5 Reasons Why Building Websites On Common Templates Is Bad!
Designing a website’s interface is the most important stage that determines the attractiveness of businesses when users visit. To do the role of attracting and retaining visitors, the interface must be designed to catch the eye. In fact, choosing a design style that suits your needs or building websites on a common template depends on factors such as budget, time, the ability of the web designer, etc.
For a website to attract visitors and then convert them into leads, attention needs to be paid to design, written content, technical SEO, call to actions and other factors. Working with an agency will not only yield you a great looking website but a hard-working site that brings in new customers and gives you a good return on your investment.
If you are a business owner and want to build your own websites, choose which platform to create the web will also need to think carefully. There are many platforms to create a website. But in summary, I divided into 2 specific ways: one is to modify from templates, using website builder (Wix, Weebly, Shopify, etc.) and the other is to pay for a custom web design. But, most website templates are not built for your business operation or audience persona. A professional website designer will work with you to get a website that will work not only now but as your business grows and needs change. The website will be unique, created just for you, so visitors will be able to see the difference with your business. A professionally designed site will make a first impression that cannot be found in any other way – put your best face forward as you build your web presence.
What is a template? What effect do templates have on web design?
Before analyzing the various aspects of web interface design using built-in templates, we need to understand what a template is. A template, also known as a theme or graphic template, is defined as a rudimentary page template where image layouts, content, and effects are available for building a website. Usually, 1 template is used for many different websites and 1 website can also apply many different types of templates.
Template is an indispensable component and the first element to prepare when you are planning to build a separate website for the business. The current template has thousands of choices and is increasingly upgraded with many unique decorative formats to bring a better experience for users. Many models also come with a very interesting plug-in.
The question is: Should you use a website template or pay for a custom web design?
In such a context of e-commerce development, entrepreneurs and small business should consider owning their own website. Together with that improvement, if you type the phrase “Website Templates”, you will see Google returns many results instructing the steps to create a website using Wix or any website builders in just a few minutes. You excitedly think from now on you can create a website without spending a lot of money. But if you want to go the long way with your business in the future, building websites on a common template is bad.
With website builders, the process of designing an online website cannot be easier or faster. But most website templates are not built for your business operation or audience persona in your industry. The only skill you need is the ability to click and move your mouse around the screen. Instead of building a website from scratch or building a template from a built-in design, you just need to rely on the built-in website builder features.
The website builder users are mostly beginners, so there is always a dedicated support team from the application development department to help you handle problems that arise during the installation process. At the same time, you will also have documentation to be able to proactively make web creation quick and easy. In addition to using Website Builder, there are some other benefits such as:
- Highly customizable, adjust everything
- Change photos easily
- Automatically compatible with mobile
- Support social networks
You may think that building your own website using a website builder may seem like a simple and perfect solution, but it is not the best solution for building a large-scale website. If you are an individual or business who wants to build a professional website with many features, focusing much on the user experience element, then hiring a web design is essential (if your business does not have one).
There are some drawbacks to templated websites. Here are six reasons why building websites on a common template is bad and why you should avoid it at all costs.
#1. Most Website today use templates
Most of the content and layout you see on the web today are usually run by a number of frameworks or services – Wix, Drupal, and so on. You will spend less time and money struggling to create a website, but more time creating content. As a consequence of this inevitability, a huge world of free or paid templates lets you get started with an impressive design in minutes. You’re not going to be the only company that has that layout and design. Templates can be customized, but your website still working with the same essential framework as other sites. This means, your website can use the same templates with other companies.
And on the internet, a failure to stand out from the crowd can sink your website. For eCommerce sites, especially in a highly commoditized market, that similarity in look and feel means that at least some customers won’t get past your homepage. This development and trend bring a lot of good things for users. Why is that? They will always see the consistency in the websites they use, they look through each day. Order checkout forms, shopping carts, and login pages will always have identical usage. Trying to recreate these modules can be pointless or sometimes have a negative effect.
#2. Small changes can be difficult to implement.
Say you find an iconography set online that you love. Changing out the templated one on your own may not be possible, or, at best, time-consuming and costly. There are frustrating technical limitations to how far you can customize a website template, even with good services and some coding knowledge. Sooner or later you will hit an obstacle that prevents you from implementing the functionality you need.
An important part of this is optimizing your written content. It also involves making the website navigation easy to use, including prominent calls to action buttons, and designing intuitive inquiry forms. If you’re selling products on your site, converting your product data, not to mention your customer and sales data, is going to require major work. It is hard for you to perform your analysis skills to get more resources.
Conversion Rate Optimisation describes a group of activities designed to increase the chances of a website visitor converting to a lead and subsequently to a sale. The layout restrictions inherent in template websites tie your hands on what you can achieve. You won’t be able to place your calls to action buttons and contact forms where you want them, and you are limited to text boxes for where you place your copy. Moreover, template website navigation trees are generic to all users, and will not be tailored to your own requirements. Visitors may, therefore, find it difficult to find the information they need when visiting your website.
#3. Lack of customization
The limitation possibilities for customization when building websites on a common template have to be mentioned. If you build your own website with the help of an agency, it is your site and you have complete ownership of it. Therefore, if you are unhappy with the service you receive from your web hosts, such as with their charges or load speed, then you can simply transfer the site to another provider.
For website builders, you pay a relatively small monthly fee, pick a template, create some pages, and you’ve got yourself a website. But it is not that simple. You can’t do this with most template sites, as you only rent the website, rather than own it. If the website loads slowly, or looks bad on mobile devices, or crashes each time you get too many visitors, then there is nothing you can do about it. If you choose to change providers, then you have to start from scratch.
If you choose to use website templates, there is a limit to the number of templates you can use for your site. For example, Wix currently has about 500 available templates, and with over 90 million users, these templates are going to get used a lot. Again, most website templates are not built for your business operation or audience persona in your industry. So virtually, building websites on a common template is bad.
As your business evolves and you decide to add new features, it can be very difficult to get the template to cooperate. If you don’t know the coding yourself, it will cost you a fortune to have someone change that template to suit your new needs. Most coders would prefer to start from scratch than to try and figure out and work with someone else’s code. You may think that you are saving money by using a website template but in the end, it is more likely to cost you more than it would have to hire a designer, to begin with.
#4. You will get what you pay for
You may find yourself doing the above. But it will take you a lot of time and effort twice as much as professionals. If you do things that you are not, you will lose the opportunity cost to develop yourself and your career. That’s why smart people often hire people with expertise to work for them.
The cost of website design is not fixed because it depends on your actual requirements. Web design unit will base on the amount of time, effort and human resources used to quote the most accurate website design and programming for you. A website with a simple interface and less functionality will have a lower price than websites designed on their own with complex interfaces and features. So, you should build your website the right way, invest in a customized website from the start to avoid serious shortcomings.
#5. Not SEO-friendly
When you have graphics like other websites, built on the same coding and metadata system as hundreds of other websites, it will hinder the performance of your website. Search engines love unique, original content and so do your potential customers.
Template websites come with little or no on-page SEO options. This will negatively affect your ranking on Google, as an important part of SEO is the ability to adjust Meta Tags, page URLs, CSS images and other technical details. At JDR we are marketing, as well as a web development agency, so we build all of our websites with technical SEO in mind. We can also make quick, on-page adjustments further down the line if you need to improve your search rankings or conversions. You won’t usually be able to do much with the underlying code on a template website, so your SEO options will be limited.
For example, with a Wix site, implementing an SEO strategy is nearly impossible. You do not have the ability to download an SEO boosting plugin. Instead, you simply have the on-page SEO that Wix offers. Yes, you can get the basics done here, but it doesn’t offer you any Search Engine previews or any help along the way as one of our favorite SEO plugins, WordPress SEO by Yoast, does. For a tool that caters to beginners, Wix is really missing the mark.
The Bottom Lines
These drawbacks of website templates shed some light on the purpose of having a website in the first place. Simply having an online presence is not the point. Your website is nothing more than a tool you use for gaining more customers for your business. It, therefore, needs to be part of a web marketing strategy to be successful. Building websites on a common template, no matter how professional-looking or attractive, cannot provide the strategic approach, and therefore will not make you money.
By reading this, you can understand why you should not build your website on a common template if you want to create a long-term career development platform. You just need to focus on running your business and waiting for the results.
You May Also Like:
