Custom Web Development. Aye or Nay? Let's Find Out!
Entrepreneurs are big fans of DIY software and tools that get the job done quick and simple. As an aspiring business owner looking to create a striking web presence, DIY website makers like Wix, Squarespace, and Wordpress may feel like a godsend solution to setting up your new site.
With a choice of many templates to build any number of beautiful websites, you may be wondering if a template can look polished and professional, why bother hiring web developers to make you a custom website, right?
Pre made templates feel like legitimate cheat sheets that you're allowed to have in a test—you seem to get a great cosmetic result with such little preparation. They can be stress-busters that help you avoid so much decision paralysis.
Here are some things pre made templates help you save on:
TIME
If you're setting up a new business that's raring and ready to execute an idea, you probably needed your site up and running yesterday. This is the portal through which your customers and income come from. Custom website design involves custom design and coding, both of which can take some time.
MONEY
When you're a bootstrapped business, investing in a custom website design can feel expensive. Even a template with an eyebrow-raising price tag may still be the cheaper option over custom web design. You probably want to cut out the extra bill of hiring web design services while your business is finding its feet with balancing out the books.
But if you do have the money and time to wait out the web design process, should you still opt for a template for your website?
Here's what you get with custom web design that templates can't always provide:
CUSTOM DESIGN & UNIQUENESS
If your business is unique, it's look should be as well. With pre made templates, there's always the chance of another website having the same look as yours. Despite being able to customize templates to an extent, the overall templated look can't be changed to appear distinct from another website using the same template.
With custom web design, you're starting off with a blank slate wherein you can execute your brand look and creative ideas with no limitations. The brand's personality has more room to show itself off, and allows for personalized touches that no template could ever allow you.
Design helps influence the customer journey and buying process. Web designers marry great design and coding processes to make the clients' experience of your website seamless and form a specific impression of your brand. They can also provide you a custom solution if you want to amp up certain features on your site.
SYNCS FUNCTIONALITY TO NEED
Your website's use has to sync with the nature of your business needs. If you run an online store, your website should support secure checkouts, or host third-party platforms for payments. Not all templates are created equal, and some wouldn't be able to support the complex features you would need to run your business.
A TAILORED EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS
When designing your own website, you can create a customer experience that's aligned with your business's and marketing goals. For example, I depend on my website for leads. I do this by having potential customers fill in a form embedded within my site and elaborate on which services of mine they need. If you were using a template that doesn't allow forms, you'd have to lead the visitor to another link—this disjointed client experience could result in many potential clients dropping off.
Creating your own custom website makes room for a smooth navigation across the site and nudges website visitors to take actions that turn them from browsers to customers.
RESPONSIVENESS
Over 50% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. This means your website has to seamlessly load on any device that's not a desktop computer. While most templates are mobile-friendly, sometimes they contain features that aren't. Whereas, with custom web design development, you don't have to bite your nails wondering if over 50% of your organic traffic are pinching and zooming into your website trying to access the check out page on their mobile phones.
In a custom web design project, your website will be tested across different browsers and devices.
SHOWCASE YOUR BRAND EXCLUSIVELY
With a custom website, you pretty much have a canvas to show off your brand exactly the way you want. With a template, you may have fixed elements that can't be changed or worse, the logo design of the theme developer.
SCALABLE
I'm a huge advocate for scalable business models. Almost every big brand that you now love was once a small business. When starting your business, your operations strategy and existing brand should be able to grow with the size of the business needs. On the digital front, this means as your business grows, your website should be able to smoothly take on small necessary plugins or big components like a content management system. Templates can only get you so far and their adaptability will determine your range of digital marketing opportunities. You may have to pay monthly fees to support these services on your website, which could tally up to having had a custom new website design in the first place.
With a custom website, you can scale up the site when you want, however you want.
SEO
Search engine optimization is a long game, and one that you need to play consistently. A whole host of factors—page loading speed, HTML tags, alt text and more—influence how high up on the search page your website ranks on various search engines. Not all templates have these internal workings that determine your search engine optimization score. Templates without a HTML makeup, slow load speed or good mobile responsiveness can hamper how search engine friendly your website is.
Ultimately, the choice between a templated website and custom website comes down to your funds and patience. If you don't have the investment at present, there's no harm in asking around a couple of web designers or a web design agency for a free quote and make it your next project to save up for. If you absolutely want to launch your small business with a website, consider creating a simple DIY website that's as minimalistic as possible so you can build on it when the starts of time and funds align.
Once you're ready to have your custom site created, understand that the process will take a while. Good things take time. The same applies for custom website development.
