Whether you’re looking to save a few bucks or you just want to get a website up as quickly as possible, you might be tempted to use a template design for your website. Sure, templates might be cheap or even free, but when you use them, there’s a strong chance you’re killing your web presence right from the beginning.

Here are 5 reasons you should avoid template web design.

• Most templates look unprofessional—Let’s face it, most templates look like, well, templates. They’re very plain to look at, and most of them look like they were designed 10 years ago. If you’re launching a business website, using a template reflects poorly on your company, and it could cause many potential customers to abandon your website because they just don’t trust you.
• What if someone else is using the same template?—They’re called templates for a reason. Everyone is free to use them. Now, picture this: A customer goes to your website and does some shopping around. Then, he looks at some of your competitors and sees one with a website that looks the exact same as yours. Oops! That’s hardly what I would call creating a memorable online brand. You can’t stand out if you look like all the others.
• Templates can be difficult to customize—Templates are a hassle. Working with someone else’s code to get it to fit your needs can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. What sense does it make to change your style fit the template? It should be the website that’s adapting to fit your brand’s style. Don’t waste your time trying to fix a template to fit your needs. It’s a futile battle.
• Templates make your brand boring—Remarkable brands are the ones that customers connect with. No one is going to feel bond to your company if you’re bland, boring, and indistinguishable from the rest. But if you have a template, that’s exactly what happens to you. Don’t sabotage your brand with a boring template web design. Get a custom website that matches your unique brand image and that stands out from the crowd.
• Custom web design is much easier to use—One of the reasons people think about using templates is because they feel it’s fast and easy to get up online. But as I mentioned earlier, tweaking a template to fit your needs can be a total hassle. By the time you’ve gotten the website somewhat functional, you could have had a professional web designer build something from scratch that’s far better and more attractive than your template.

Have you ever used a template web design?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Brian Waraksa, founder of Raxa Design in Houston, Texas has been in marketing and small business branding since 2002. He writes the Raxa Design blog on issues affecting small business marketing and corporate brands.