Your website is what represents your business or company and a well-designed website is what gives your company a distinctive look and feel, it is a powerful tool for your marketing strategy. If you are fully equipped financially then getting a custom website is what you should consider, but if you are on a low budget and do not have time to spare then you should probably go for the template design.

75% of customers base a company’s credibility on its web design and almost half of its engagement depends on how a website looks. Statistics that show the reason why visitor leaves a website is;  88.5% because of slow loading, 73.1% because it is nonresponsive, 61.5% because of bad navigation, 38.5% because it has an outdated design,  34.6% because of poor content structure, 3.8% because of obstructive audio/video. 

Are you thinking about getting a website designed for your business? Then you need to ask and answer a few questions before proceeding. What kind of business do you run? What is the purpose of the website?  How important is this website to your business growth? And most importantly; your budget for the kind of website you are thinking of creating? You probably might not fully understand the difference between a custom and a template web design.

Here I’ll help you learn about these two types of design and the cases where they are needed.

Custom designs are built for a specific order. They help you to be more strategic about how you structure your website. Custom websites are fully customized and designed to fit the needs of your business. It is expensive and takes time and strategic planning before building, just as a foundation is to a building so is planning to a custom website.  Investing in a custom website is a big shot when it comes to marketing.
 

The last thing your business needs is to look outdated, so getting a customized website might be a good idea if you are looking to rank higher on search engines, convert the audience to leads or customers,  make your business stand out among your competitors, build a name for your business and give your audience a better user experience; this will help you generate leads and convert them to customers.  Getting a custom design allows your website to grow with your business, in other words, your website is scalable and can accommodate more features and contents as your business grows.                     

Remember, 88.5% of users are not patient with slow-loading websites, you sure would get better performance with a custom-designed website and avoid losing leads to your competitors.

On the other hand, template designs have a short development cycle, they are pre-designed layouts that help you to create a less complex website, they are easy to edit by dragging and dropping images and some other features necessary for your website. Template websites allow you to choose a theme for free. Examples of template website design tools are WordPress, Bootstrap Wix, Adobe XD, and so many others.

A template website is your best option if you are just starting out and don’t have so much to spend.  They are not search-engine friendly, they might save time and money but lack customization and you can easily end up using the same template as your competitor or other websites no matter how well you try to customize it. The best templates cost more money than regular ones and some template providers do not allow you to change templates. When creating a template website there will always be limitations or setbacks as you may not be able to manipulate the design, structure, and feel of your website.

CONCLUSION

Getting a website for your business points down to the impression you want to give your visitors, and how you want them to feel about your business, products, or services. You probably want to go for a website that fits your budget but it shouldn’t be at the expense of your website functionality.

Need more advice or consultation on your website design? Feel free to contact us.