Though it will be difficult to generalize, one can hardly overemphasize the benefits of hiring a web designer as a lot depends on his or her competency.
To elaborate, things can go awfully wrong if the hired professional makes coding errors while designing the website, thus rendering it unusable. In fact, there is a greater risk of coding errors occurring while designing a web site as each keystroke increases its probability. Apart form the initial coding; debugging can also be a big problem while designing a website from scratch, especially when it has more than 30-40 pages.
On the other hand, you can take your pick from among a wide array of pre-designed web templates that have good coding structure and are pre-loaded with standard pages. Often, these come with some add-on features as well. As most of the websites have some basic components such as the home page, copyright, product or service information, contact information and company logo, using a standard web template will serve their purpose.
By using a template, you can have all these common elements in your website and simply enter your unique page content to differentiate it from other websites. Thus, even if two rival companies are using the same web template, their sites can look poles apart due to the images and content associated with both. Moreover, buying an attractive web template designed by an expert ensures its compatibility with multiple browsers including those used by disabled users.
Benefits of template based web page development:
Saves time and cost
Using a web template to design a website ensures lesser and faster work for you. With a pre-designed web template already in place, you do not have to worry about site navigation and logo etc. All that is left to be done to get your website up and running is opening the pre-loaded standard pages, entering the content and images for your web page, and then saving the page under its new name.
Once you have uploaded all the content and images, you can proceed straight to programming, optimize your site for the search engines and be in business. While this process will take only a few days to complete, getting a web site designed by a professional can take months to complete, what with all the iterations regarding color schemes and page layout. Using a website template is also cost-effective as it costs only a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional web designer.
User friendly
The consistent look and feel of the web templates acts as an assurance to the visitors that they are still in the same website. To add to it, the reliable navigation structure of web templates allows visitors to browse more freely without getting lost. This helps in retaining visitorĄŻs interest for a longer period of time and ensures repeat visits.
However, there are some disadvantages as well of using web templates to design websites. These include the following:
Without proper customization and unique content, you website might end up looking like a clone of other sites that have used the same web template.
Stretching a template changes their lay out, hampering their visual appeal. This in turn can cause problems in search engine optimization.
Templates are not ideal for a website that is dynamic and has a huge database.
Keeping these pros and cons in mind, you can best decide if template based designing is suited for your needs. Web Templates
Crazy & Unique Web Templates, Flash Templates and Website Templates.