Custom Website or Template?

Persons hand pointing to Add to Cart button on large paper cutout of website design layout.

Share With Your Pack

If you’re looking for successful business growth, we say a custom website.

If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Should I have a custom website made for my business or use a template website service?” The answer isn’t simple; there are a few things to consider. Template websites are usually cheaper and are much easier to navigate for those who aren’t familiar with website development. Template websites are also shorter on development time, but their support system isn’t nearly as strong. In our opinion, if you’re looking for successful business growth, we recommend having a custom website created.

Custom Code

There are a few reasons why we favour custom website design over template websites. When a template is used multiple times by different businesses, this code is repeatedly exposed to Google. Google dislikes duplicated code and content. Did you know Google will rank your website lower because of this? With custom website design, the code is custom to your specific website and will appear unique to Google.

Organic SEO

Custom website design also allows you to add the organic search engine optimization (SEO) you want to your website copy and backend. Google ranks your website based on your SEO accuracy, and if you want to add custom SEO to a template website, it will cost you more money. Most website templates you will find are not SEO-friendly, so using custom code will help increase your SEO ranking.

New, Updated Content

Google looks for fresh, new, relevant content that is updated frequently. Custom-made websites allow you to make the content changes you want to when you want to so that Google ranks your website higher. Websites built with templates limit what you can customize, and require you to stay within the parameters the template sets. This limits the number of updates, and the new content you want to put on your website.

Align Brand Identity

A website is part of your marketing strategy and is essential for your digital presence. All of the important actions are taken on your website. Being able to extend your digital marketing strategy to your website with custom colour, font, icons, and photos generates and increases brand awareness. Template websites limit the choices you can make with your identity, and not all of them work on all devices.

All in All

Your business’ success and growth is important. When deciding between a custom website and a template website, you need to consider a lot of things – budget, time, flexibility. However, if growth and expansion are priorities for your business, a custom website will always be our first recommendation. 

Custom websites allow you to have the freedom to align with your brand identity and consistently update your website. They give you the opportunity to increase your ranks in Google because of organic SEO and custom code. Custom websites allow you to enhance your digital marketing presence the way you want to be seen, at the pace you want.

For more information, Attilus provides an easy-to-read infographic that compares custom versus template websites, and Ignyte breaks down the different factors to consider when making a decision. 

Keep up with us on our socials for more insight like this!

Like what you read? Good.

Sink your teeth with the latest content by signingup for our newsletter.

TICKETING

If you have maintenance hours with us, submit a ticket and we’ll get to work in 48 hours or less.

Upload any relevant files here (max. upload size is 8MB)
*Please add all files at once. Allowed file types: jpg, jpeg, pdf, docx, png

FREE SALES AND MARKETING ASSESSMENT

Siva vs. Others

Hosting Comparisons

Service

Siva Hosting

Other Hosting

Lowest Price

$19.99/month

$5-$20/month

Traffic/Bandwidth

Unmetered

Unmetered

Disk Space Per Site

5GB

1-10GB

24/7 Support

Yes

Varies

Website Optimization

Yes

No

Asset Compression

Yes

No

Brute Force Protection

Yes

No

Malware Protection

Yes

No

Load Balanced Servers

Yes

No

Easy Client Editing

Yes

No

Free Website Updates

Yes

Definitely not

Unprompted Check-Ins

Yes

Definitely not

Learn How To Build Your Online Presence!

[formidable id=5]