AuthorsContributor
Editor and freelance web designer
Nadia Brennan
Nadia Brennan has designed websites for small businesses for eleven years as a freelancer, building them on WordPress, Shopify and Squarespace for restaurants, salons, studios and shops. She starts every site from how it should look and works back to the theme and the platform.
As editor she writes the Themes, Website Builders, WordPress, Online Stores and Web Design sections and looks after Theme Match, always with the yearly price after the first-year discount.
Guides
8 guides, newest first
Etsy vs Shopify for makers: the fees and when to use both
Etsy’s fees and Shopify’s added up at $5,000, $20,000 and $60,000 a year in sales, then what fees don’t show: buyers, your shop’s look and a list to email.
Font pairing for websites: how to choose two fonts
Choose a body font for reading and a heading font for the feel, set the sizes, then test both on your own homepage. Eight free Google Fonts pairs to start.
How to choose a color palette for your website
Pick a background, a text color and one accent from what your business already looks like, check each pair for contrast, then set them once in your theme.
How to choose a website template: a first-timer’s checklist
Choose a website template by its look, then test it with your own photos and your longest page, open it on your phone and add up what year two costs.
How to switch WordPress themes without breaking your site
A new theme leaves your posts alone but can scatter menus, widgets and CSS. Back up, list what the old theme does, preview with your content, then switch.
Restaurant website templates: 5 picks and their yearly cost
Five restaurant, café and bakery templates on Squarespace, Wix and WordPress, with what each costs a year after the intro offers and the catch with bookings.
Squarespace vs Wix: which suits your first website?
Squarespace suits a tidy site you set up and leave; Wix suits moving things anywhere and taking bookings. The yearly bills, the fees and what you can’t undo.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: which one for a first site?
Same software, two ways to run it: which WordPress.com plan runs the theme you want, what each route costs a year, and who does updates, backups and security.
