These days there are website templates and themes galore for just about every content management platform (WordPress, Joomla, etc.) Basic paid templates typically cost around $50, but can range from $0 to $200. You can also find premium templates and themes that run over a thousand dollars.
But are they effective? Do they employ the best-practices of user interface and user experience design? Will your new website end up looking like every other template-based website out there? Is it worth the additional expense of producing a uniquely designed website? These are all good questions. In truth, though, the graphical design (look-and-feel) of your website should be of lesser concern than fully understanding who your target customer is, the persuasive nature of your messaging, the quality of your content, and the organization, navigation, and usability of your website.
The Downside of Templates-Based Design
While quality graphic design is certainly an important consideration, a quality website design team will always hold the above mentioned considerations as a higher importance. While a template can give you a head start on design, it gives you little advantage on the overall effectiveness of the website. The biggest problem with templatized solutions (and the website development companies that employ them) is not really the limitations of the template, but neglecting these more critical challenges. Templates can indeed save some time, even if the design is ultimately quite customized and unique, i.e. a quality design firm should be able to make significant customizations to a template. But the reason why some website development firms offer “cheap” websites is not only because they employ templates, but because, in an attempt to keep the price (and their cost) down, they sacrifice, compromise, or just fail to understand the more important elements of a quality website. And the ultimate goal of any redesign effort should be a high performing website.
Beware!
If your website development firm jumps to design early in the process of developing your new website, it’s a sure sign that they are NOT the kind of agency you want to work with. And, by the way, if money is your primary concern, i.e. you are really looking for a cheap website, I would argue that you are not fully comprehending that your website is almost certainly your most important marketing investment. If you go cheap, you do so at your own peril.
If the steps your developer prescribes do not include at least the majority of the following list of things (which is certainly not comprehensive), you should continue your search for a quality custom website developer.
- Discuss and agree upon the content management platform (if they only work on one platform, you might be stuck with something you won't like)
- Discuss and agree upon the nature, source, and costs of imagery to be used
- Discuss and agree upon hosting options
- Discuss and agree upon security-related considerations
- Establish website hosting and setup content management system and security
- Identify your buyer personas and the common questions your prospects have that they are seeking answers to... and craft answers to them
- Firm up messaging that reflects your brand and differentiation (without blatantly selling)
- Develop your website content organizational schema
- Develop you website/inbound marketing strategy
- Determine your content marketing strategy
- Develop or refine your website content with an attention to SEO
- Produce multiple initial website comps for your consideration
- Select and refine the preferred design and flesh out additional page designs
- Implement the design within the content management system
- Enter all content and edit
- Test, test, test
- Turn over for client feedback and acceptance
- Make modifications/additions
- Migrate to production or turn website on
- Make constant improvements based upon actual customer interaction with the website
The Benefits of Custom Website Design
If you are working with a quality, experienced website developer that can develop the website you need rather than simply ditto a template like they’ve done a hundred times, you can expect them to not only generally follow the above steps, but offer other significant benefits as well. For example, they will:
- Know about your industry (proactively learning about it if they didn't previously)
- Have a good knowledge of your business and what makes it unique
- Understand the value proposition your business or non-profit offers
- Have a firm grasp of user interface design and the user experience
- Help you understand the importance of constant improvement of your website
- Be passionate about analytics and help you understand how to use them
- Know the difference between cool design and effective design
- Be able to produce exceptional website designs for your consideration and explain the merits of each
- Be experts in implementation and follow-through
- Have an exceptional grasp of content marketing and content creation
- Understand what it takes to accomplish search engine prominence
- Have a firm grasp of conversion optimization
- Be more focused on your success than making a quick buck
While these lists are not remotely complete, they are intended to help a website owner give careful thought to the substantive difference between a masterfully built custom website and a quick, cookie-cutter website. If you’re still not sure that the difference is worth the cost variance, let me offer you one final list, i.e. the benefits of having a quality website developer/inbound marketing specialist redesign your website:
- Increased traffic
- Increased leads
- Higher conversion rates
- Increased sales
- Higher return on investment
- Reduced sales cycle
- Reduced cost per lead and customer acquisition cost
- Reduced frustration in deploying new website
- Reduced risk of cost and schedule overruns
- Increased customer retention
- Increased number of clients who will become fans and evangelists
Granted, there is more to life than this last list… but it’s a pretty darned good list of benefits, and will likely motivate wise marketers and business owners. If you’d like to explore a custom redesign of your website with a highly experienced team of professionals, please contact us. We've been doing complex website development for over twenty years and have clients throughout the front range of Colorado and across the U.S. We’d love to learn more about your business and explore ways of helping you accomplish your dreams.
