In today’s world, if your business does not have a website, it is already behind. Everyone is glued to their phones these days, and if your customer is searching on Google to find you but you’re not there, chances are they are going to stumble upon your competitor’s website instead.
Thankfully, website creation has come a long way and often a website developer for custom design is no longer needed for most small businesses. To help with making websites easier to create, the use of semi-custom website templates have been taking over, making it much more affordable to have a nice looking website. My favorite website platform with great website template capabilities is Showit, but Squarespace, Wix, WordPress and other website platforms also have templates available.
So, you’ve made the decision to either refresh your website or create one and want to use a template to cut down on the extra investment. Great! Now it’s time to shop for a template but are starting to realize that it is a bit more overwhelming that you originally thought. Have you ever felt “analysis paralysis” by the number of choices when it comes to choosing a website template for your small business? To help, I have listed a few things to consider as you shop around for a website:
Top things to consider if you’re thinking of purchasing a website template to DIY a website for your small business:
1. What is your website’s purpose?
Defining the purpose of your website is one of the first things to do before you pick a template. To do this, ask yourself: “What is the main goal of my website and why do I want to have an online presence?”
Four common purposes are:
- Provide information – Do you primarily want to just let others know (including Google) that you exist?
- An online store – Is your website going to be the main source of traffic so your audience will be able to purchase your products online and you can have an online storefront?
- A portfolio – Is your website going to be your visual resume? A place where prospective customers or employers can go to see the work that you want to highlight?
- A blog – Is sharing blog posts the main objective of your website? Will you be blogging daily or weekly?
Once you’ve determined the purpose of your website, this will help you narrow down the number of choices that you have to find a template to meet your specific needs.
2. Do you have brand assets to match?
When considering a template, you will want to take note if it will be easy or difficult to customize depending on the type of business you own. If you’re a photographer, you’ll want to find a template that includes a lot of image placements, galleries, and other components that work well to showcase photography. If you’re a financial advisor, you will probably not have as many photographs you have available to include so finding a template that has more thoughtfully placed text would be more beneficial.
Take a moment to review your business’ branding, photography, content and other important assets to help decide what sort of template design would make it easier to customize based on what you already have and what you need for the new website design to include.
3. Is the template design responsive?
Responsive Design is a type of web design that allows the website to adjust to any screen size – desktop, mobile, tablet, which is so important as 95% of users use their smartphone to look at websites compared to using a desktop.
By having a template that includes this type of design, your website will be able to load quickly – which means that there’s a better chance of your customers staying on your site longer. Google actually puts a priority on mobile-friendly website so most website templates these days include a responsive design, thankfully. However, it doesn’t hurt to double check just to make sure as it will save you a lot of headache to formulate the mobile version later on your own.
4. Is the template easily customizable?
Templates should be easy for you to use, after all, you are trying to avoid paying for a designer and a developer to create a website for you. A template should also be fairly easy to customize so you can tailer the design to adapt your business’ brand personality, fonts, colors, and any other graphics. The template should offer a quicker way to get your website completed faster and less expensive. Be sure to check-out reviews and ask others how their experience was with their website builder to make sure others had a great experience.
When it comes to website platforms that offer customization, my mind automatically goes to Showit. As a designer, Showit has been my go-to for any website that needs a creative touch but doesn’t have a heavy e-commerce component.
5. Is your website template compatible?
Before you choose a template, you will need to choose a content management system (CMS) that you are going to use. For example, if you are going to use WordPress, make sure that the template is compatible with WordPress. If you buy a Showit template, you must purchase a website plan with Showit to host your website. If you have some other software that is instrumental to your business operations, see if your website software and/or template can accommodate.
6. Look for Support
When you purchase a website template, make sure that it also comes with support. Support is going to be your go-to resource for any questions that you have when you’re customizing your template. There are many types of support but the most common types are video tutorials, documentation, and even customer support (an email address or even an option to live chat to receive help).
Summary
Website templates are a great way for someone to affordably get started on their website. With the growing number of website builders available, there are so many website templates to review. If you keep these considerations in mind, your website template selection process will go more smoothly. Remember, your website is not forever! The most important thing is to make forward progress. If you end up not liking your template and/or website, you can always change it.
One last piece of advice when you’re picking a website template for your small business is to remember this: let it be easy. Sometimes we want to make our websites become this amazing thing with all the bells and whistles, but honestly, a visually appealing website that has clear information for the viewer to find what they need will still give you great results.
If you’re looking for a website template for your small business, I often recommend Showit! It has amazing customization qualities and also integrates it’s blogging component with WordPress. I offer a couple different affordable templates for businesses to get started without too much of a financial investment. You can check them out at www.jessicaringer.com/shop.
