9 Best Design Tools and Resources to Build Your Business Website
Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you :)
I always make sure I have a TON of tools and resources at my disposal for creating business websites (after all, I have a career as a Squarespace and Showit website designer!)
Today, I’m sharing some of my favorites that I use almost every week (or even every day) to run my business.
1. Canva (free/paid)
Canva is one of my all-time favorite tools for creating social media graphics for Instagram and for creating banner images for my Squarespace website (and those of my clients).
Canva offers two different plans: one free and one paid (premium,) and while you can definitely get tons of use out of Canva with either, I always recommend upgrading to business owners!
It’s so worth it.
2. JPEGmini (paid)
JPEGmini is great because it condenses the size of your JPEG images without compromising their quality.
This helps your website run faster (when it’s not bogged down with enormous image files!) This makes it step #2 in my go-to photo optimization process!
JPEGmini offers a free trial before you have to pay, and it downloads right onto your desktop for easy access.
3. Tinypng (free)
Tinypng is similar to JPEGmini, but for both PNG and JPG files! It condenses their size while keeping them high-quality, and is COMPLETELY FREE!
It’s step #3 in my go-to photo optimization process, and can process up to twenty images at a time!
4. Pinterest (free)
Pinterest has provided a major amount of my inspiration when it comes to social media and website aesthetics. I use it as an inspiration board to keep track of my favorite visual branding and website layouts for future reference.
I also have my clients create one before we work together on their website redesign so I can visually see the aesthetic that they’re drawn to.
If you’re looking for more marketing opportunities for your website, you can also create and post pins that link to your blog posts or services!
5. Coolors.co (free)
Coolors website is great for color inspiration. It’s deemed itself the “super fast color scheme generator” and it does just that!
It can quickly generate a variety of color schemes that you can use as inspo for your website or social media pages.
6. Colorzilla (free)
Colorzilla is a Google Chrome extension that will pull a color from any page. So if you really like a color but aren’t sure what its hex code (which is a set of numbers unique to each color) you can use its “pick color from page” feature.
It’s so convenient!
7. Google Fonts (free)
Google Fonts are perfect for use on websites because they are FREE!
In addition, Google Fonts provides easy sorting capabilities, letting you filter fonts by serif, sans serif, display, handwriting, etc…)
8. Smart Mockups (free/paid)
Smart Mockups is perfect for creating mockups (displaying your digital product on a computer, tablet, or phone in a photo.) I love using these to display my website designs on a laptop and/or desktop computer so my clients can see exactly what they are signing up for. This resource is also perfect for anyone who designs/sells any kind of backgrounds or wallpapers!
9. Creative Market (paid)
Creative Market is an incredible place to find custom fonts, illustrations, graphics and textures/patterns that you can purchase a commercial license for so you can use it for your business. I’ve used it many times for myself and love to take a look through its database for client website projects.
These are my favorite resources to use in my business as a website designer, and I hope they help you, too!
If all this sounds great but you are looking for done-for-you, ready-to-go website design done by a pro, I encourage you to check out my services below! I’m a Squarespace and Showit website designer who loves helping clients take their businesses to the next level via a professional and clean online space!
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