and we should talk, we'll talk about that as we dive into this more. But I would also say just from like the SEO perspective, there's probably some people out there that would say, oh no, show it's not good for SEO or oh no, Elementor is not good for SEO. And you know, what I think they mean, and I think sometimes like people say that and that's not really true, right? Like anytime you're using a website builder, you're going to add extra code to a website to make that builder work.
00:06:04
Speaker
Right. And so that's, I mean, this is a good trade-off just to talk about in general. And I think, you know, choosing a website platform, it's going to come with a bunch of trade-offs. Do you want the most possibly optimized website that you can have? Well, if you do, then you're probably going to go to a developer and a designer and they're going to build your website and you're probably, unless you take the time to learn how, not going to easily be able to make significant changes to your website.
00:06:30
Speaker
And it's probably going to need to be a little more on the simple side because videos are going to slow down your website. Custom fonts are going to slow down your website. Just from hiring somebody to, you know, I don't really like this phrase either, but like hard code, right? Yeah, like hand code. Yeah, yeah. So then you need to know HTML and CSS and JavaScript and all of those things. PHP and so on, whatever they need to know, right? And so if you don't know those things, it's going to be harder for you to update your website or something might break and you might not know how to fix it and so on and so forth.
Custom Sites vs. Builders: Trade-offs
00:06:59
Speaker
So one of the great things about most modern website builders, whether it be show at an Elementor, which we're talking about today, or a Squarespace or a Wix or whatever, is that people feel comfortable updating their website. And so I think that's one thing that we should emphasize right off the bat is the best website for you in most cases is the website you feel comfortable updating. Yes. And that is going to work well for your business.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And of course, again, we can get as nuanced, we can get really nuanced with all of that, but if you feel super comfortable on Squarespace and that's the website you feel like, oh, I can get in there and I can make updates and I'm happy with how it looks, then that's better than you moving to a platform that somebody told you was better, but you don't know how to do anything and you don't have the time to learn. And then your website all of a sudden becomes outdated because you don't know how to get in there or whatnot.
00:07:46
Speaker
So as much as we'd say, well, show it's the better choice, then, you know, but that might be the best platform for you. So hopefully that makes sense. But let's just, let's just jump in to, you know, how would you describe show it?
00:07:59
Speaker
as a visual website builder. Basically, if you see something, you can click on it. If you're used to the Adobe Suite, so Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, all of those things, show it's probably gonna feel pretty native to you, because basically, if you click on a bit of text over on the right side, you can customize the font size and the color. You can make it fade in, you can make it bigger. There are all sorts of things that you can do to really make something look the way that you want
Show It: Features and Usability
00:08:29
Speaker
it to look.
00:08:29
Speaker
And also if you're starting with a template, something like ours, it's really easy to just like make little tweaks to make it work for your brand.
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, to change the colors, change the fonts, change the images and so on and so forth. Yeah, you don't have to worry about like cropping images when you upload them. It does video too, so it makes galleries really easy. You don't need a lot of third-party platforms and it integrates with WordPress, which is really awesome. Yeah, and I think one of the things that sets it apart from other website builders out there like Wix and Squarespace, and how would you compare or how would you describe Elementor then?
00:09:04
Speaker
Elementor is also a visual front end editor, but it's not quite the same. Like if you click on an element, you have to kind of look a little bit more to change some of the things, but you probably have even more control than you do with show it. Instead of just moving every element where you want, like freeform and show it, it's going to work in columns and grids, which I think is great because it makes mobile versions probably a little bit more intuitive. But yeah, it just adds like a layer of complexity.
00:09:34
Speaker
Yeah, one thing that I would add to that, one key distinction between the two is that your Show It is going to be more comparable to a Squarespace and a Wix, where Show It the company is going to provide you the website building tools to build your website, but they're also gonna become your website
Elementor: Flexibility and Complexity
00:09:49
Speaker
host. So you're gonna pay Show It a monthly subscription for them to host your website. And you can't build a Show It website and then take it with you to SiteGround or somewhere else to host it, right?
00:10:01
Speaker
So a little bit more comparable to Squarespace and Wix, although like we said, one of the great things about Show It and one thing that sets it apart among some other things is that it integrates with WordPress. And what that means is that if you're new to Show It, when you're ready to go live, you'll ask Show It to make your site live. If you have blog posts that are on another WordPress site or I think Squarespace, they'll move those blog posts from your old platform to the new platform and then help you get it live.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And they don't actually push your site live for you anymore. You have to update your own DNS settings. Yes. But again, I'm getting into the weeds here. But anyways, so compare that to Elementor. Elementor is a WordPress page building plugin. All right. So Elementor is only going to work with WordPress. So you're going to have to use WordPress if you want to use Elementor, but it does simplify WordPress. So there are a lot of different page building plugins out there for WordPress. We think Elementor is one of the better, if not the best page building plugin
00:10:56
Speaker
for WordPress because it adds, you know, you get a lot of control, a lot of flexibility. I would say maybe a little leaner than something like a Divi, you know? Although I know there's people out there that are gonna be like, well, this, you know, this page builder is actually leaner than Elementor. But again, why we like Elementor is because we think it strikes a nice balance between being something where we can really get the, you know, design aesthetic that we want to achieve and at the same time make it easy for our clients to then update the website.
00:11:25
Speaker
Yes, so that's why we build on both of those platforms. And if you're curious, our website is currently on Elementor, but it was on show it before our shop grew to be pretty big.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah. And so, and we can talk about the, a little bit of why we decided to make that switch once we get to that point, as far as how much each cost, like I said, show it's going to have a monthly subscription that goes with it. That monthly subscription is going to be comparable to other website builders out there. You're probably going to be in the ballpark of, you know, 20 to $40 a month, depending on which plan you choose, whether you want to blog or not a blog. And if you want to blog, whether you want to do what they call an advanced blog or a basic blog,
00:12:01
Speaker
which means that you can add any plugin you want on the advanced one, although not all of them are gonna work well, or if you just wanna be limited to a few certain plugins, that's the
Cost and Hosting Needs: Show It vs. Elementor
00:12:10
Speaker
middle one. Yeah, and so the advanced, and what a plugin is, right? So for those of you who are listening, you're like, I don't know anything about websites. Plugins add functionality to a website in an easy way. Basically, it's a tool you can install on your website without having to have somebody develop that functionality.
00:12:27
Speaker
for you, right? And there's all sorts of advantages to that. One of them being that one, you don't have to do it yourself. So you save on cost, but then two, you know, that company is usually going to continue maintaining that plugin to make sure that it works with future versions of WordPress. So another advantage of plugins, of course, the downside of plugins is the more plugins you use, typically the more of a burden it puts onto your, on your website performance. So again, another trade-off when it comes to websites, but
00:12:53
Speaker
The nice thing about Showit is that it integrates with WordPress so you can get access to certain plugins that will add functionality to your website. We typically recommend people go with the advanced blog for Showit. Especially when it comes to SEO, for instance, two of our favorite SEO tools, Yoast and RankMath. You don't need both. They do the same thing. We currently use RankMath. It's nice being able to have the pro version of that.
00:13:18
Speaker
So it's nice being able to be able to use that if you care about search engine optimization. Elementor, a little bit different. Like I said, it's a page building plugin for WordPress. You're not going to pay a monthly subscription for that, but you are going to pay $49 a year for the pro version.
00:13:36
Speaker
and you'll need to find a company to host your website as well. And that will be where the monthly fee comes in. So for instance, you can build your website and then you need to go find somewhere to host it like Flywheel or whoever. So you will have some monthly or annual cost in there for that. One thing we'll mention about hosting is if you're paying $2 a month for hosting, there's a reason you're paying $2 for hosting. So keep in mind that hosting can run from
00:14:02
Speaker
a few dollars a month to hundreds of dollars a month. And in a lot of instances, you get what you pay
User Friendliness: Show It vs. Elementor
00:14:09
Speaker
for. Yeah. So they might like significantly slow down your site if it gets too large or you have too much traffic. And a lot of those $2 hosts just load incredibly slowly. Yeah. And we did a whole episode on this too.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, so we don't have to dive into that too much, but I would expect to pay at least $20 a month for hosting, at the very least. A decent host that is going to have a secure site and do some of the stuff that you need them to do. Yeah. And we've talked about that in another episode. But you can expect to pay about $49 for an elementary license, but it is a... I think you pay $49 once and then it renews at a discount each year. Yes.
00:14:48
Speaker
Anyways, getting into some of the more significant differences, ease of use, which one would you say is easier to use? Show it around the tour. Like 100% show it.
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think that it's super close. I'd say all things equal, somebody walking into it and not having a ton of experience with either platform, then they're going to most likely pick up, show it more easily than they would Elementor and WordPress. Right. You will probably find that is because it's a little more limited, but not everybody needs all the bells and whistles when they're designing their website.
00:15:18
Speaker
Yeah. And I would say we can say limited loosely. Yeah, loosely limited. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say the other reason too is just because like in WordPress, there's just like, for instance, if I want to edit the top level navigation in WordPress, you know, like I have to go to menus and I have to create the menu and then I have to, you know, I have to make adjustments there. Whereas in show it, it's all part of that builder, right? And so you just click that, you know, site white canvas, and then you make the adjustment.
00:15:43
Speaker
Yeah, you know, but with that said maybe getting back to complexity like drop-down menus Lots way easier in WordPress than they are in show it show it doesn't have them like natively built-in So you have to kind of fake it to get a drop-down menu to work. Yeah. Yeah So again going back to just the trade-offs there, but I would say in the ease of use category