In A Sea Of Templates, Custom Website Design Lives On – Here’s Why
by Andrew Millar
When I’m searching the web for products or services I come across lots of different websites and website designs. Some websites have lots of fancy features and others are beacons of simplicity. It’s easy to immediately see which ones were built in the 1990’s and early 2000’s versus ones that were designed and built recently. As technology advances so do websites, and with the general widening and size increases of screen and monitor hardware, wider and fuller website designs have been born.
Innovation has also led to an explosion of the number of website templates available for various content management systems as well as different coding languages. These templates offer powerful features and stunning designs that can be modified to suit a specific brand, product or service. The problem with them is they can only be modified so far before actual hard coding is necessary to customize the look and features. Template designs also have the tendency to have the same look and feel as every other website template design because so many people purchase the same templates.
On the other hand a fully customized website design has the exact functionality and features that clients and their customers want, nothing more nothing less. This ensures a great user experience and excellent branding from the moment users land on the site.
Custom Website Design
It’s helpful to think of a customized website in terms of creative writing. When I put pen to a blank sheet of paper and start writing every word, sentence, theme, and idea is my own. Essentially people can copy it if they read it, but at the time of creation it’s one of a kind and tells the story exactly the way I want it told. A custom website design does the exact same thing; it starts from scratch with a brand and an idea. The construction, architecture, navigation, fonts, functionality, graphics, photos, administrative panel, and other features are built to suit specific purposes and help tell a particular brand or product story.
Flexibility In Design & Functionality Is Key
A custom site delivers the functionality that allows a company to maintain their user’s focus on the elements they want them to pay attention to. It also allows the use of specific design elements in particular places that fall well outside of what’s possible in template designs.
Aside from the endless design and development possibilities, custom websites can incorporate specific analytic data, search engine optimization tools, social networking, privacy functionality, membership databases, and a plethora of other customizable features.
With all of these features and specifications, a custom website design increases the professionalism and credibility of a website and the company associated with it. Essentially a website is the first impression people get of a company, and as we all know there are few chances to make a second first impression. A custom website design gives companies the opportunity to customize that first impression.
SEO Friendly
Hiring the right website developer to create a custom website design is essential to the site being built so it is SEO friendly. Google and other search engines have specific criteria they are looking for, aside from the text on the site, that makes them want to offer up your site in search results. Generally, the background coding of a website influences how visible a site’s pages are to search engines, so having a knowledgeable developer is important.
Being SEO friendly also means that a website is mobile-friendly, and works well on different handheld devices in addition to PCs and laptops.
Overall, website templates might be right for some companies if they need something fast and easy, and they don’t mind that lots of other people are using the same template. While custom website design can also be fast and easy, it allows companies to create a better user experience and helps search engines effectively offer up the site in search results.