Finding the right CMS or website builder to tackle your next project is no small task. You can watch YouTube videos for hours and still not have a clear understanding of which platform suits you best. The truth is, most modern website builders are pretty good and will probably work for your business if you follow proper web design principles (unless you’re tackling some really complex functionality). 

I love building websites with Webflow. At Something Great Marketing, we recommend it for our clients in almost 50% of cases. We've grown a reputation for being the Vancouver Webflow Agency you can trust to get the job done right.

Squarespace can be great for simple projects, and WordPress is still a really powerful CMS (both are in the top 10 most popular CMS platforms in Canada). But what about some of the tools that can help you along the way? You know, the little apps, plugins and integrations that can help your site go from boring to eye-catching, from basic to powerful. We’ve been building websites for over a decade at our Port Moody-based brand & design studio, and I thought it might be a good time to share some of our favourite tools with you folks. So here we go. 

Tools that help with web design and imagery for your website

Hard to start anywhere but with Figma when you discuss design tools. It’s extremely powerful, intuitive, and it plays well with Webflow. My business partner and our lead designer, Taylor Kerby, spends half of his day in Figma, designing wireframes and prettying-up projects for our clients like REW and Travel Magazine. 

Death to Stock is one of our favourite resources for images, but sometimes we have to lean on some of the more traditional stock photography companies like Shutterstock and Unsplash if we're not conducting a photoshoot for our clients. We use the Adobe Suite of products for editing (and for custom fonts), but if you’re looking for a really simple entry-level tool, Canva is super quick. I have to admit, I fire it up at least once a day to resize or quickly edit something. It might be the easiest tool to learn to use on this list.

For web design inspiration, we love Behance and Cosmos, and Post.CV has become somewhat of a cult classic. Landingfolio is another cool service that allows us to quickly see templates that can be used in Webflow and Framer, whether you need ideas for a FAQ section or an About Us page. Well worth the price tag. 

Website tools that connect you with your site visitors

You can’t talk about connections without talking about Zapier. I’ve heard people pronounce Zapier a million different ways, so just remember this quick phrase to get it right: Zapier makes you happier. They should trademark that if they haven’t already. 

Want to get Slack notifications when someone fills out a lead form on your website? Want to receive a text message when someone takes a specific action? Want to push your email subscribers from your website directly to Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or into a Google Spreadsheet? 

Zapier does all of this and about a billion other things for us and our clients. It’s the king of connecting two separate apps or platforms. 

Tools we use for accessibility 

Making your website accessible for all visitors is becoming a routine request for many of our clients, and Userway is our go-to for all things accessibility. AccessiBe is another option, a little bit cheaper and it gets the job done. 

Tools we use to make sure your site is running smoothly

There are tons of SEO tools worth checking out, but at Something Great we really lean into Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, and Fathom Analytics. We use these tools for technical site analysis, keyword research and rankings, search engine results and optimization, and for tracking custom campaigns. It’s a powerful toolkit you should definitely check out if you have a website that you want to rank higher in search and run smoothly. 

Tools we use for video components

When our team at Something Great takes the time to shoot and edit a video, you’d better believe we want it to display correctly on our website. That’s why we invested in Wistia, a video software that allows us to customize your viewing experience. We’re talking custom colours in the video player, calls to action when videos finish, and, maybe most importantly, a player that resizes to fit the screen it’s displayed on. You don’t always get that when you embed a YouTube video on your website. 

Wistia gives us analytics so we know what’s performing well and what isn’t, and it gives our existing and potential customers a great show. Big fans. 

Here’s an example of what a Wistia player looks like from a quick video we made to show off a website build we tackled for our client at Wealthstead. 

Here's another video our team made and then threw into Wistia to showcase some social media ads we made for our client at King Carts in Tampa. It just looks better than any other embeddable video player, if you ask me.

Tools to build your next website 

If you’re thinking about tackling a new website or redoing your existing website, these tools will help you build something to be proud of. Whether it’s a landing page, a professional personal website, or a 100-page site, I’d love to chat with you about how my team and I can help you achieve your goals. 

Good luck, and don’t be afraid to reach out should you have any questions–we’re here to help.

Contact Justin and the team at Something Great here.