Many small businesses try to save money and think that using a template is a wonderful idea. Yes, it saves money. Initially. Adding your words and pictures makes the template all about you. But does it? How many other businesses have selected the same template? I know in the printing industry, there are gazillions of print sites that all have the same look and feel and this makes everyone blur together with no one standing apart.
So why would you use a web designer and pay the extra $$? Web designers exist for three very good reasons:
- They understand the web
- They understand how the web works
- They know what they’re doing (usually)
Why is it wrong to use a template?
- The website still needs to be customized
Many of these templates are ready to go once you download them, however, they will still need to be customized to suit your specific design needs. Unless you happen to be a whiz at HTML you’re going to need a web designer.
- Not unique for business branding
If you use a template, that’s going look like thousands of other sites out there. It won’t stand out and be noticed. It’s much better to get a custom design that will make your business brand stand out.
- Restricted Usage
Any downloaded template could become difficult to tweak to make it uniquely your own. Remember there are licensing agreements with the template designer about how you can use the template, and eventually, you just may need to link to the designer’s own website.
- There are billions and billions
Or at least hundreds, possibly thousands of businesses already using the same template. Do you really want clients to see you as a generic entity when you can be so much more??
- Bad news for SEO
Many templates aren’t designed with SEO in mind so getting the search engine spiders to crawl your site could be difficult, and as for ranking…if it can’t be crawled you’re not going to rank.
So if you’re thinking about downloading a template, any template, think again. If you’re serious about marketing your business online you’re going to have to make a serious investment. This is not the place to cut corners.
