Using a Template Website Design

Website templates are designed and developed by Professional Web designers and sold normally to people who require a website but do not have the skills to build them, such as the ability to code.

There are lots of websites out there selling template designs at various prices, which of course make for an attractive and low cost proposition.

There are many advantages to using a template design, however as always there are disadvantages so before going online and buying your website template please take into consideration exactly what is involved.

Firstly the advantages:

• Cheap to buy
• Choice of designs to suit you
• Consistent look throughout the site
• Usually contain high quality graphics
• Some allow you to make changes without any HTML knowledge

The disadvantages:

• Unless you buy the rights to the design it will not be exclusive and you could find it being used by a lot of people (even competitors).
• Buying the full rights / license is usually expensive
• Features such as contact forms don’t always come with the code/ programme to make them work.
• You cannot always change the layout unless you do possess the coding skills such as HTML along with CSS.
• If you do not know how to use programmes such as Adobe Photoshop then changing the graphics can be difficult.

You must obviously weigh up what is important to you, if you just want to create a personal website that you are not bothered with how many people will see then of course a template is a good option, if however you are looking to use it for your business then I would always suggest having a custom bespoke design done.

The other problem can be that the site is hard to optimise. Things such as page titles, descriptions and keywords can usually only be added with HTML coding knowledge. This then makes the job of indexing your website and letting the search engines know what it is all about that much more difficult, so much so you may have to bring in a Professional which defeats the object of buying the template in the first place.

The last thing to think about is understanding how you will get the website onto the internet, you will have to save the files correctly and then upload them to a server which again is an extra cost and something that is usually factored into a Professional web design. Also do you want the hassle if something goes wrong?

I would always suggest a Professional web designer to help give you an individual web presence with your website, if you are on a small budget they can talk you through the options available design and develop something within your budget. The worst case scenario is that the web designer can download and change a template if necessary. The extra cost will defiantly be worth it in the long run.