One of the biggest debates in the Iowa City website design world is the benefits of high-quality templates. Many professionals argue that they are necessary for websites while others argue that personal and creative designs are probably a better choice.
To help you better understand this issue, let’s take a look at the advantages of template-based designs and their disadvantages. We will also examine how useful personalized site design is and whether it is right for your specific website needs.
The Nature of Web Design Templates
A large number of CMS models (content management systems) possess a broad array of templates. These templates set up every element of your website in a quick and easy-to-understand way. For example, there will be a headline, image sections, and spots for your text.
Thousands of templates are available across the internet, though only a fraction of them are very integrated on a wide scale. As a result, you do have many design options from which you can choose. Just as importantly, you need to understand the benefits of a template-based approach.
Template Advantages and Disadvantages
When designing your website, you have the choice to use templates from a variety of sources. Using them provides you with a multitude of benefits that make them worth it for many types of companies. Just a few of these benefits include:
- Easier implementation
- Cheaper design options
- Quicker to adapt
- Wide variety of choices
- Built-in functions
- Easier updates
These benefits make templates a great choice for many types of website designs. However, templates are also harder to customize, struggle with updates and compatibility issues, and often look very similar to other websites in a way that might penalize your SEO. Therefore, it is worth checking out whether or not more individual designs are right for you.
When Individual Websites are Best
While templates do provide an easy way to get into the website design world, their limitations may be frustrating for many businesses. For example, it is often more difficult to customize individual window sizes or to lack customization without paying an extra fee. Therefore, many businesses forego templates altogether and ask professional web designers to create a 100 percent original site.
The benefits of this approach are vast. First of all, your site will be unique to you and won’t share a similar look with other sites. In this way, it will stand out in the marketplace and make it easier to remember. And if you hire a great designer, they can make it easy to read and scan and integrate videos and images in a way that makes it more attractive.
There are downsides to this approach. As you can imagine, building a website from the ground up will take a lot more time than using a template. Even worse, it will cost a lot more money. You may also have to hire specialized coders and graphic designers to make your site specific to your needs. However, it is often a great choice if you want to truly stand out.
Which Approach is Right For You?
As you can see, there are many ups and downs when it comes to choosing templates over individual designs. Any Iowa City website design firm with anything should be able to help you decide if you need template-based designs or if personalized approaches would be a better fit.
So don’t hesitate to contact a professional to learn more about this design process. They can help you grasp what template is right for your needs and will work hard to ensure that you get the great design that your website needs to look great for years to come.