As a business owner, having a website that reflects the quality of your product or service is important. Everyone is online these days. New customers will go online to verify the validity of your store, to see if there are past customer reviews on your product or service, and often times make a decision about whether or not to try your store based on what they see online. Previous customers may peruse your website to find new products, leave a testimonial or to refer your business to friends. If your website isn’t up to snuff, customers may be turned off from pursuing your business further. On the other hand, if your website shows the uniqueness of what your business offers, customers are more inclined to refer traffic your way.

If a new website is in order, the question becomes, to template or not to template?

Why Use A Template?

Template websites are often times a more economical way to do a site. They can be a good way to find inspiration on items like layout, color and generic features. Because the templates are already designed, these websites take less time to put together.

The Downside of Templates?

While using a template might seem like the way to go, before you make your choice consider the downfalls. When using a template, consider that there are other businesses using the same template, which means that it is likely that when you are surfing the internet you might find another website that looks exactly like yours. Templates will limit the amount of customization that you can put into your site.

One of the biggest downsides to using a template for a website is that some templates are not built to be search engine friendly. This is huge! If you have a site that doesn’t rank well in the search engines, what is the point of having the site in the first place?

When Is A Custom Site More Appropriate?

Business owners all want their products to stand out from the crowd. That is what makes a business thrive. If this is you, a custom site might be the better way to go. Whether it is a unique style to incorporate your companies branding, custom logo placement or animation, a custom site provides a unique design that compliments your unique business.

A custom website design makes the website more adaptable to your businesses changing needs. Many business owners find that after doing a website plan, there is a wish list of features that they’d like to be incorporated into the website. If the current budget doesn’t allow for them to all go in at once, the designer can accommodate for the highest priorities, then add on later. In the same vein, by understanding what your current and future needs are, a website developer can build the website to accommodate for those future needs.

When you want something that truly makes your business stand out, a custom website is the way to go.