Website Design: Custom or Cookie-Cutter?

There are those out there who believe that a cookie-cutter website (aka stock template-based website) is just as good as a custom-designed website. To all of those folks, I say, “Hogwash!”

I’m in Marketing / Advertising and in my world, anything that a business can do to differentiate themselves from the competition gives them a leg up. I’ll admit that it’s highly unlikely that a web surfer will find two websites in a particular industry with the exact same template but it can happen. (I’ve actually done it myself in one sitting!) And really, web surfers are savvy these days and are more adept at recognizing a custom site versus a template. With that said, I say build a custom website if you’re able to because it's always the best way to go in order to have complete control over how your company is branded on the web.

Many custom website design companies offer hosting and domain services. That’s the ideal provider because there’s definitely something to be said for dealing with one vendor for all your website needs. Some firms even offer content writing services as an add-on but beware! The writers may or may not be professional copywriters. So, be sure to ask to see sample website copy when you’re asking to see design samples if you need both website design & copywriting.

Now, admittedly, custom website design can be expensive. Therefore, if the price is too steep for custom website design, your alternatives are to:

(a) Purchase a template that you can customize and upload to your hosting provider

or

(b) Use a template provided through a company that offers website builders along with hosting services.

The former is a better option than the latter because companies that sell template for use tend to limit the number of purchases for each template, thereby significantly decreasing the number of possible businesses that have the same design. (Check out: http://www.templatemonster.com to see samples of the semi-custom templates.) If your budget for a website is next to nil, then you can go for the full cookie-cutter website. Again, that would not be the first recommendation to a client I was consulting but in business, the budget always rules. And in the case of a tight budget, a cookie-cutter website is better than no website at all!