Difference between a programmed website and using a template

Nowadays, having a functional website that meets the needs of both your brand and your customers is of utmost importance because, as we explained in our article Your website as a sales tool, a good digital presence will make the difference between a potential customer for your business or a new customer for your competition.

Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish the differences and potential that a website developed by programmers can have compared to a website generated through a template.

The degree of control a programmer has over how the website will behave.  - Bruno, Full Stack Developer Leader

Templates

Templates for creating a website are Content Management Systems or CMS, previously programmed and designed as a tool for people without knowledge in programming or web development to create a website easily and according to basic needs.

There are a variety of platforms available to us to create websites based on templates. The sites to create your own page where you can easily “drag” and add your content are known as drag n’ drop. Likewise, you can find sites for purchasing or free downloading of templates to implement on your website.

Among the most popular drag n’ drop sites and template download sites are:

• Wix
• Weebly
• Godaddy
• WordPress.com
• Squarespace

On the side of CMS, although they give you more freedom to modify the source code, you can also purchase and add templates that suit your needs. Some examples of these CMS are:

• Jimdo
• Site123
• Themeforest
• Codexcoder
• Satori Studio

To mention a few.

With templates, all you have to do is familiarize yourself with the functionality of the editing platform, as inserting text or images will automatically adjust according to what was previously designed by the programmer.

By using a template, you can create a website with some speed, ease, and at a relatively lower cost. However, using it represents certain limitations and disadvantages when wanting to implement more complex functions for your digital marketing strategy, such as forms or e-commerce.

Forget about customization

Firstly, your website will not be unique. In a template, you will not be able to customize it beyond changing colors, fonts, and logos, so your site will be similar to many others that use that template. You will not have greater control over the design.

If you seek to modify a template to customize it even more, then you will indeed need either a programmer or programming knowledge to modify the code and install plugins that allow you greater control of the site.

However, the multiple functions that a template already has, even when tools you do not need are deactivated, often cause slow site loading and low performance, affecting the user experience. This will affect the position of the site in search engines like Google, as for a website to be in the top places when performing a search, it must follow certain parameters and achieve a positive SEO rating.

Website from scratch

Having a website from scratch that adapts to the needs of your business allows the website to have the characteristics you require to reach your target audience, as behind a good site is a team that will help you design the appropriate concept through the layout of the site. Thus, you will obtain a competitive website that stands out from the rest and provides a positive user experience.

In short, the main difference between a template and a programmed website is “the degree of control the programmer has over how the website will behave.”

Being able to control all aspects of the site allows you to obtain an excellent SEO rating through its optimization for search engines and the creation of a lightweight website with loading speed. To achieve this, the following points should be considered:

• Security certificate
• Server configuration
• Code compression
• Loading times
• Compressed and web-optimized images
• Responsive images

It is true that drag n’ drop does take into account the above aspects, but many times you cannot optimize them as you would like, and they can fail, especially when talking about code compression and responsive images.

Now, some templates or drag n’ drop sites ensure these characteristics to a certain extent, so there is no guarantee that your website will be lightweight.

Nowadays, access to a website is largely done through smartphones and tablets, so it is important that the site is responsive. This means that it can adapt to be viewed correctly on these devices. A programmed site allows you to control this function for optimal viewing on different screens, which is a great advantage for the positioning of the site.

Another great advantage of the custom-made site is that it can grow at the pace of your business or company, as it can be expanded if needed, unlike templates that present limitations in this aspect. This, in turn, means that having a team in charge of the design, creation, and maintenance of your website, you will receive feedback, technical support, and updates when required.

At Brand Industry, we carry out our website design and programming through the CMS Craft. This allows us to design from scratch and have greater control over the functionality of your site and its positioning in search engines. Complement your website with a digital strategy by verticals, click here to learn how to implement it.