Should You Get Custom Website Development or Use a Web Template?

No business owner wants to spend money needlessly. When presented with the choice between using a web template or going with custom website development, he or she will want to know the value that comes with either option. Of course, this choice depends on your particular goals, requirements, and concerns. To help you with your decision, we will look at both approaches of establishing your web presence.

The Website Template

A website template has a pre-designed structure that allows you to place your text, images, and other forms of content into specific areas. You can rapidly deploy a template based website at a very low-cost. In fact, a person familiar with template sites can set up your website within 15 minutes. Although it will be a blank website, you can immediately add your content to it. However, this rapid set up speed and low-cost comes at a price:

• Limited page layout

  – The page elements are usually fixed or have a few restricted options. These elements include the number of page columns, the navigation menus, and the type and position of the header. Widgets such as forms, calendars, or maps are usually restricted to a specific zone on the page.

• Poor scalability

  – As your business grows, your website requirements will evolve. The fixed format of a template website will not accommodate this.

• Look alike websites

  – You won’t be the only one using your template. If you choose a high quality template, it will likely be popular which means there will be many sites that look like yours. Other than different content and a few colors, your site will be visually indistinguishable from the others. This may cause problems with establishing your credibility and brand.

Custom Website Development

A custom website is developed from the ground up. This gives you complete control over its appearance, functionality, and usability. If you are starting your business and professionalism, branding, search engine ranking, and conversions are important to you, a custom design is appropriate. It’s also appropriate if your company has an established brand. Your site should mirror your company’s style and colors.

Since you aren’t bound to the constraints of a template, your website will readily scale with your company’s future requirements. Security will be less of an issue because hackers and authors of malicious code favor template based sites. Learning to hack a specific template allows a hacker to target many websites at the same time. The more popular the template, the more targets of opportunity available to the hacker. A customized website isn’t on their list of targets.

Custom website development is an investment that quickly pays for itself provided you choose the right developers. We at Powerhouse Internet Marketing will develop a website that matches your requirements. It will be optimized for search traffic, usability, and conversions. If you have questions, contact us.