Many web-studios and designers sites try to convince the whole world that creating your site using a website template is wrong! They mention frightening arguments that free templates look cheap, that they are poorly designed and aren’t suitable for creating a serious website.
We won’t argue with the fact that not a single international corporation will build a website using a free template. But at the start, when you have no time to dive into the technical issues and you don’t have extra money for high-class Web-studio services, then, modern & high-quality website templates are a great way out!
Today, we will dispel for you 7 myths about free templates and prove that you can easily use them to create a decent website for your business that will attract customers!
Myth #1. Free templates are primitive and uninteresting
That’s wrong!
There are a lot of various free templates, including quite modern and elegant ones. You just need to find the flyer templates that were created by professionals!
Today, minimalistic, simple design is a big trend. And such a simple design is just what you need for most small business tasks! Wise entrepreneurs make sites to draw the customer’s attention to their offer. Distracting the visitor with animated flash effects is an unacceptable luxury for business sites.
There is one exception: you’ve got money to burn, there is very little information on your website, and you just need the site that is more beautiful than your competitors have.
Myth #2. Free templates are not unique
That’s partly true.
First of all, you have to understand that design that is not unique is not so bad. For most companies, a website is a business tool, another way to convey to potential customers the benefits of their product or service and make a profit. Design is not a goal, it is a means.
Take a look at the Amazon website: does it impress you with its design? Not at all. But the company impresses everyone with its profits!
Keep in mind that simple thoughtful design, even if not unique, is better than a cheap one, made by the amateurs.
Secondly, modern templates are small masterpieces created by experienced designers for CMS and website builders with one main goal – to create a decent, competitive offer for small business owners. And these templates really look beautiful and interesting, combining various modern web design trends.
If you want to use one of such templates, search no more – visit Weblium website and pick up one of today’s best website templates!
Myth #3. Independent designers sell only unique designs
That’s wrong!
Apart from the fact that anyone can steal your design and content, there is still a risk that designers can sell you a design that is not unique.
Do you really know how all Polish sites look like? And what about the German ones? And will you get the unique design, if you pick up an average one and modify the website’s header and rearrange the blocks?
That’s what we are talking about – that’s what most amateur designers do.
Myth #4. Free templates are poorly designed, have multiple errors, and an outdated code
That’s partly true.
Yes, many free templates are made by novice designers just to put something in a portfolio. You will be surprised, but a great number of paid website designs are made up in the same way.
There are many reasons for that: from the laziness and greed of the developers to the crazy customers’ demands like «I want to get everything for 100 bucks». Visit the freelance websites and you will see how many people offer «unique layouts for $20»!
And even if we agree with the fact that you can get a high-quality layout for $ 20, the probability of finding a quality free template is much higher!
In any case, you always can modify the layout yourself or just pick up another template! Fortunately, there are plenty of them!
Myth #5. A site with free template design is worse indexed by search engines
That’s wrong!
In general, search engines do not care what design you have and what website engine you use. This is due to the fact that the website’s structure is becoming more and more unified, users are increasingly choosing standard CMS, and designers and programmers are using standard typesetting techniques even for unique designs.
It is important that the content on the site is unique, internal linking is competent, that there is fewer javascript. In general, only the layout structure matters:
- unambiguously interpreted code;
- all tags are closed;
- the H1 heading on the page is unique, it is used only once and it is located above the H2 headings;
- the closer the keywords are to the beginning of the template, the better;
- the more nested blocks, the less valuable text for the search engine in them, etc.
Myth #6. A free website based on a template lacks credibility
Wrong! Again.
Today, you can find tens of hundreds of popular small business websites, portfolios, landing pages, and blogs created with the help of website templates. Some business owners choose CMS, some use website builders, some use a ready-made third-party template, the others upgrade their own ones, some people use free templates, the others get a paid plan and so on!
Myth #7. Free templates cannot be expanded and improved
That’s also wrong!
Free templates are no more difficult to edit than paid ones. If you aren’t an expert in website typesetting, then editing any template is equally difficult for you.
In this case, you will have to contact the designer who made a certain template, which is not always possible. For an experienced specialist, it doesn’t really matter how much you have paid for the design, the code will still be unfamiliar to him.
If you are well versed in HTML and PHP, then editing someone else’s template is a bit more complicated than editing your own. If you created your template more than a year ago, then you will waste almost the same time on editing it.
But in case of editing someone else’s quality template, you will lose some time due to the initial layout.