6 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Stay Away From Custom-Built Websites
By: RubberDuck Team
June 15 2023
This article explores why small businesses should opt for a solid website template instead of investing in custom website design to make sure that their investment doesn’t become a surprise expense.
Summary
- Leveraging the accumulated knowledge
- Minimizing the risk of potential technical issues
- Scaling your website as you grow your business
- Allocating your resources wisely
- Keeping your momentum
- Benefiting from support and updates
Custom-Built websites are a necessity in a lot of cases for medium to large businesses because they let you build custom features and processes that are aligned with your business needs, but they should not be prioritized by small businesses with the only argument that they must have a uniquely branded website. That's just someone trying to sell you something you don't really need.
In the dynamic landscape of small businesses, allocating resources wisely is paramount to achieving success. When it comes to creating a website for your small business, it's important to consider the most efficient use of your limited resources, those resources being your own time, your employee’s time and you hard earned money.
Leveraging the accumulated knowledge
Template websites have the advantage of benefiting from a solid process of conversion rate optimization (CRO) across a wide range of clients and domains. Website builders such as RubberDuck continually refine their designs based on user behavior data, industry best practices, and conversion metrics.
This means that small businesses opting for template websites can leverage the accumulated knowledge and expertise gained from hundreds or even thousands of clients. The result is an enhanced user experience (UX) and improved conversion rates.
These templates often incorporate intuitive navigation, strategically placed call-to-action buttons, and optimized layouts to guide visitors towards desired actions, such as requesting a quote or submitting a contact form.
By utilizing templates with proven CRO techniques, small businesses can increase their chances of engaging visitors, boosting conversions, and achieving their business goals with a website that is built for success.
Minimizing the risk of potential technical issues
Template websites hold an advantage in terms of compatibility and responsiveness across various devices, screen resolutions, and browsers. Website builders such as RubberDuck, who offers a state of the art professionally built website themes, invest significant resources into ensuring that their templates undergo thorough testing to guarantee optimal performance across different platforms.
This means that small businesses can have peace of mind knowing that their website will function seamlessly on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices, regardless of the screen size or operating system.
In contrast, small businesses with a custom-built websites will face challenges in achieving the same level of compatibility and responsiveness, as they often lack the resources to conduct extensive testing and optimization.
By choosing a template, small businesses can minimize the risk of potential technical issues and ensure a smooth user experience for their website visitors.
Scaling your website as you grow your business
Scalability is a key consideration for small businesses as they strive for future growth. The right template could provide a solid foundation that can accommodate the expanding needs of your business. As you evolve, you can effortlessly add new pages and sections to your website, such as a blog to share valuable insights, a job section to attract top talent, or a portfolio to showcase your work.
The flexibility of templates empowers small businesses to quickly adapt their online presence to changing market demands and customer expectations.
The flexibility of templates empowers small businesses to quickly adapt their online presence to changing market demands and customer expectations.
The same cannot be said about custom built websites for which you will most likely need to loop in a development team to add new pages or new sections to your website, costing you more money and risking losing your momentum.
The scalability of template ensures that your website remains dynamic and aligned with your evolving business goals.
Allocating your resources wisely
Opting for a custom-built website can incur significant expenses, including the high salary of skilled developers and the additional costs of quality assessments and testing. For small businesses with limited budgets, these financial resources can be better allocated towards other critical areas, such as creating compelling website content or investing in web marketing strategies.
By choosing a more cost-effective website template, which are available at affordable prices or even free on a platform like RubberDuck, small businesses can make a more efficient use of their financial resources. This allows them to prioritize website content development, enhance user engagement, and implement effective web marketing campaigns, ultimately maximizing their return on investment.
With gorgeous and reliable templates, small businesses can achieve both aesthetic appeal and functionality while ensuring a prudent allocation of their limited financial resources.
Keeping your momentum
Waiting months for a custom website to be ready can delay your marketing campaigns and hinder your business growth. That’s a very real reason why a custom-built website is the wrong choice for a small business, whose sole advantage on the big guys from their industry is often their agility and flexibility.
Custom website development involves prolonged timelines due to multiple iterations and back-and-forth communication with the design team to achieve the desired look and feel. Add the time required to develop key features from scratch, a thorough (and absolutely necessary) quality assessment phase on top of more cross-platform testing and you could be down the rabbit hole for a solid six months.
By opting for a website template, you can expedite the website launch process significantly. Templates provide a solid foundation that can be easily customized to align with your brand identity, eliminating the need for extensive planning and coding from scratch. This time-saving approach allows you to focus on other crucial aspects of your business while ensuring your online presence is up and running swiftly to support your marketing initiatives.
With a template-based website, you can seize opportunities without compromising on quality or sacrificing valuable time.
Benefiting from continous support and updates
Managing a website becomes effortless with a user-friendly web builder such as RubberDuck. You don't have to be a coding or design expert to create a visually appealing website. A great web builder will offer intuitive tools and built-in customization options that make it easy to modify the template and align it with your brand's identity. This empowers small business owners to take full control of their website's content and appearance without requiring extensive technical expertise.
Moreover, a reputable web builder will provide you with continuous support from human beings and regular novelties and updates to make sure your website is always evolving and stays compatible with changing web standards, secure from vulnerabilities, and equipped with the latest features.
By leveraging the support and updates offered by your web builder, you can free yourself from the burden of maintenance and focus on managing and growing your business effectively.
In the ever-evolving world of small businesses, making the most of your limited resources is crucial. When it comes to creating a website, opting for a solid website template rather than a custom-built website is, most of the time, the only wise choice.
And when it comes to web builders, RubberDuck stands out as the perfect option. Its time-saving features, multilingual capabilities, seamless integrations, and eco-friendly approach make it the ideal choice for small businesses to build their website themselves if they want to.