We built over over 100 websites last year. As a web design company, we think it’s fair to say that we know a good website design when we see one. Every time we build a new website, we consider the unique needs and image of the company we are building it for. What is their branding strategy? What kind of customers are they trying to reach? We accommodated these companies by tailoring their websites to these needs, rather than using generic templates.
WordPress templates simply cannot meet your needs. We’ll explore the benefits of having a custom web designer develop your website.
1. Own Your WordPress Website
If you opt for a template website, your website will rely on the template author. As they make edits to the template, the functionality of your website will be impacted in real time. Load speed, mobile appearance, and other features will suffer– and there won’t be an easy solution.
When your website is custom built, you maintain complete ownership of it. You can make as many edits as you would like. So, if you will be spending money, then it is in your best interests to own your place on the web.
Owning your website will enable you to make these changes, helping your small business to flourish.
2. Build a Website Once — Correctly
After deciding to plunge into the world of the internet, many business owners decide to purchase a template. It seems like an easy, DIY solution that will save them time and money. Everything goes well until, one day, they get stuck. At this point, they reach out to a web design agency to add some key features. Unfortunately, the web design agency can rarely do anything to salvage these template websites.
Ultimately, this process ends with the business owner pursuing a custom WordPress site. To avoid this process, it’s best to go with the WordPress site from the outset. This will save time, frustration, and most importantly, money.
3. Custom Website Features
With a custom built WordPress website, the functionality options are endless. This means that you can include custom features for your target audience. Payment integrations, product sidebars and moving banner images are only a few of the ways that you can create a unique experience.
A template website may have a title, pictures, promotional copy and other fields. For those who spend a lot of time on the web, these templates will be easy to identify. There will be hundreds (or more) of other websites that mirror the structure, appearance and theme of your website. To add more functions, many people use plugins– but these slow load times and require frequent updates.
Template websites demonstrate a lack of effort and investment in one’s work. They are also associated with individuals, rather than entire companies with an array of services to offer. Conversion rates will suffer.
4. Showcase Your Brand
WordPress websites can speak volumes about your brand identity. Our website has a “Recent Work” page dedicated to showcasing projects. We embedded each project on the portfolio page to resemble a Twitter card. The purpose of this was twofold: to use an aesthetic that web users are accustomed to, and to encourage interactivity. The dynamic display of each project includes a snippet of the project description, as well as meta tags– in the form of hashtags– that describe the focus of the project.
With a template, this level of customization would be impossible. Even if you can envision a great design, templates have too many creative restrictions. A custom web developer can incorporate your brand logo and colors for much stronger results.
5. Get Expert Advice
Sometimes, your website ideas may be more abstract than realistic. A custom web developer understands how to bring that vision to reality.
Communicating with an expert can help you to develop your ideas, giving you additional suggestions about creating the perfect website. This knowledge will be useful in the future, whether you pursue internet marketing endeavors now, or decide to get another website later.
6. Create a User-Friendly Interface
Websites in different industries have varying needs. An ecommerce store would need to have clearly categorized products. A home improvement company would need client testimonials, and before/after pictures. A medical practice’s website should explain their procedures, with pictures that demonstrate the services.
Using WordPress, a custom web developer can create a fully customized interface specific to your website. Thinking about how your standard customer would interact with your website– and streamlining the buying process so that it is easy to understand for them– makes all of the difference.
Our web development team is constantly focusing their efforts toward simplifying the end-user experience, and staying ahead of the competition.
7. Create Custom Formats For Your Content
The internet gods have spoken, and yes, content is king. Even with perfect images, a consistent color scheme and a well-organized site structure, content will make or break your website. With WordPress, you can display your content in customized formats.
This means that you can categorize blog posts for easy visibility, link to other blog posts, and include custom-sized images.
As a business owner, you might not have the time to thoroughly research the content that your competitors have, and create content encouraging customers to follow through.
Most web design agencies have an in-house content writer responsible for researching popular industry topics. With this information, they write original, detailed and compelling content for your website, regardless of the topic. Over time, these blog posts will help your website to rank higher in Google searches. Which brings us to our next point.
8. Better SEO Value
One natural advantage of having a custom web developer design your website is that it will perform better on Google. For businesses with at least one local competitor (that is probably also utilizing SEO tactics), SEO is crucial.
With templates, there are bound to be several crawl errors, for which Google will penalize your rankings. An experienced web designer will ensure that your website’s technical elements are optimized for search engine purposes.
9. Create Effective Calls To Action
A call to action is any element on your website that instructs visitors to take the next step in the purchasing process.
On each page of your website, there should be a call to action button that helps potential customers identify the next step in the buying process. Custom web developers understand where to put these for the best results. That means more leads, and more guaranteed money for you.
Generally, calls to action use active language that encourages participation in a positive way. For example, “Buy [product] Now”, “Learn More”, or “Contact Us” are all very encouraging, and have been used as calls to action for years.
Based on the sub-page, the text used in the call to action should vary. By continually monitoring the analytics of these pages, you can determine which phrase has the highest conversion rate.
Contact Our Custom Web Development Team Today
In the end, a positive user experience is the only thing that will keep customers coming back. Done right, a custom website will give your small business the opportunity to leave customers in awe of the functionality and design. Template websites simply do not have the capability that will keep customers returning. We can help your small business to approach your internet presence with reasonable goals and a results-oriented perspective.