Template websites like Wix and Squarespace have helped many home improvement companies establish a foothold online. These services are popular because they’re cheap and make it easy to get a quick website up and running.

But template websites also have a lot of drawbacks – many of which don’t receive the attention they deserve. In fact, choosing a template website over a professionally-designed one could end up costing your company more in the long run.

We put together this article to highlight the most important reasons to avoid template websites. Keep reading to learn why, when it comes to template websites vs. professional websites, professional websites are often the better selection.

7 Reasons to Avoid Template Websites

Creative Restrictions

One of the biggest reasons to avoid template websites is the restrictions that they place on what you can create. Typically, you’re only able to choose between a few templates while designing your site.

Even if there are a number of templates to choose from, you’re still not able to customize your website to meet your unique needs. This can have a ton of negative effects on your online presence.

For example, you might not be able to easily display the content that your audience cares most about. This could cause them to look elsewhere instead of using your company.

In fact, statistics show that 38% of people will leave a website if the content or layout is unattractive. So you could be missing out on a big chunk of potential business by using a template website that restricts your creativity.

Subpar SEO

At face value, Google SEO doesn’t discriminate against sites made by templates. But in practice, your SEO results could go down significantly if you choose one of these over a professional website. There are a few reasons for this.

First, Google SEO rankings will punish your site’s score if you use a template that’s frequently used by spam websites. Additionally, you won’t be able to optimize your website for performance if you use a template site. This brings down your usability, which also negatively impacts your SEO results.

This could have a big impact on the number of leads that you’re able to get online, as data shows that about 33% of a company’s leads come from SEO.

May Cost More In The Long Run

Even though you can save money upfront by using a template website, the long-term costs of doing so are often much higher than you expect.

That’s because template websites aren’t optimized for performance and limit your digital marketing potential. If you want to resolve these problems, you’ll need to pay a professional to identify and resolve them – which could be quite expensive. And this doesn’t even include the amount of potential business that you could be losing with subpar SEO results.

That’s why it usually makes more sense to hire a professional website designer from the start. If you’re going to have to pay a professional one day anyway, why not just get it out of the way now?

More Work For You

Template websites seem easy, but they often end up meaning more work for you to do.

When you use one, you’ll have to go through the initial design process, which can be quite lengthy. And after that, you’ll constantly need to go back and manually update your pages whenever you want to change something.

This can wind up being a huge time sink that reduces the amount of time that you have available to make money. Hiring a professional designer ensures you don’t have to worry about this.

Browser Compatibility Complications

You want to make sure that your customers can use your website no matter what browser or device they use to access it. But that’s tough to do with a template website.

Websites designed on template sites are often not optimized for every browser and device that someone can use to access your site.

This means you can provide potentially a sizeable portion of your audience with a subpar web-browsing experience. You definitely don’t want to do that, since 88% of users are less likely to return to a website that gave them a bad user experience.

May Be Left Unfinished

Template websites can be a lot of work. So you have to account for the fact that you may not be able to complete everything you want to get done in the timeframe that you’d like.

In fact, many small businesses start building a website with a template but end up putting off some of the work for later. This can quickly turn into a situation where you simply never get around to adding the website functionality that you want your users to be able to enjoy.

Ineffective At Capturing Leads

If you’re going to invest in building a website, you want to make sure that you’re getting a solid return on that investment. This comes from the number of leads that you can capture through it.

But template websites leave a lot to be desired in this area. They don’t give you total control over your site, which makes it tough to organize it in an optimal way for catching leads.

Why Professional Websites Are A Better Alternative

Template websites sound great at first, but their value proposition falls apart when you look at them closely.

Professional websites are the opposite. They may seem too expensive to you at first, but look a little closer and you’ll see that they’re a great investment in the future of your company. Here are five reasons why they’re typically a better choice.

Complete Customizability

Professional websites let you build exactly what you’re looking for from the ground up. You can be creative as you want and include as many (or as few) features you think your viewers will find useful.

No matter what you want your company’s website to look like or do, you can bring that vision to life with the help of a professional web designer.

Superior SEO

It’s also almost always easier to hit your SEO goals with a professional site instead of a template one. That’s because you can design your site in a way that allows it to perform as well as possible in Google’s SEO rankings.

Professional sites also give you the power to analyze your performance and adapt your site to improve it.

For example, if you notice that you’re not ranking as highly as you would like for a certain keyword, you can change whatever parts of your site you need to change to fix the problem.

That’s not possible with a template site.

Less Work For You

When you hire a professional to design your website, they take care of everything for them. All that you have to do is tell the person what you want and they’ll create it. This can free up a ton of your time to focus on what you do best.

Better User Experience

Professional websites generally give visitors a better experience. That’s because they can be customized in exactly the right way to appeal to your target audience.

A web designer can also make sure that your website is compatible with every popular browser and device. This will ensure that the people who view your site will have a good experience on it – no matter how they choose to engage with you.

Better At Capturing Leads

The customizability of professionally-designed websites can also help you convert more of your leads into paying customers. That’s because you can easily modify your website and adjust your content until you’ve found the perfect balance for feeding your sales funnel.

The Bottom Line On Template Websites vs. Professional Websites

Template websites are popular for a reason. Using one can be a great way for your home improvement company to get a simple website up and running.

But eventually, you’re going to want a website that can help you find and convert a higher number of leads. And the only way to optimize your company’s web presence is to work with a professional designer who can customize your website.

That’s why, when it comes to template websites vs. professional websites, it’s almost always better to go with a professional designer. Doing so will help you get more out of your website so that you can reach your business goals faster.

Okason Software Can Help You Create The Ideal Website

Are you interested in working with a professional website designer? If so, consider reaching out to Okason Software. We provide high-quality, customized designs that we can personalize to meet your exact specifications.

Whether you’re looking for a website that can help you do better with SEO or you want to start converting a higher percentage of your website visitors, we can help you get the job done.

Don't think twice! Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help.

‍

‍

‍