Website design is a crucial element in the world of marketing today. This complex aspect of digital marketing can often confuse and bewilder business owners. What most end up doing? Using a template to create a “new” website. After all, it saves money and saves time.
But hold on, does it actually?
With companies like Wix, GoDaddy, Web.com and WordPress promising SEO/SEM friendly sites that will look great at a low rate, it’s hard to resist. But these templated sites are lacking in multiple areas of web design and development—from coding to written content.
Building your site from a template creates a multitude of issues in the long run but also commits immediate offenses in the world of digital marketing. Let’s start with the worst:
Offense 1: Poor SEO
With website builders like Wix, SEO is a problem. Templated sites are not SEO friendly and can actually deter traffic from your site. These types of sites also have an excess amount of code and HTML that will hurt your site’s page ranking. So, if you want to be on page one, hiring a pro is your best option.
Offense 2: Growth Restriction
Your website should be able to grow with your company. Working with a template limits your business to what it can do online. Limited page numbers, lack of plug-ins, and restricted content can hurt your company in the long run. Going custom allows your site to grow with your business.
Offense 3: Lack of Security
Perhaps the most important part of your website that can easily get overlooked, security is limited on a template site. The only person routinely monitoring your template site is… you. If your site gets hacked, there’s little you can do. It may take days—or even weeks—before a security breach is noticed.
Offense 4: Lack of Site Control
When using a template site, there are a number of things you can’t fully control. From simple design elements to more complex coding, when you use a template site from Wix, GoDaddy, or any other template providers, you have little to no control on how your site operates. Once you decide on a template, there is no differing from the layout—no improvements allowed.
Offense 5: Poor Design and User Experience
Though there are many designs for template websites, let’s face it: most of them are terrible. The few that are well-designed become so over-used that your website gets creatively lost among all the other templated sites. Along with poor design, a template site can disengage users and make navigation difficult.
Building a website is a detailed process—like building a home. From the foundation to the finishing touches, it takes multiple people with specialty skills to achieve something that will withstand the test of time. Your business’ website is exactly the same. Web developers, designers, SEO/SEM experts, and content developers are just some of the people who go into building a website.
So, how can all those positions be filled for your unique business with one template that thousands of people have used? The short answer: it can’t.
Your website represents who you are, and in today’s digital space, your online presence is the most important factor in marketing. Using a template for your website may be cheaper in the short-term, but with it comes a hoard of issues.
How to combat this? Go custom!
A custom-built website with WordPress is able to adapt, accommodate, and grow with your business. With a simple CMS (Content Management System), creative design, and a wide variety of plug-ins, a custom site from TOTAL will increase business and get your company to the next level.