Custom design Or pre-designed website?

Since adding the new Pre-design (also known as a website template) service, I have been asked the question “Should I get a custom website, or a pre-design?”.

Well to start answering this question I first need to eliminate the Pre-Designed Myth.

Pre-Designed Website Myth

The myth is that 100’s of website owners could have the same website as you and that they are not good quality. Well this is completely untrue nowadays, it used to be true and comes from a few years ago when most templates were the same poor design in different colors, and at that time there wasn’t many choices so many people had the same looking website.

Now here’s my proof to back-up my claim take a look at my pre-design catalog at www.elitegd.com/templatestore/ click on any of the pre-designs and it will show you the statistics of how many times that template has been purchased on average only 3-4 times and the most I’ve seen is 15, now out of the 20 million (rough number) websites out there 15 have the same design. Now odds are you would never find two of the same while surfing.

So now on to which do you need a custom or a pre-design website….

You will want to have consistent branding across your website, print materials, logo’s etc. So you would tend to think custom is your only choice, well a pre-design is still just that a pre-design and if you find one that you like but want it updated it can definitely be customized but that will increase your overall costs, and you may be better off getting a full custom website that you will have more input into.

Custom Web Design Solution

  • From start to finish you have full input into every detail of your website.
  • You will have consistent branding that further establishes your businesses presence.
  • Search Engine Optimization techniques are completed at the time of the website being built instead of a separate service offering.
  • The only limits on a custom website is your imagination of what you want for your website.

Pre-Design Website Solution

  • Low price- since website is built from a pre-made website, it needs less work, so it’s cheaper than a Custom Website.
  • Fast– again, since it’s pre-made it requires less work, it can be built very fast.
  • You see what you get – instead of paying for something that doesn’t exists yet, you can preview and choose how your website will look.

    • Pre-design’s are great if there is one that you really like as you can see it before hand, but if you can’t find one that has a layout or style that you want then this isn’t the option for you. The major difference between the two is costs, as the Custom Solution everything will need to be created based on the information you provide, the other everything is setup and your information just needs to be added.

    This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 11:06 am and is filed under Web Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

    Comments are closed.