When developing your company's website you have the options of designing it in-house or hire a web designer. Either options would permit for the use of free website templates readily available for download on the Internet. In order to use these free templates you will need some web designing experience and a compatible website designing software to properly customize it for your company's use. The most common software that most computer users may have at their disposal is Microsoft FrontPage.

Developing your firm's website utilizing free website templates is a time saving and cost effective alternative to designing a website from scratch or hiring a web designer. However, there are drawbacks to using free web templates and you should be acquainted with these drawbacks. This section will look at some issues relating to the use of free website templates and will show how to tell whether or not your website was developed by your web designer using a free web template downloaded from the web. We will look at some benefits and drawbacks of using free web template designs:

 

Free web templates benefits:

Cost Effectiveness - Using free website templates or paid website templates may cost less than hiring a website designer to develop a custom website. However, these free website templates often require that you own some basic website design software and possess some basic skills to properly customize it for your company. Most of the websites that offer free website templates may also offer a paid service, with which you can use to customize your free website template should you lack the experience to do it yourself. This is where they make up for the free website templates.

Time Saving - Developing your website from free web templates or paid web templates may save time because you simply choose a pre-designed web template and customize it for your firm's use. However, be aware that if you lack the necessary skills or do not have a web development software to customize the downloaded template you may end up spending more time on getting frustrated and less time on your business.

Free web templates drawbacks:

Website Ownership - When developing your website and you opt for the use of free website templates or paid website templates, make sure that you read the copyright notice carefully. All free website templates and most paid website templates downloaded from the Internet carry a copyright notice that states you do not own the right to the website design. Usually, the only time that you would own the website design outright is if you pay for the "unique price" or the "full price" of the chosen website template and this is often priced in the thousands. At that price you may as well retain a website designer to develop a custom designed website.

Design Limitations - Due to the nature of free web templates or paid web templates you may have very little options to get creative customizing it to become your company's website. The end result is that you may get a very homogenize looking website where the graphics used, if any, are standard stock photos. Plus, unless you have access to the original Photoshop (.PSD) or Firework (.PNG) files you may not be able update the graphics to include your specialty products or services. You simply get what you pay when you opt for free web templates.

Website Uniqueness - Using web templates, or free web templates, is a cookie cutter solution to website design. If you wish to create a unique web presence you should not utilize free website templates or retain the services of any website designer who uses templates. One of the main concerns regarding free web templates and paid web templates is that many individuals and firms may already be using those templates for their websites. It may not boast well for you should your customers or your competition stumble upon another website that uses the same web template for their website.

You may think that due to the vast number of websites on the Internet the chances that anyone might come across an identical web design is slim to none. That is where you may be mistaken because all free web templates and most paid web templates must acknowledge the website from which it was downloaded, i.e., this information is contained within the copyright notice. This will link your website back to the website that offers free web templates.

Back to Top