Website Templates

There are several ways to design a website, you could hire a professional designer, design it yourself or use a website template.  Using templates are generally an easy way to build a website.  There are many different types of website templates.

Free Templates

If you do a search on Google for “free templates” you will receive over 77 million results.    That sounds great, you won’t have to pay someone to design one as there are so many choices – right?  Well don’t get too excited, there are many things to consider before using a free template.

Free templates usually come with terms of use which may not work for you.  Some free templates have restricted use and you may not be allowed to use them on an ecommerce website.  Other free templates may require you to link back to the designer, which you may not want to do.

Have you heard the saying, “You get what you pay for?”  Don’t expect to get a professional template that meets your criteria for free.

Templates That Are Economical

When you get into the area of paid templates, your options look much better.  In this arena web designers create professionally laid out templates and then sell them to companies that resell them to the end user, this is why they are usually an economical alternative.  The price is kept low because the company selling the template can sell the template over and over.  This may be the best option for a webmaster just starting out that is on a tight budget.  At least with a reasonably priced template you should receive a professional layout at a price that you can afford.

Although one thing to keep in mind is that many other webmasters can also purchase that same template.  So choose your template carefully and avoid buying a template that you have seen on one of your competitor’s websites.

Another thing to keep in mind is that templates that do not have any pictures in the header section are very easy to alter and make them unique.  Even templates that have background images in the header section can be edited in a way that would make it one of a kind.  So if you are looking for an economical template this type of template will probably be your best option.  Many of the templates in XSitePro are editable in this manner.

What About Exclusive Templates?

Many websites have begun selling exclusive templates, templates that are only sold once and then removed from their website.  You will end up with a unique template that is exclusive to your website although you may end up paying more that you would have paid than just hiring a designer.

If you hire a professional designer you will be able to specify exactly what you want, choose your colors, images, fonts, etc.  There are obviously many choices you can make when it comes to selecting a website template, once you figure out your budget you should be able to choose the template that is right for you.