We’re well into the 21st Century. You know all about the Internet.
You know full well that if you’re a business looking to make a big impact in its field, you’ll need a killer website.
Studies have shown that 91% of consumers have actively pursued business with a company because of their experience with that company’s website.
So you can whip one up, right? $20 for one of those website templates your niece showed you, and you’ll be all set. Right?
Not quite.
A lot of small businesses’ first instinct when developing their website is to download a website template and…make it work. But the truth is, web templates aren’t worth your time, money, or frustrations.
From overall design, usability, and upkeep, to searchability and SEO optimization, you’d be a fool to waste time wrestling with a website template instead of hiring a web designer.
Here’s why hiring a professional web designer is so much smarter than using an existing template.
1. Saves You Time
So what, you’re not busy enough? Need something to do with all that free time you’ve got lying around the office?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
One of the most basic and crucial benefits involved in hiring a web designer and skipping out on templates is the enormous amount of time you’ll save by doing so.
The fact is, most templates are difficult to get the hang of. In a lot of cases, even once you’ve figured out their basic manipulations, you’ll spend tons more time working out annoying kinks–how to align photos correctly, how to change typefaces, how to alter the layout of a page…
Meh.
So, sure, you can waste, quite literally, hundreds of hours away from the happenings of your business while inputting and formatting content in a website template, trying fruitlessly to customize a website that just doesn’t fit your needs.
Or you can hire someone who’s professionally trained to do the job for you.
We’re talking about hiring a person who’s got the time for your project already built into their work day…because you know…it’s their job.
2. Saves Your Clients Time
By nature, website templates are filled to their brim with heaps of coding you’ll never use or care to understand. This is because templates are designed to serve the needs of all different markets, and as a result, they’re forced to take on more than they can really carry.
But a template’s burdens aren’t your problem, right?
Wronggg.
Because of all the extra baggage, a website template is forced to carry in order for it to exist, websites built on templates are between 3 and 10 times slower than custom websites.
Never mind how long it’ll take for you to whoop a template into shape; that’s on you. Use a template, and your site’s visitors will be brutally flung back into the days of dial-up Internet.
A slow website’s not a super fun way to persuade clients to stick around long enough to work with your company, or even to see the rest of your site.
Hiring a professional web designer means your clients can get in and around your customized and thoughtfully designed website with ease. What better way to show clients you care than by respecting their time?
3. Establishes Your Brand and Credibility
Your business and its services are one-of-a-kind, right?
When building a website on the basis of a template, you’re endlessly restricted–confined to somebody else’s color schemes, graphic styles, logical flow, and layout…
And in the end, it comes out looking like every other website built with a template.
By hiring a designer, you’ll eliminate the unavoidable constraints brought on by a template’s programming. Plus, you’ll have loads of freedom to establish your brand, unique aesthetic, and usability.
A professional designer will have the time and ability to ensure that your site’s design is visually appealing and user-friendly, so the experience of using your site will stick uniquely and positively in users’ minds.
Bailing on a website template is the #1 way to demonstrate your company’s brand and credibility. Your business and its services are one-of-a-kind. Your site should be, too.
4. Gets You a Site that Fits Your Needs
If you’ve ever so much as played around with a website template, you’ll know what an utter drag it is trying to get those ready-made pages to fit with the content you need to post.
Most templates are programmed with a navigation menu that offers 3 or 4 different pages. But what if your site needs to feature a new tab for each of your business’s 7 services? Good luck getting through that overhaul without throwing a thing or two.
Working one-on-one with a website designer is the only sure-fire way to ensure your site is working in all the ways you need it to. Need your site to be mostly informational with a few contact or services functions? Got it. Need a simple site that encourages customers to reach out in-person? No problem.
Ditching the template and hiring a professional web designer allows your site to suit your business’s needs on every level, eliminating those weird one-size-fits-all tabs and functions that just don’t make sense for your site.
5. Helps You Avoid Technical Nightmares
Websites built through templates like WordPress and Drupal are, by far, the most easily-hacked servers on the Internet.
Building on a template means taking a huge gamble on the security of your site. Maybe that’s a bet you’re willing to make on your personal travel blog, but is it really a reasonable risk to take with your company’s entire web presence? Ehhh…
Maybe hackers don’t scare you. Whatever.
But maybe this fact will do it: Every month, Drupal and WordPress issue additional security updates to be installed into the codes of your existing template themes. This fact alone provides enough ingredients for a new disaster every month. Every month!
Your website won’t ever be finished. Not really. There are always going to be new security updates to install, new content to be added, SEO to be tweaked.
Hiring a professional web designer means all of the nightmarish upkeep and potential disasters with your company’s site are just…not your problem.
Sounds good, right?
So…Hiring a Web Designer…
At first glance, using a web template seems like a good, cheap route to take.
We get it.
But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to templates, the cons really outweigh the benefits.
Sure, professional web design might take a little research and slight upfront cost. But in the long-run, hiring a web designer means ensuring your peace of mind in virtually every aspect of the deal, from technical work to quantifiable consumer outcomes.
Ready to get started working with a pro on your business’s awesome, customized website? Still not convinced? Come talk to us.
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