Why Not to use Website Templates
- They are Generic- Generic templates are also referred to as “cookie-cutter” templates and are not as valuable as a customized solution. With a template you are designing your goals for your website to fit into a template. With a customized website you are first defining your niche market and target audience, prioritizing your goals and plan for your online market, defining conversion, and creating a website that will serve as a tool for your business advancement on a long term scale.
- Difficult to Make Changes in the Future- As your business changes and evolves, you may want to add new features onto your website to keep up with the modern design or trend at the time. With a template you are unable to make changes, and you make it more difficult on future developers who will have to make alterations to your website. They will most likely want to start from scratch.
- You are not actually “Saving Money”- As a customized website design company, we are constantly getting clients who have spent their money on website template, in in return spend more money trying to make changes to the template. Time after time they say, “I wish I would have skipped the template and went straight for a customized website.” Using a template will most likely cost you more money than using a designer to begin with.
- Not SEO Friendly- A template is not going to help you rank very high in the organic search. A template website is not going to help much with SEO. Again, it is a short term mindset rather than a long term investment.
- Devalues your “Brand Recognition”- Digital marketing today is all about customer interaction. Adding unique features that are designed for the interest of the customer really goes a long way in the scheme of your sales. A professional website that is customized will be unique and created just for you and your visitors, which will result in a stronger authentic brand. With a template you will have to fit your vision, brand, and logo into a template layout and your brand soon becomes inconsistent.
- Potential Copyright Issues- Often times the images or designs of templates are not correctly used comply with copyright laws. You may get a free template and end up with a law suit.
- Flash Templates Lower Visibility and Accessibility- Some templates that are using flash for navigation means that your website will load slower, your website will no longer be optimized for Search Engines, your website will not be visible on Apple Products such as iPhones and iPads, and you soon lose credibility, accessibility, and visibility. Although flash may be a cool feature, it is a feature that causes your visitors to wait longer for your page to load. Not a good idea. True digital marketing follows web standards in order to make your website a positive experience for your visitors. I recommend staying away from flash website templates.
- Not Visible Across Browsers- If the template does not meet the World Wide Consortium Standards, it may not be visible across all browsers. New browsers versions are being released as the technology advances. Custom solutions allow for changes, updates, and keeping up with the latest technology, and browser upgrades; templates will basically be outdated as soon as you purchase them.
- Someone else may have the same template- With a custom website can be sure that website is your creation, but with a template it may not be exclusively yours. Sure the template may be the best one out there with a great look and feel, but chances are someone else is using the same one with their brand as well. You want to be an industry leader and stand out for your creativity and innovative mindset, not blend in.
- Not Scalable- Say you’re a small business, do you plan on staying small? Ideally, as a business grows, the business will add more components to their website. Maybe a static website could turn into a highly functional ecommerce site, or maybe a company would like to add customized CMS, digital catalogs, customized blog, media and videos, etc. As you grow you will want to leave your template in the past and make changes so that your company growth can be visible in your customized website.
As Your Business Grows, So Should Your Website….
