Hey there! I’m Carla, the owner and designer at Site Designs for You, and I’m glad to share a bit more about myself, my business, and my mission. My goal with every business website is to build out the site in your vision and to support your niche or target audience. Here’s a brief bio of how this business got it’s start.
Site Designs for You began around 2018 with my laptop, a few friends who were willing to give me the opportunity to build their sites, and the belief that a strong website starts with a plan and vision. In 2020, the official launch started, and here is how it has evolved since.
2020
Started as Blog Designs for You creating Blogger Sites
Site Designs for You launched as Blog Designs for You initially. My first three clients were Adventures in Literacy Land, Virginia is for Teachers, and VSLA Piedmont. With my background in education, these collaborative websites were a great place to start.
2021
Business expands to WordPress with a focus on teacher bloggers and educational resource creators.
For years, I used Blogger for my teacher site, Comprehension Connection, but by 2016 or 2017, I had outgrown it and was ready to expand to WordPress. I rebuilt my site initially with a Restored 316 theme, then Ocean WP, and eventually, Hello (Elementor’s theme). With each redesign, I worked to improve the layouts, the load speed, and content just as I have for clients. My very first WordPress site was Teach Magically, and Debra still provides great resources for primary children.
2022
Expanded Market and Offerings
With Covid, things began changing in the educational resources market. Teacherpreneurs began to focus on email marketing, courses, and SEO. With each change, it’s been important to keep on top of website needs. I began offering website maintenance to help busy teachers keep on top of website changes. I also created my first non-teacher website, Proctor Electric Company.
2023
Continued focus on Educational Websites and Improved Services
As with everything on the internet, there is a continuous need to learn, adapt, and expand your skills and offerings. I continued offering website maintenance plans for clients, but when I outgrew my plan on ManageWP, I moved to WP Remote. I also began using only the Hello theme for fully customized sites. I still continued offering Blogger websites, but with the end of Georgia Lou Studios, I shifted to a few themes I found on Etsy.
2024
Introduction to Sales Pages and Small Business Sites
In 2024, I began offering sessions through online conferences sponsored by other Teacherpreneurs about the creation of sales pages for product lines and to help creators grow their email lists. Examples of sales pages I have designed can be viewed on my site, Comprehension Connection, in the dropdown menu. Sales pages continue to be very useful in marketing. I also began to expand to new local markets with Clean Nest LLC and Focused Choice Dog Training.
2025
More Local Business Sites and SEO
In 2025, I added a few new markets to my portfolio including restaurants, cleaning services, construction, tourism, and a baseball tournaments site. I have really enjoyed these new markets and SEO opportunities. You can view these sites at Cruise SML, Parkway Building & Construction, Tidy Guy, and The Reef.
I take any job I work on seriously, and my clients typically become new friends. Therefore, I take pride in helping my clients’ businesses grow as they develop their brands. I work to ensure that the final website result matches my clients’ business goals, and I work with them to learn about their business, ideal customers, about their products and services, and about what they want out of their website. I also work very hard to teach them best practices in using their websites in order to keep all websites running smoothly and looking their best. A solid website must start with a plan.
I'm not done with your site until you are completely satisfied. I will share progress notes and videos throughout the process in order to get your feedback and input. Please check out client testimonials and reviews below.
The best way to achieve the final design that YOU want is through communication. I will have you outline things you like and dislike about other sites to get an idea of YOUR vision. I will also ask for you to provide some of the verbiage you want me to use, photos that will make your site personal, and I will do my best to tell your story.
Many clients aren't sure of what they want. If that is you, then I am happy to share suggestions. We can discuss colors, layouts, fonts, and images. I also have a portfolio that you can look at to see if these sites match your style.
Once your site is complete, you will receive 2 weeks of website maintenance and support. I will share video tutorials to help you learn about your site as well. I also encourage you to join my Facebook group where I will share helpful tips too. I believe we learn best from each other. For those who need it, I also offer ongoing site maintenance plans to make sure your site continues working seemlessly.
Your site needs to be easy to navigate. Important pages should be in your menu and text should be concise, broken up into readable chunks, and accented with purposeful photos and icons. I suggest using buttons strategically placed to support users, easy to read fonts, and clear branding.
Choosing a color scheme that appeals to readers is more important than you think. You want your color palette to give your customer a sense of calm if you are a yoga instructor, excitement if you're a musician, or happiness if you're a therapist, and keep accessibility in mind too with contrast.
Some people can be very choosy when it comes to fonts, but the most important thing about fonts is that they work FOR THE CUSTOMER. Clean bold fonts work well for titles and captions. For the text though, you must choose a font that is easy on the eyes. Make sure the font is for commercial use.
Finally, we all know time is money. If a site is slow to load and hard to navigate, what will happen? Will the content matter to the reader? Hate to tell you this, but the answer is, "No!" The reader will click out and move on. There are lots of things that impact site speed, and I will help you avoid some of the mistakes I made with my early blogging experience.
I really enjoyed working with Carla! I approached her about updating my website, and she got me on her schedule quickly. She helped me redesign my entire website, and I couldn’t be happier with it! Two things I really appreciated about working with Carla are that she makes sure she understands exactly what you want while making her own suggestions for improvement. I also appreciated how she works in a timely manner so this website redesign didn’t hang over my head for too long. It’s been fun to see sales coming from my website now as a result of the redesign. I highly recommend Carla if you’re looking for website design!
Jen | ELA Skill Builder
Carla was great to work with! She really captured my vision but also offered ideas for new things I would have never thought of. She is timely and very helpful with all things website! I highly recommend her to help build and/or maintain your website!
Alissa | Hinzspire You
I recently had the pleasure of working with Carla to design and create my website and I couldn’t be happier with the results! From the moment I contacted Carla, I knew she was the right person for the job. She was so knowledgeable and answered all of my questions through the whole process. She was able to turn my ideas and vision into a reality. I was amazed at how quickly everything was done! I whole heartedly recommend Carla at Site Designs for You for all of your website needs!
Mandie | Differentiation Corner
Site Designs for You and Carla did a wonderful job with my website. She redesigned it and helped with SEO and now I am being “seen” and getting “hits”! Yay! Site Designs for You for you is a local company so you get lots of one on one attention. She truly cares about how your site looks is excellent at either building a new website or redesigned an old, boring one! Kudos to Carla!! Thank you Site Designs for You!!
Heather | Owner of Focused Choice Dog Training
I can’t recommend Carla enough. She has helped me update my blog and add functions to help make it better. She is my “go-to” person for questions and she’s always available to help. If you are considering creating a website or updating your existing website, she’s there for you.
Cathy | The WISE Owl
