For startups or small businesses with little cash to spare, it’s very tempting to go for a cheap template website rather than a more expensive bespoke design.
However, as much as it might save you in the short term, sites like these can significantly hamper your growth.
Adding content
Many design companies offering cheap template sites operate on a tiered price structure restricting the number of pages you can have and the amount of customisation you can do yourself.
The cheapest packages may only give you a two page website and not allow you to edit the content. Although this may suit your needs for the moment, it pays to plan for success – it’s safe to say that as your business grows, you will want your website to grow with it.
Similarly, even if you can edit your content, templates can be unforgiving when it comes to the amount of content you can fit into certain spaces. They may be designed to only fit 100 words into a particular box, with any more causing the design to break.
Design
Aside from your site sharing the same or similar templates with others, the inflexibility of cheap websites could make it very difficult to significantly overhaul the design should you want to re-brand.
As you want to keep your branding consistent across all online and offline media you may find yourself constricted in what you can do offline by the restrictions of your template.
Domain name
A small but significant point – some companies offering cheap sites for startups will register the domain and provide hosting for you. Although this makes things easier at first, it’s important to be careful about whether you can take the domain with you. Some companies may make this very difficult, if not impossible.
SEO Limitations
Without a comprehensive Content Management System (CMS) or access to the source code you may not be able to make the necessary alterations to optimise your site for search engines. As search is the primary source of traffic for most business sites, this could be a huge blow to your business.
Relaunching
Many template sites are tied to the system they’re built on. If you do want to switch to a bespoke site your new developers may not be able to build on what you already have, and have to start from scratch. Effectively you’re adding the cost of the template site to the bespoke development you could have had in the first place.
If you liked this article you may also want to read: 10 questions to ask a web designer
Image Credit: hkmtshn
Really great point, many people don’t realize when you get a prebuilt site or website tonight package they are limited to the functionality they will have in the future. From a professional perspective I would strongly recommend not going with a pre-built template website. I don’t think it offers enough room for growth and could potentially cause more work in the future as your company grows. Really great advice you know I’m tweeting it!
bbrian017 recently posted..Syndicate Your Content and Engage with Bloggers
Thanks so much Brian. A lot of people think a template website is a cheap option, but in some cases six or 12 months later, they realise it can’t be adapted to suit their business and end up having to start again from scratch. Thanks for tweeting the article, it’s much appreciated.