Do businesses really have the time and budget to invest in creating a website? If you ask me, I’d say yes for big brands but no for start-ups. When it comes to creating a website, one must decide between using a template-based approach or opting for a custom-made design. While custom websites offer unique branding and tailored functionality, template-based websites have their own set of advantages that often make them the preferred choice for many.
10 Compelling Reasons Why you Should Consider Template-based Website
1. Cost-Effectiveness
Template-based websites are generally more budget-friendly compared to custom-made ones. They typically have a much lower upfront cost compared to custom-made websites. Instead of paying for hours of design and development work, you only need to purchase the template itself, which is usually available at a meager amount as compared to hiring a web designer or developer.
Maintaining a custom-made website often entails ongoing expenses for updates, bug fixes, and technical support. With template-based websites, updates, and maintenance are typically included in the template package or offered at a minimal cost. This helps minimize long-term maintenance expenses and ensures that your website remains safe and up-to-date without breaking the bank.
2. Time Efficiency
Custom-made websites require extensive coding and development work to create unique designs and functionalities tailored to your specific needs. This customization process can be time-consuming and cost-indulging, especially if you require complex features. In contrast, template-based websites already come with pre-built layouts, designs, and functionalities, significantly reducing the need for custom development work.
With pre-designed templates, you can easily have your website up and running in a fraction of the time it takes to develop a custom site. This is particularly beneficial for businesses looking to establish an online presence quickly.
3. Ease of Setup and Management
Most template providers offer intuitive customization tools that allow users to personalize their websites with ease. These tools typically include drag-and-drop editors, visual builders, and customization panels that enable you to modify elements such as colors, fonts, images, and content without any coding knowledge. They often come with built-in features and functionality, such as contact forms, galleries, sliders, and social media integration, saving you time and effort in sourcing and integrating third-party plugins.
Template-based website platforms are crafted with usability as a priority, aiming to accommodate users with diverse levels of technical proficiency. Their interfaces are intuitive and straightforward, offering explicit instructions and cues to steer you through the setup procedure. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned user, you can swiftly acquaint yourself with the platform and commence building your website effortlessly.
4. Wide Range of Designs
Template libraries offer a diverse selection of designs to choose from, catering to various industries, styles, and preferences. For example, you can find templates designed specifically for e-commerce stores, portfolios, blogs, corporate websites, event promotions, and more. Whether you’re a photographer, restaurateur, consultant, or artist, you can find a template that suits your specific needs and strikes a resonance with your target audience.
From minimalist and modern designs to bold and colorful layouts, the options are virtually endless. Template providers stay abreast of design trends and updates to ensure that their templates remain relevant and up-to-date. You’ll often find templates featuring modern design elements, innovative layouts, and cutting-edge features that reflect current design trends and user preferences. This permits you to create a visually appealing and engaging website that captures the attention of your audience.
Also Read: Designing for Impact: Elementor Blog Templates That Convert in 2024
5. Responsive and Mobile-Friendly
Template-based websites are built with responsive design principles in mind, utilizing flexible layouts, fluid grids, and media queries to adjust the content and design aspects based on the screen size and resolution of the device being used. Template-based websites prioritize mobile responsiveness, ensuring that users can seamlessly navigate, read, and interact with your website on their smartphones and tablets without encountering issues such as text overlapping, images being cut off, or buttons being too small to tap.
Mobile-friendliness is a vital factor in search engine ranking algorithms, with search engines such as Google prioritizing mobile-responsive websites in their search results. Template-based websites that are optimized for mobile devices have a probability of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), leading to increased visibility, traffic, and potential customers.
6. Faster Page Loading Times
Responsive design techniques, such as optimizing images and prioritizing content delivery, contribute to faster page loading times on mobile devices. This is crucial for retaining visitors and reducing bounce rates, as visitors will abandon a website if it takes extra time to load on their smartphones or tablets. Template-based websites are often optimized for performance, ensuring that they load quickly and efficiently across all devices.
7. Regular Updates and Support
Template providers are committed to ensuring that their products remain up-to-date and relevant in the ever-evolving landscape of web design and technology. They regularly release updates to their templates, incorporating new features, performance enhancements, security patches, and bug fixes based on user feedback and industry best practices.
Regular updates help to acknowledge security vulnerabilities and strengthen the overall security posture of template-based websites. By promptly releasing security patches and fixes, template providers help protect websites from potential security threats, malware, hacking attempts, and data breaches. This proactive approach to security helps safeguard sensitive information and instills trust and confidence in website visitors.
8. SEO Optimization
Template-based websites often feature clean and well-structured code, which is mandatory for search engine optimization (SEO). Clean code improves website readability, making it simpler for search engine crawlers to index and assess the content of the site. This can positively ramify search engine rankings and visibility.
Many templates come with built-in options for adding meta tags, titles, and descriptions to web pages. These aspects play a crucial role in SEO by offering search engines valuable information about the content of each page. Template-based websites make it easy to optimize meta tags and descriptions for targeted keywords, improving the likelihood of ranking good in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Template-based websites often generate SEO-friendly URLs by default, incorporating keywords and descriptive phrases that reflect the content of each page. SEO-friendly URLs are simpler for search engines to interpret and rank, contributing to better overall SEO performance.
Templates typically include options for optimizing images, such as adding alt text and specifying image dimensions. Proper image optimization is essential for SEO, as it helps improve page load times and accessibility while providing search engines with additional context about the content of the page.
9. Structured Data Markup
Some templates include options for implementing structured data markup, such as Schema markup, which provides search engines with thorough information about the content of a webpage. Structured data markup can enhance search engine listings by enabling rich snippets, knowledge panels, and other enhanced search results features, increasing visibility and click-through rates.
10. Scalability and Flexibility
Template-based websites can easily scale to accommodate changes in traffic and resource demands. Many template providers offer scalable hosting solutions that allow visitors to upgrade or downgrade their hosting plans as needed, ensuring that the website remains responsive and accessible under varying levels of traffic and usage. This scalability eliminates the need for users to invest in expensive infrastructure upfront and allows them to scale their websites in line with their growth trajectory.
Template-based websites often support integration with third-party tools and services, such as e-commerce platforms, marketing automation software, CRM systems, and analytics tools. This integration capability allows users to extend the functionality of their websites by adding features and services that meet their specific business needs. Whether it’s adding an online store, implementing email marketing campaigns, or tracking website performance, template-based websites can accommodate a wide range of integrations.
Conclusion
template-based websites offer a convenient, cost-effective, and efficient solution for individuals and businesses wanting to establish an online presence. While custom-made websites have their merits, the benefits of templates, including affordability, ease of setup, and wide-ranging designs, make them a compelling choice for many website owners. Whether you wish to begin a new venture or revamp your existing website, consider the advantages of template-based design for a streamlined and hassle-free experience.
FAQs
Do template-based websites lack uniqueness?
While templates provide a starting point, they allow for extensive customization, ensuring your website reflects your unique brand identity. You can personalize colors, fonts, and content to make it distinct.
Are template-based websites mobile-friendly?
Yes, many templates are designed with responsiveness in mind, guaranteeing your website looks and functions well on various devices, including smartphones and tablets.
Can I customize a template-based website to suit my needs?
Absolutely. Templates offer flexibility for customization, allowing you to tailor the design, layout, and features to meet your specific requirements and preferences.
