As you all know, custom web design takes time and effort to be developed. But, it is worth it!
Now, some people might be in a situation where they will need to publish a website immediately. In such cases, you will have to use a pre-built template. Pre-built templates are also pretty good, but they don’t offer the customization and functionality that a custom web design provides.
In this context, we will explain the reasons why opting for custom web design is better than pre-built templates.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The primary goal for most website owners, if not all, is to rank high on the search results. You can achieve this by making your website SEO optimized.
When comparing the SEO between a custom-designed website and a website created using a pre-built template, the former gets a lead over the latter.
The reason behind this is simple!
In a custom-designed website, you have complete control over both the back-end and front-end of the website. This lets you make necessary changes to CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and other factors that influence SEO.
When the necessary factors are perfectly optimized, your website will rank higher on the search engines.
2. You Get What You Want
Customizing ability is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, advantage of opting for custom web design over pre-built templates.
When designing your page using a pre-built template, you can make the changes only in the areas that your template allows you to do so. So, basically, what you see is what you get.
But, in custom web design, you can build the entire page based on your requirements. Using a custom web design, you can offer people multiple things on a page or a section. This might not be possible in a pre-built template.
3. Makes Your Website Unique
One of the most significant drawbacks with the pre-built templates is that it is open-to-use for anyone. So, it’s pretty common to spot two or more similar designed websites. If you don’t offer unique content or products, your website’s exclusivity can reduce.
When you opt for custom web design, your website will stand out from the competition. There won’t be a website that looks similar to you. Psychologically, this will make people think that the website is significant and trustworthy.
4. Reflects Your Brand Identity
When using a template for your web design, you tweak your brand identity to fit the out-of-the-box design you use. A custom-designed website does the reverse of this since it is created to serve its brand identity. This type of website better communicates the business’s identity and values to customers, making it unique.
5. Custom Functionality
Here is BMWs “Build Your Own” car building page. Of course, to develop pages like this with lots of features, you will need to opt for custom web design.
Note: The more complex the page, the more difficult it becomes to develop the page. Moreover, if you hire a developer, the more complex the page, the higher you have to pay them.
6. Better Marketing Flexibility
You can place opt-in forms, pop-ups, banners, and other marketing elements wherever you want in a custom-designed website.
Now, some might argue that the mentioned elements can be added in a pre-built template as well. Yes, it’s true. These elements can be added in a pre-built template.
But, the pre-built template doesn’t offer the flexibility that a custom-designed website provides . I will explain this situation with an example.
Say I have a pre-built template. Now, I want to place some banners and opt-in forms on my page. The only places where I could put them are the sidebars and the main content area. Some templates might offer better flexibility.
But, if I have a custom web design, I can include these elements in the sidebar, main content area, the bottom of the content, top of the content, sidebar as a ‘sticky element’, etc.
So, in terms of marketing flexibility, custom web design wins hands-down!
7. Better Website Structure
This point is pretty obvious!
In a custom-designed website, the buttons, images, forms, etc., will be placed according to your needs. You or your website developer will build your website in a way that can accommodate buttons, images, forms, etc., in the places you want them to be.
But, on a pre-built template, you might be adding the buttons, images, forms, etc., on the places that are not meant to accommodate them.
8. Better Website Optimization
Nowadays, due to an increase in the number of people using pre-built templates, many pre-built templates are pretty well optimized for different devices and browsers.
But, even then, they can’t match the level of optimization that custom web design offers.
For example, say you add a button on a pre-built template on a place where you want it to be. If the area can’t accommodate the button, that button won’t be optimized for various devices and browsers.
You may not notice this initially as you will be creating your website on your laptop or computer. But, when you switch the view to ‘smartphone’ or ‘tablet’, you will notice the difference. Also, when zooming in or zooming out of the page, you will notice that the button is unoptimized.
This kind of optimization issue doesn’t occur on a well-developed custom-designed website.
Conclusion
We hope this blog gave you a clear idea of whether a custom web design is required for your business. Before concluding the blog, we will quickly give our suggestions.
If you want to develop a website and have the time and skill to create a custom-designed website, then go ahead and build one!
But, many website owners are not web developers. So, if they want a custom-designed website, they will hire web developers. As we all know, web developers are pretty expensive.
If you’re a new brand with low investment, then paying lots of money to web developers won’t be a viable option as you can use that money for purposes like advertising. In this case, we suggest you opt for pre-built templates.
If you’re a big brand and want your website to be unique with custom functionalities, opt for custom web design. We hope that you’re satisfied with our verdict.
