A business looking to create a website that provides a positive user experience and drives conversion can be tough. One method that is widely used to address this is the use of website templates. But what are the pros and cons of using website templates for your business website?
What are website templates?
A website template is a pre-designed template that you can use for creating your business website. All the top content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress and Shopify, have an extensive range of ready-made website templates.
Typically, these website templates are made for a wide range of websites, such as blogs, portfolios, or commercial sites. All website templates will have pre-built pages (such as home, services, about, etc.) and design elements (such as fonts, colours, buttons, etc.).
Website templates can either be free or paid for and will range from a basic one-size-fits-all design to more customised templates for specific needs (such as your business industry). Usually, using a website template doesn’t require using code to make changes.
All that’s required with the use of website templates is to customise the theme settings and insert your content. In some cases, you can get a website up and running within a few hours (if you know what you’re doing and have the content ready).
However, using a website template is not all plain sailing. While it does have its share of advantages, it also has some disadvantages. If you’ve never used a website template before, you should be aware of the pros and cons.
The pros of using website templates
Firstly, we’ll start with the pros of using website templates. We may have already briefly hinted at a couple, but this section will go into much more detail.
Publish your site quicker
One of the main pros of using a website template is that you can get your website up and running much quicker. If you are on a limited timescale, using a website template provides you with a ready-to-go design and structure.
All you need to do is pick the template that you think best suits your business, add your content (such as text, images, and branding), and configure the theme settings. After you’ve finished, you can publish your website for the world to see.
Cost-effective
If you are a small business on a very tight budget, you may not have enough money to invest in a professionally designed site. A website template can help you overcome this, as many of them are free or low cost.
Usually, the templates you’ll find are made by professional designers. If you can’t afford a developer to create your site from the ground up, it provides a suitable alternative.
No coding knowledge
Another aspect of website templates is that they don’t require any coding knowledge. That’s because many of the platforms you’ll create your website on use drag-and-drop builders. As the name suggests, you drag and drop elements onto your web page.
This means your website will have limited creative flexibility for customisation. However, it can be an option for those non-tech-savvy people out there.
What you see is what you get
Another benefit of using website templates is you get exactly what you see. As website builders using a template provide you with a preview of your site as you make changes, you have a visual representation of how the final published site will look. As such, you can decide whether it aligns with your needs and brand.
Responsive and mobile-friendly
It is now a prerequisite that website templates are responsive and mobile-friendly. This means that users can view your website on a range of different devices, whether that be a desktop computer or smartphone, without any visual limitations.
Mobile-friendly websites have become a big thing in recent years. Not only is it a vital Google ranking factor for SEO, but mobile is now the predominant source of web traffic. Opting for a mobile-friendly and responsive web design can ensure your website functions well across the board.
The cons of using website templates
Despite the advantages we’ve outlined above, website templates also have their fair share of disadvantages. In some cases, these disadvantages can be a big factor that may make choosing a website template impractical or unviable.
Lack of ownership
The first downside to using website templates is the lack of ownership. In some cases, when you use a website template, you only rent the website you create. You don’t have any control over the server, and many features are locked behind a paywall, such as custom URLs.
If your website looks bad on mobile, runs slowly, or crashes with too many active users, there is little you can do to remedy this. The only alternative is changing website providers, and that would involve starting from scratch.
Opting for a web design agency will ensure you have ownership of your website. Alongside building your website with a custom design, you will also have access to your own hosting account and domain name.
Design limitations
Another potential issue with using website templates are the design limitations you’ll face. As these website templates are available for everyone to use, there is no exclusivity to the design. This means multiple websites can use the same website design template.
In some cases, you may also find one of your competitors using the same or similar website. It also doesn’t help that many of the designers who create these templates just make variations based on the best-selling designs to maximise their sales. By opting for a professional web design agency, your website will be tailored and customised to your brand and business needs.
Not personalised
This next downside to using website templates ties into the previous. As many website templates look very similar, it is very difficult to create a truly personalised website. While you can personalise templates to a certain extent, you are greatly limited.
If you want to make any large changes to the web design or customise templates beyond their provided options, you will need to have sufficient coding knowledge and skills. This can make creating a website tailored exclusively to your business and brand out of reach without a professional.
Given how highly competitive the online landscape is, a website that looks the same or very similar to others just won’t cut it. If you want to stand out and create a distinct identity, you’ll need a website built from the ground up.
Limited SEO control
Website templates tend to have very limited SEO control. SEO (or search engine optimisation) is a vital element of any website if you want to achieve high rankings in the search results. Without optimising your site for SEO, your website will just be a needle in a haystack.
There are certain best practices that need to be incorporated into a website to improve your ranking potential, from metadata optimisation to keyword usage and linking structure. A professional web designer will (or should) ensure your website is SEO-optimised to achieve a higher ranking potential.
Bloated code or slower page speeds
Another downside to using a website template is bloated code and slower website page speeds. Often, website templates are created with a fast turnaround. As such, the code will not be optimised and may contain excessive and unnecessary code.
This can slow down your website considerably. The more code a browser has to read to render a page, the longer it will take to load. A professional web design agency will ensure only the necessary code is used for developing your website.
They will also implement other methods, such as Minifying code and Gzip compression, to reduce the size of coding files that allow browsers to render a page much faster. The faster page speed can be a big factor in creating a more positive user experience and retaining users.
The choice of whether to use a website template for your business website will depend on your needs and preferences. If you want a personalised website that is tailored to your business and is likely to rank higher in search engines, opting for a professional web design agency can be a much more effective choice.