Design | Development | Strategy | 11.26.2018
4 Qualities of a Truly Custom Website Design
What makes a website design “custom”? Is it the graphics? The layout? The attention to detail? In this post, we’ll look at what separates a custom website design from all of the other “me too” designs out there, and why you’ll want to consider having a custom site designed for yourself.
Let’s take a closer look:
A Custom Website Leaves a Unique Impression
You wouldn’t use another company’s logo or business card as your own, so why use a prefab template for your website? It doesn’t take long browsing the web to start to notice that a lot of websites look pretty much the same. This happens because many of these websites use popular content management systems and free or low-cost templates starting out.
But, as with many things, you get what you pay for. Do you want to be forgettable among a sea of competitors using a similar design and development, or do you want to leave a lasting impression with a custom website design that is all your own?
[blog_callout text=”You wouldn’t use another company’s logo or business card as your own, so why use a prefab template for your website?”]
A custom website offers a number of features that can make it a superior choice when compared to “cookie-cutter” website templates.
A Custom Website Design Gives You Greater Freedom and Flexibility
One of the best reasons to consider custom website design is because of the sheer amount of freedom and flexibility you get from it. With premade templates, you’re often shoehorned into a rigid, inflexible layout where everything has a strict order and size with very little deviation.
What’s more, you’ll find that even those templates that boast the freedom to edit the layout require a great deal of programming knowledge to achieve the look you want — a look that will likely be lost the next time the template-maker has an update available.
A truly custom website can be built from the ground up to incorporate your unique tastes and ideas in a way that captures and refines your business goals in a way that cheap templates cannot. What’s more, the best web design companies take into account your business goals, style and the perception that you want your website to have.
[blog_callout text=”Even those websites that boast the freedom to edit the layout can require a great deal of programming knowledge to achieve the look you want — a look that will likely be lost the next time the template-maker has an update available.”]
Pre-made websites often look the same because, barring a few image changes, there isn’t much that can be done to differentiate them. This can lead to a website looking “stale” the moment it goes live.
A Custom Website Design May Be More Secure
Template websites are a hot target for aspiring hackers, mainly because once the underlying code is vulnerable, it can be exploited across all websites using that template. And while this is not to say that custom websites don’t get hacked, the probability of it is much lower than your average template-based website.
Even if the template creator issues a patch, if you have custom work done that affects the code itself, it will be overwritten by the patched code. This can cause your site to throw out all kinds of errors and require extensive troubleshooting to diagnose and solve.
If you choose to work with a solid agency, custom websites also tend to have better support backing them, rather than the limited support offered by template and theme authors. It’s worth noting that theme authors and website template companies often work on volume — so it’s in their best financial interest to focus on selling more of a given template, rather than allowing greater customizability within it.
Investing in a custom web design process may cost more than a template, but it can more than pay for itself in terms of creative expression, security, and stability in the long run. Truly custom websites can not only be a better investment in security and stability but also in long-term support as well.
A Truly Custom Website is Built to Scale With You
Finally, one of the most common problems with cheap template-based websites is that, while they might be great when you’re just starting out, they can be a real pain to deal with as your business grows.
As you’re branching out into new areas or hiring additional personnel, you’ll need to update your website. Unfortunately, even with templates, this can be a tedious and time-consuming chore.
[blog_important text=”With a custom website, you can update freely (or have your design firm update for you), saving you time and money while ensuring that everything is exactly as you want it.”]
You may even discover as time goes on, that you’ve “outgrown” your boilerplate website template. Oftentimes, this means spending hours in search of another template or theme that does what you want (if you can even find it). With a custom website, changes can often be made more efficiently, since the design agency is familiar with the code and can adapt it to suit your needs rather than placing the burden on you, the customer, to find a template that does what you need it to.
Choosing the Right Agency for Your Custom Website Design is Paramount to Your Success
Having a custom website built can give your business the competitive advantage you need to stand apart, as well as make scaling and growth easier than ever. You can even have custom WordPress development done if you prefer the ease of use of a content management system.
Working alongside an agency that specializes in custom website design means having support and guidance along the way. It means that getting one-on-one attention and advice doesn’t stop after the transaction is complete. And perhaps most importantly, an agency that truly has your company’s best interests and forward momentum at heart will be heavily invested in your success as if your custom website were their own.
However, it’s vital that you choose an agency that not only has a variety of custom sites displayed in their portfolio, but also has the recommendations of their clients and the ratings to back up their demonstration of skill. Firms that truly excel at creating custom website designs are those that are willing to listen to input, devise a strategy and work with you to create a design you can’t wait to show off.
As you can see, a custom website design service is more than a project that’s “one-and-done”. Knowing that you have a firm that you can turn to when you need support and advice can be invaluable. The end result is that not only will you have a truly custom website design to call your own, but that you’ll also be backed by the knowledge, expertise, and support of a web design agency that you can rely on to help your business grow and thrive.
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