So you have decided to set up a website for your business. That is a good thing. You have made up your mind, and now to put your plan in action, you just need to plan your website.
But before that, do you know how the design of your website affects your website? 38% of visitors leave the website if the website is unattractive. So what do you need to do to avoid such blunder? The answer lies in your approach to setting your business online.
To set up your website, there are two ways. You can either choose from the templates available on the platform builder websites, or you can design your website from scratch. Let us take a look at what this means and which option is best suitable for you.
What is a custom website?
Custom websites demand a fully dedicated team for your online portfolio. The team designs, maintain and update your website. The team starts with understanding the vision and goal of your business. It then proceeds with keeping that in mind. The development team is in close contact with you all times regarding the functionalities and services of the website.
With the changing website policies and search engine rankings, SEO has become a huge part of the custom website development plan. Developers and designers work jointly to set up your website in an SEO friendly manner. For the website to be SEO friendly, the website must abide by some guidelines while being developed.
Custom websites require a sound strategy, intuitive user experience, well-planned design execution, and solid marketing strategies to be successful. Each aspect of your website is designed with keeping your business and its end goal in mind.
Also, another major feature of custom-built websites is their adaptability. As today’s technological marketplace consists of different devices such as laptops, mobiles, tablets, etc. custom websites are responsive on all of these devices and present a uniform view to each user.
What are platform builder sites?
Platform builder websites provide pre-built templates for your website. There is a lot of platform builder sites WordPress being the most famous of them all. These websites provide a range of themes to choose from for your website, although not all of the themes are responsive.
There are other websites also like Wix, which provide the option to edit these themes within the website and customize them according to your preferences. These themes come with several built-in features. These features help website owners to integrate functionalities in their website easily.
Platform builder sites, however, do not necessarily conform to the SEO guidelines. So using platform builder sites can be a little tricky as you will have to work harder to improve your SEO rankings for a site built using templates.
Custom website VS platform builder sites
So we are at the age-old debate yet again. Which is better? Building a custom website or using themes and templates to build your website. Before we jump straight to the conclusion let us take a look at some facts about web templates and custom websites.
Web templates
- Web templates are mostly used by beginners.
- Web templates have built-in features
- Web templates affect your SEO plan.
- Web templates are not necessarily responsive.
Custom websites
- Custom websites have a greater scope of customization.
- Custom websites are developed within SEO guidelines.
- Custom websites require a dedicated team.
- Custom websites take time.
These are some of the facts regarding both website templates and custom websites. Both the ways to build a website has its pros and cons. Custom websites are not a good choice for people with limited budget and templates are not unique. Several other websites might be using the same template.
Pros and cons
Custom website
To sum it up pros of custom websites include
- customizability,
- optimization, and
- adaptability.
As we have discussed earlier, custom-built websites are built from scratch and that’s why you can add as many features as you like. Also, the design of these websites would be in line with your company’s logo. So custom-built websites provide unique designs based on the needs of your business. The websites built using custom website methods are also 100% responsive on all devices. So this ensures that all your website visitors have the same experience. The downside of this custom website is that they require a dedicated team of developers and designers so the budget of such a website is usually high. Also, these websites take more time than the templates as everything has to be designed according to your company’s vision.
Website templates
Website templates, on the other hand, are an economical option for those who have a small budget. The time taken to develop such websites is generally low as everything has been already designed and you just need to make small changes. The templates do pose a problem for SEO optimization of the website. Also, there is not much scope of customization. So if you want to design a website around your company’s goal then website templates are not for you. The templates are a great solution for beginners with a limited budget to set up their website. Also, the user experience of a website template can not be entirely customized. This is a huge letdown.
Conclusion
After going through all the pointers regarding website templates and custom websites, you might have a comprehensive idea of the advantages and disadvantages of both website building methods. If you are looking for a combination of both time and a budget-saving way to set up your website then you can opt for platform builder sites that offer pre-built themes and templates to take develop your website. But if you are looking for a customized, fully responsive and uniquely designed website then you must surely go for custom designed websites. Custom designed websites also provide you with after-sales support. Platform builder sites whereas do not have any such option. Also with each update of the theme or template that you are using the responsiveness and the functionality of the theme changes and you would need a developer to write the code of your website according to these recent changes.
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