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There are many ways to create website for your business. You can use online tools such as Wix and SquareSpace, you could use a pre-made theme for a cms such as WordPress and Drupal or you could enlist a freelance web developer or web design agency to design and build a website from scratch. There are benefits to all of the options above but today we want to talk specifically about the benefits of a completely custom bespoke website.
A custom website gives you full control over every single element of your website from dictating the design so it’s totally on brand, to making the user journey perfect for conversions as well ensuring your website is totally secure. Every little element can be tweaked to your heart’s content. Let’s dive in…
The most obvious reason to have a custom website designed professionally by a web designer is you can choose exactly how you want your website to look and feel. Using a pre-made theme or an online tool will allow you to use your own content and brand but the layout and overall style is usually quite tied down which means your website could look like hundreds of other websites that use that same theme. With a custom built website, your website will stand out as it will be totally unique to you and your business. You will be able to cater it directly to your customers.
Usually if you use a pre-made theme especially, it will come loaded with lots and lots of plugins that allow you to edit parts of your website. The issue with this is that a lot of plugins can really slow your website down. By building a custom website from scratch, you may not need any plugins at all. All the functionality could be built bespoke for you by your web design agency. This means you can really take care of how fast your website loads which is really important for ranking well in Google especially. You can enable caching on your pages, optimise your images and reduce the need for lots of scripts being loaded that is usually a bigger problem on pre-made themes. Of course, this is all depending on choosing a great web design agency or freelancer to build your website for you!
Security is a big plus when building a bespoke website. It allows you and your web design agency to ensure that all files and folders are secure on your website and locked down from possible hackers. With a pre-made theme, you have to ensure that plugins are regularly updated to protect your site. It’s also worth noting that most professional web developers will offer professional web hosting where the hosting environment is optimised for security. Google has also recently started marking down your website if it doesn’t have a valid SSL certificate but your site should have this as standard when building a custom site from scratch.
With a custom built website, you can ensure the whole website is built with SEO in mind right from the very start. Generally WordPress and other website builders are pretty good for basis SEO but you need to install additional plugins to enhance their features. Your custom built website should be much more optimised, especially if this is something you have discussed prior to starting the project. It means you can really gear all of your content to ensure you are competing with your competitors from the very start.
One of our favourite reasons to design and build a website from scratch is that you can really get into what your customers are doing on your website and what they want from it. With a little research and creating some user journeys, you can design your website around your users and provide the perfect route for them. This is where User Experience (UX) is important and wireframing each and every page to ensure a seamless process for your user from their entry point right through to the CTA and end point. With a custom designed website, you can tweak your user journeys as much as you want – something that can’t be done easily on a pre-made theme.
Which leads us to scalability. Being able to constantly tweak and improve your website is one of the main reasons it will ultimately be successful. Keeping track of what users are doing will ensure you can get rid of elements that aren’t working whilst introducing new elements and sections to further enhance your website and ultimately lead to more sales and conversions. Working with a web design agency even after your site is launched gives you the option to keep on top of your website and develop it further.
We are experts in custom bespoke websites in Newcastle and offer a range of services to perfectly design and build a website that will put you ahead of your competitors. Speak to us about any of the above by calling 07882 791689 or email us on hello@debut.studio