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How to Choose the Right Design Template

It used to be, when you wanted a great website for your business, you had to hire someone to build it for you. Depending on who you hired and what kind of site you were looking for, it would cost thousands of dollars. Luckily, these days, there are a lot of website builders out there that make designing a website something anyone can do.

The first step to building your own website with Websites 360®, or with any website builder, is to choose your template. Website templates make it easy to choose a basic design for your website, and from there, you can customize yours as much or as little as you’d like.

But, how do you choose the right template? After all, there are a lot of options to choose from, and if you haven’t given much thought as to what your website should look like, it can be an intimidating decision to make.

6 Tips for Choosing the Right Design Template

#1. Figure out the goal of your website.

There’s no point in determining what kind of website you need until you’ve determined what the goal of the website is. Are you building a website to sell products? Are you hoping to entice people to call you and make an appointment for your services? Are you building an informational website, like a news site or a blog? Are you designing a website to raise money to support a cause?

Once you’ve figured out what the goal of your website is, keep it in mind while shopping for website templates. With every new template you encounter, ask yourself if it will help you reach your goal or not.

#2. Look at what others in your industry are doing.

If you’ve figured out the goal of your website, but you’re still unsure as to what kind of design template you’re looking for, a good place to get ideas is actually your competition. You don’t have to go to your direct competitors for inspiration if you’re uncomfortable with it. Look at what others in your industry are doing across the country.

Figuring out what you want your website to look like isn’t easy, especially if you’re new to the world of web design, and when you can look at what others are doing, it will help you figure out which elements you want in your own website and which you’re not fond of.

#3. Look for a template with a responsive design.

Back in the day, when someone accessed your website, you could reasonably surmise that they were doing so on a desktop or laptop. But these days, we have much more powerful computers than yesteryear right in our pockets, and far fewer people have actual laptops and desktops than they used to. That means that most people are going to be accessing your website on their smartphone, and you want your website to be ready.

Having a mobile-friendly site not only ensures that your visitors are able to have a good experience on your website from a mobile device, but if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it can hurt its rankings in the organic search results.

There are many things that go into having a mobile-friendly website, but it all starts with a responsive design. Responsive websites are designed to automatically reconfigure themselves depending on the device they’re being viewed on, and they allow you to meet all of your visitors’ needs with one site rather than needing to have a whole separate mobile version of your website. Whatever website design template you choose, make sure that it’s responsive and mobile-friendly.

#4. Look for a template that’s user-friendly.

Have you ever had the experience where you visited a website and just couldn’t find the information you were looking for? If so, chances are, you didn’t stick around very long to keep digging. If you’re like most people, you probably pushed the “back” button and moved on to the next business in the search results.

It’s absolutely imperative that your website is intuitive and easy to use. That means that it needs a simple navigation bar so that your visitors can find what they’re looking for without having to dig around. It’s also a good idea to consider adding a search bar, so that your visitors can quickly and easily find the exact page they’re looking for. This is especially important when you’re building an e-commerce site.

#5. Look for a template that’s customizable.

There are so many great templates out there that can help you build a professional-looking, user-friendly website without the need to do too much to them. However, if you’re like most people, the idea of having a website that’s an exact match of potentially dozens of other websites doesn’t sound the best. That’s why it’s a good idea to choose a website template that can be customized.

Templates give you a great jumping-off point in building your own website, but with the ability to customize your website, you can truly make it your own. Not everyone has experience when it comes to designing websites, though, so make it a point to choose a website builder that’s intuitive and easy to use.

#6. Make sure help is available when you need it.

When you choose a template, you’re also choosing a website builder, and when it comes to website builders, there’s no shortage of options to choose from. However, much like design templates, website builders aren’t all made equally, and any website builder you choose should come with the option to get professional design help when you need it.

As I mentioned before, some business owners are comfortable and familiar with website design and some aren’t. If you fall into the latter category, then there might come a time when you want a professional designer on your side.

Choose your Websites 360® template today!

At Websites 360, we have so many incredible website templates to choose from; each of which is user-friendly, responsive, and completely customizable. We also have a team of designers standing by, ready to help should you need it. Get started today!