Website Templates Mistakes You Need to Avoid
Website templates and DIY websites serve such a huge purpose for us business owners. They allow us to start our businesses feeling professional, they give us full control over our online presence and they give us a budget friendly option!
But templates don’t always end up being the best option. Depending on how you get your template set up, they can leave us with a website that feels harder than having nothing at all!
So we want to help you start off with full confidence that your website template isn’t just giving you a great space online, but also saving you from making a few mistakes that we see so often with DIY websites!
1. Using Website Templates That Don’t Showcase Your Brand
The whole point of website templates is generally to appeal to everyone who wants to use them. But often, this can lead to the design being generic and not giving you too many options to customise to match your own brand. Adding your logo and one key brand colour is great, but it’s not enough to really showcase your brand and leave a lasting impression. Make sure you’re picking website templates that allow you to customise the colour, fonts, styles and imagery to stand out as much as possible!
2. Getting Tied Into Too Many Subscriptions
Sometimes using DIY options for your website seems like a lower investment where you only pay for your website hosting or platform and the template itself. But what is sometimes a hidden element of your DIY website is the hidden subscriptions that come along with the template. A lot of WordPress themes use premium page builders like Elementor or ShowIt, which come with a monthly cost and some use paid plugins for you to add the features you need to run your business like e-commerce or portfolios. Before you know it, your subscriptions are stacking up and the template doesn’t feel like the affordable option any more…
3. Not Being In Control of Your Own Website
We both run our own separate businesses aside from Snug Designs and so we know how important it is to feel on top of every single area of your business – and your website is definitely part of this! Which makes it even more frustrating when you are using a template that makes it hard to update or edit certain parts of your online space. Whether it’s tricky to find where you make your updates, some parts aren’t customisable at all or there isn’t any helpful information available after purchase, you don’t want to feel like you are losing grip on this important part of your business.
4. Feeling Like You Don’t Have Support
A great part of working with a designer is having their support to run your website or to ask any questions you have. Unfortunately, this is sometimes an area that is lacking when you’re taking a DIY option and can leave you feeling like you’re running your website entirely on your own! But don’t worry, so many theme creators also offer wonderful, supportive customer service so you can ask any questions and get help when you’re starting out with your new website! Make sure you check the customer service options when you’re looking for your website template so you don’t feel alone in the process.
5. Ignoring Your Future Business Plans
Your website is a huge part of your business and the best way to run your website is to make sure it can evolve with you as your business grows and scales. This way you don’t find yourself installing new themes or working with a new designers every few months! So it makes sense to think about your future plans and make sure your DIY website can handle any functions or features you’ll need in the future. Thinking about opening a digital shop? You’ll need e-commerce! Wanting to start your own newsletter? You need to integrate a mailing list!
Snug Designs create bold WordPress website templates that you can customise to perfectly showcase your stand-out brand! If you’re looking to DIY your business website with easy blocks, premade pages and plenty of customisable options, take a look at our designs.
