What is a Website Template?
Many smart and savvy businesses are choosing to use a website template, and avoiding employing a professional designer. Why? Well, there are clear benefits: saving on cost, saving on time, and ensuring quality.
Web templates close the gap between the amateur website owner learning to create his/her own website, and a one-off custom design.
What is a website template? A web template is a ready-made design for your website, including images, some navigation, preferably several sample pages and in some cases Flash animation. However, it has no content related to you or your business ? that must come from you! Remember that a web template must be customized / modified (to whatever degree you are comfortable with) to turn it into your very own website.
What about hiring a website designer, or using a quick-and-easy tool to build your own website?
The answer to this question is easy ? your, and your business', professional image. There is no other way to say this - if you do not have appropriate web / Internet design experience, don't put together a quick and dirty website and expect it to be a professional portrayal of you / your business!
So then do you have to spend a lot of money having a website custom designed for you? Well, you could. But you no longer need to!
A low-cost, but professional design
While selecting a ready-made web design template, you will probably browse through a collection of different website designs until you find one (or a few) that you like.
Expect to be able to at least see a screen capture of what your web page will look like, and hopefully a "see-in-action"? which lets you see exactly what you will be getting.
Choose your template carefully, and you will have a professional design, executed by a qualified designer with all due attention to accessibility, standards compliance, browser quirks and a lot of other things that you would not want to have to learn about from scratch, yourself! All for a fraction of the cost of hiring a custom website designer or design firm.
Avoid the common mistakes made when choosing a website template
Don't assume that every last thing within the template can be changed, easily. Of course anything can be changed if you have graphics knowledge, but for the novice, if you're unsure whether a particular graphic used can be easily replaced by your own image, ask the template designer! This is why it is best to choose a template store where the template designer provides personal support for his / her designs.
Sometimes one or more elements of the template design are intrinsic parts of the template, and cannot just be "swapped out" without technical knowledge. Good, professional template designers will offer a customization service to perform this kind of function for you.
What a template is ? and isn't
The website template you have chosen is a look-and-feel for your site. Some high-end templates have database back-ends and so on built in, but straightforward website templates are generally a "shell" for your website. Adding the content which is specific to your website, and "making it your own", involves editing the template. Fortunately, these days html / web editors are very easy to use, but be aware that you will need to do add content to the template to make into your website.
You will want to add your own text, set your meta tags (keywords and description), and possibly insert some product images into your product listing pages (if applicable).
Not the only one!
Most website templates are sold more than once ? which technically means that you won't have the only website on the Internet that looks like yours. However, don't consider this a problem ? with Google having over 8 billion sites (May 2005) in its inde, the chances of someone seeing another site that looks like yours are tiny. However, if you need a copyrighted design, ask the template designer about buying the template for exclusive use. This will increase the price though, and also depends on the template not having been sold before.
Web site templates are a cost-effective way to produce an attractive, professional website at a fraction of the cost of hiring your own web designer.
Julia Jackson is the owner of Xenon Web Services, specialising in website design and database design, as well as an online store of original, professional website templates.
http://web-site-templates.info
http://websitetemplates.co.za
Where does a person start when setting up a website?... Read More
In this article I will give a few tips of... Read More
QUESTION: My business is very small, just me and... Read More
Imagine spinning someone around so profoundly and for so long... Read More
What's happening to good web site design? Somehow we creative... Read More
7. Create high quality content - make clear points with... Read More
If one more business owner tells me their website sucks... Read More
Content is king. Without content your website is an empty... Read More
There are more than billions of Web Sites, running Online... Read More
Part one of this article is available at ... Read More
Many web site designers don't design their sites for the... Read More
Chris, a new consulting client, asked me to help him... Read More
The solution lies in creating a 'Database driven website', through... Read More
I often wonder how serious people are when it comes... Read More
In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of... Read More
In learning webpage design, I encountered many problems that took... Read More
No question about it, web design is an art. Finding... Read More
I have written before about long sales copy on the... Read More
For those not familiar with CSS Hacks, they are ways... Read More
Hire a designer or a programmer for your website is... Read More
If you're not getting a lot of traffic to your... Read More
STEP 1:Do your homeworkPlan and think about your content. Think... Read More
Being a writer, when I was asked to do some... Read More
Creating a web site takes thought, planning and execution. Unfortunately,... Read More
Wether you design your business brochures, flyers, web page, or... Read More
If you are familiar with my work, then you have... Read More
Tips to brand your websiteInclude your logo in all pages.... Read More
Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the... Read More
Let's face it. Building a web site that browses consistently... Read More
In this era of ultra-sophisticated internet marketing and web design,... Read More
QUESTION: We promote our web site in all our... Read More
Graphics are fun, but if you put in too many... Read More
What is a Website Template?Many smart and savvy businesses are... Read More
Colors have long been known to have psychological affects on... Read More
Learning how to convert visitors to your web site into... Read More
First you need original content. Content is the heart beat... Read More
Where does a person start when setting up a website?... Read More
When creating an e-cover the what's the first thought that... Read More
The time it takes to load your site can make... Read More
As a graphic designer, you are sitting on a gold... Read More
Just what is web copy? Some people think that web... Read More
Are you serious about get this website done fast and... Read More
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic... Read More
Physical therapists have unique web presence needs. An effective site... Read More
What is web usability & why is it important?Web usability... Read More
Just about every list of the "Top 10 Web Design... Read More
So, what's in a website design anyway? And, how do... Read More
Public domain gives you a head start creating ebooks, ecourses,... Read More
Many businesses want a simple website where they tell people... Read More
In this article I will give a few tips of... Read More
Web Site Awards are given from other sites to reward... Read More
Websites that have multiple pages usually have a Frequently Asked... Read More
If your Web site doesn't project a professional and polished... Read More
There are many ways to add fancy bells and whistles... Read More
When you start building your online business and search for... Read More
ASP.NET is a new programming framework from Microsoft for developing... Read More
Are you a student of graphic design? If you have... Read More
Copyright 2005 Robert EvansSetting yourself up to earn a steady... Read More
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide... Read More
We've all read the countless publications about effective web site... Read More
Does website design make a difference in how long people... Read More
Thinking about designing your own website? Think again about adding... Read More
The internet is filled with sites and they are good... Read More
Making your site accessible means making it available to be... Read More
You have identified that to have an internet prescence would... Read More
Graphics are fun, but if you put in too many... Read More
Web Design |