Archive for the 'Web Site Graphics' Category

Should You Use A Template Site?

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

You can get templates sites for next to nothing, even in some cases you can get them for free! Sounds like a great oportunity right? To have a pre-built web site with all the bells and whistles on it for a cheap price, but is it really worth it? Template site are perfect for anyone who needs or wants a site available quickly or does not have the desire or patience to learn how to use web design software.

 Downsides:

  1.   If you don’t have the patience to learn the ins and outs of desing, then you probably don’t have the patients to run a web based business.
  2. Free templates can cause significant design flaws and can end up causing significant damage to your web business image.
  3. If using a fee web page template, your files are often distrubuted freely around the internet and is used by thousands of web sites.

Problems with SEO:

  1. Many templates are only optimized for one or 2 web browsers (the most popular is Microsoft Explorer), this means that a user that is not using the certain browser that the template site is not optimized for they most likely will not be able to access your site. 

How to protect yourself if you do use a template:

  1. Modify any CSS fukes that are included and rename or replace any image files.
  2. Test the template across a number of popular browsers ( This is a very effect and fast way to test a template site)

I suggest not setting up and using a template site, instead use a template site for inspiration to build your own site. Use templates for inspiration instead than the solution. Some good inspirational template sites are www.opendesign.org or www.oswdshots.org . If you want a website up and running quickly and don’t mind your site looking similar to other sites, then a template site could be for you. On the other hand, if you don’t make changes to the template file and test it in various Web browsers then you should forget about using them altogether. If your web site is vital to your business, then you should hire a web designer to create a personal, professional, and unique site.

Posted in Web Site Design, Web Site Development, Web Site Graphics | No Comments »