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Quick, Effective Web Design

We have all seen the websites online that sell template web designs for various business industries. Are these worth using? The answer may be different for everyone.

When deciding on a web design it is important to know your competition. What do you like about there site? What could be done better? Are there certain aspects of the site that would appeal visually? Are there certain aspects of a competitor's site that have helped in organic SEO/SEM? Are there certain aspects/offers on a competitor's site that may draw people in? I think these are all important factors to keep in mind when visiting the competition in the pre-web design phase. However, this article is going to focus on another aspect: Namely, is there repetition in style amongst your competition? If you where starting a business to rival NetFlix & Blockbuster movie rentals online, you would immediately become aware that the two look very much identical except for the color scheme. In a similar respect, you may even find two websites using the exact same design in the same industry. Then you may find the exact same web design on a web design template site! This situation is the low point of template web design buying. If you decide to use a template (and I will argue that sometimes this is the way to go) you MUST KNOW YOUR COMPETITION!

If nothing else, template web design can spark ideas. There are many template sites out there like BoxedArt.com and TemplateMonster.com, and even a variety of free ones, with decent web site designs. When browsing through these sites it can be very helpful for sparking the idea in your head of what you may want your web design project to be like. Adversely, many of the templates found are also very generic to a certain point. There tends to be an overwhelmingly corporate feel to a high percentage of templates on the market. Not all web designs call for a corporate look but just simply need to look professional to gain credibility. Take aspects that work from different designs and merge them with the current identity you are looking for. Don't get carried away with this process though, if you take away a little from each one you may get a very disorienting look and feel to the site as each design may vary. Likewise, when I say take it is important to emphasize that I am not talking about stealing. These template designers have spent time and expect return, however if you find a font you like and match something as simple as this to a similar font that would fit in with your design then use the idea. Don't directly take images or color layouts. This browsing of templates for ideas is very much like browsing your competitor's websites for ideas and scoping the market.

If you are looking at purchasing a template make sure to follow these guidelines: 1. Know that your competitors are not using this template. If you are a national chain, you will probably not be reading this as you may very well have your own unique design team. For everyone else, how far does your competition boundary spread? If you own a local hot dog stand, you may only have a handful of competitors in your area that are branding themselves. Buying a template that can be purchased by the public even after you purchase it may be ok in this instance if the hot dog template is a great design. In this case it would be a perfect fit for a low priced design that may be high quality. If however you may run into multi-state or national competition for your product then you may opt against the generic template as a foundation to your design. 2. Make sure the template is only the foundation to your web design building. This may mean that you use the overall structure of the design, but change all the graphics to make the design more personalized. Often times this also means that you will change the color scheme to fit with your current identity or logo. Also, maybe only a portion of the template should be used. Does it have a great looking header or search box, but the rest of the site is left to be desired? 3. Always make sure to follow the guidelines of the company your purchase your web design template from. This is important as certain amount of "redesign" of the template is most likely expected in the user agreement.

Templates certainly are not for everyone, however when small business owners are just trying to get there feet wet online, a template may be the best choice. They are typically professional looking, well thought out (in many industry themes), require less knowledge to build from than a web design from scratch and most certainly more affordable than starting a web design from scratch.

As a side note: There are many web template sites out there that also sell limited download web design templates for a little more money. These are templates that once purchased a few or one time are taken from the template library and now longer available for purchase. These can keep branding in house and save time and money if the design is what you are looking for.

About the author: Todd Levi has been designing website for 5 years and is currently owns http://LeviSolutions.com which is a Fort Collins based Web Design Company serving the Colorado area.

Author: Todd Levi

 

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Being a webmaster is a much more important job than most companies would dare admit. Webmasters are responsible for the company web presence on every level, from the website copy to the web and email server administration. Additionally, webmasters are often tasked even more duties that should be considered unrelated responsibilities for the position of webmaster. These extra duties often will include online as well as offline promotion and marketing, search optimization, advertising, application programming, graphic design and/or brand management. The role of the webmaster has grown over the years and webmasters need to grow with the company's expectations or the website will not succeed. For instance, it is easy to get banned from the search engines for not knowing the correct methods to use to optimize a website for a better results ranking from the search engines for any particular search phrase.

This is why Webmastery is here, not just to offer direction and assist webmasters, but to do so masterfully, as you expect of yourself, or as your company expects out of you.
 

Since I am an American and know only American English and SEO methods, I specialize in American Webmastery. Hence the domain name, Webmastery.US.
 

However, please note that often both sides of the coin are presented here. Some webmasters swear by Linux and we offer articles by such authors to give insight to their creativity. Others are die-hard Microsoft software fans and use Windows based servers. Despite the bias, each system has its own advantages, and such articles are reprinted here for their positive contribution to those platforms, not to enforce their bias. It is we that have to make the final analysis.
 

This difference is even more apparent when I am showcasing and promoting white hat SEO (search engine optimization) and a black hat SEO article is published here, which method if followed could get a website banned from the search engines. The reason I allow it a small platform is to showcase its apparent and obvious idiocy in contrast to white hat SEO techniques. And as I cannot edit these articles in order to correct them, I let their illogicality and stupidity stand on their own for a time without any edits. But in case their spaminess is not apparent, I often do not let such articles stand long.
 

 

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