When it comes to designing a website, there are two approaches a client must consider: custom website design or website template? Both have pros and cons, and with a professional to ask the right questions you can be sure to get the right website for your needs.
Custom Website Design Advantages:
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Unique design - No other sites are using your design because it is custom and not sold randomly on other websites.
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More adaptable for your needs - Your website design should fit around your business and not your business around the website. A good designer should be able to take into consideration what features you are requesting and the priority of those features and create a custom website design that highlights the areas your desire. Grabbing your viewers’ focal point on your goals.
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Unique branding - Branding is one of the most important aspects of marketing your company. When looking for marketing material your branding is top priority and should be at the top of your list when creating your custom design.
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Search engine friendly - Custom website designs are hand-coded by the designer to improve your search engine optimization experience.
NOTE: You still have to do some more work to be at the top. There is more involved in SEO than the code in the background, but that is for another article. However, a well-designed site will only help achieve a higher ranking and position.
Custom Website Design Disadvantages:
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Cost is higher.
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Longer development time.
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Can’t see design until mockups are complete.
It is true that a template can save you some cash. Usually a lot of people assume that if they choose a template the site will be done faster too, but sometimes that is not true. Templates can be adjusted with some coding but you are limited in this area of customization. Making adjustments to a template can turn into a long process depending on what is needed. There are some advantages and disadvantages to using templates.
Website Template Advantages:
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Templates are cheaper.
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There are a wide selection of premade templates
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Development time may be shorter…
Website Template Disadvantages:
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Not unique / Generic look – Templates are purchased and used all over the web. It’s hard to believe but I came across a site once that I realized was using the same template just different header images. This is not good if you want to stand out online to your viewers.
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Branding – Your online branding ideas may be limited due to a template. Templates are pre-coded for a specific framework that might not fit your branding needs.
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Search Engine Optimization – Due to a template being pre-coded by another designer you don’t really know if they took into consideration SEO. Are the correct tags being used to help reach your desired viewers?
We do prefer to do custom designs and that is why we offer a custom website design in our package bundle. We have always found working with a custom website design helps achieve our client’s goals and online presence they desire.
There are some good ways to use templates, though. Usually clients don’t really know what they are looking for in their website design. That is a good way to use templates. Have them view a few templates but don’t use them. Take a few of the templates they like, draw up your own mockup around those and add your customization with their branding included.
If you have information you would like to add feel free to write a sub-article. Do you prefer custom design or templates?
If you are looking for a company that offers custom website designs, we can help you out!
