With today’s digital landscape, having a website is an essential part of running a business. It’s where people learn more about you, get a feel for your brand, and ultimately decide if they want to start the process of working with you.
With how important it has become to have a strong website, knowing whether to build off a pre-designed template or go with a custom build can be a daunting – and confusing – decision.
While working from a template may seem like the quick and more affordable option, a custom build offers a range of benefits that can boost your online presence. From having a one-of-a-kind site, to full control over all functionality and security, going with a custom website development solution offers more advantages in the long run.
In this blog, we examine seven key benefits of opting for a custom-built site over a template-based design to guide you when deciding on your website development process.
You brand is the backbone of your business. It’s the epitome of who your company is and what you do, and your website should be a showcase of that. When choosing a custom website development solution, you can ensure that your site design perfectly aligns with your branding because the site is tailor made for you – rather than trying to squeeze your brand into a template that doesn’t really fit.
Having a truly unique site also gives you a competitive advantage because it’s solely built for you, no one else. With a template, it would not be out of the realm of possibility to find another company using your exact site, just with a slightly different feel because the colors, text, and images have been changed. But with a custom build, your site is just like your business – one of a kind.
With a custom, tailored approach to your website development, you have complete control over every aspect of the site, rather than having to work within the confines of what you are given with a template. Because of this, you can ensure that your site is truly everything you want and need it to be for your business, customers, and employees.
And with that control comes more functionalities and an easier ability to connect other essential web apps and systems that you use to run your business. One of those key functionalities is SEO. With a custom website service, your site will be built with SEO in mind, without you having to sift through what might already be included with a pre-built template that isn’t relevant to you.
Learn more about – Web Application Development Services
No matter how nice your website looks, if it doesn’t function properly for the people using it, it’s not a successful website and likely won’t get you the results you are looking for. Templates are typically built to make the design and development process easier for the people using them to put together a site, and less with the user experience in mind.
Building custom means, you can determine what your specific audience wants and needs out of your website, then develop it in a way that will be most beneficial for them – while still making it look amazing.
You want your business to keep growing, but that means your site needs to be able to grow as well. With a template, you are typically locked into the available features and design capabilities, and it’s not uncommon for there to be limits on certain aspects of the site as well, such as how many emails you can send per month or how much storage space is available. If this is the case, it can cost you more money if your site starts to outgrow what the pre-built template has space for.
A custom design can be developed with your future growth in mind, making it easier – and cheaper – to keep the site moving forward as your business expands.
Website security is an essential part of the development process, especially with how many cybersecurity threats are lurking in today’s digital world. When you choose a custom website development solution, you can install more security features, including those based on your type of business and customer needs, giving you peace of mind that your data, customer information, and business is protected.
There are also fewer outside threats to deal with when it comes to a custom build versus a template because you have control over everything that is installed in the backend, such as plug-ins and external web apps, rather than having to shift through what comes pre-installed in a template, including any bugs that may already be lurking.
Also Read – Factors to Consider When Choosing Web Development Company
A template-based design typically comes with a plethora of plugins, pages, posts, and media to get you started and show you what the site could look like. While this might seem great initially, all these things take up space in the backend and will negatively impact the site’s performance if they are not removed.
If you go with a custom site, it is developed and coded for optimized speed and performance. This means there is nothing unnecessarily taking up space and making it harder for the site to operate fully. And if things do ever start to lag, you have the ability as time goes on to quickly and easily make improvements to your site that will boost the performance.
With a template, you are purchasing it to help build your site and get it live, but there is usually little to no maintenance support available. If you work with a custom website development team, they are more likely to offer website maintenance services, as well as IT support, and can help you continually manage all aspects of your site.
This makes life easier for everyone because they are already familiar with the backend of the site and know how to handle things quickly, rather than them having to work out how the template is setup and decipher where issues might be stemming from.
While a pre-designed template might seem like the quickest and more cost-effective way to build your company website, it can lead to more headaches (and money spent) in the long run. Going with a custom website gives you complete control over every aspect of your site and ensures that you are presenting your company online with a site that truly, and uniquely, reflects who you are.
Also Read – Hire Website Developer
With our custom website development services, we have a team of designers, developers, and projects managers ready to build you the site your business deserves. We will work with you to figure out what you need in a website, as well as what your wish list items are, and bring your vision to life so you can exceed your goals. And once the site is live, we will stay onboard to help keep it operating smoothly with our web maintenance packages. Check out all of our web services here, and send us a message if you want to learn more!
