Choosing a website template for your business

Read time: 7 minutes

Choosing a website template is one of the first steps when building a website for your business. This is also one of the most important decisions you make in the website building process. A website template is like the backbone to your website. It gives you an idea on how your website will look and function once it has been fully built. Choosing an unsuitable website template can result in hours of extra work customising the site until it looks the way you want it to.

There are a bunch of website templates available which can make the selection process difficult! It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the variety of designs available, so we’ve broken down some key things to consider that should help make choosing a website template for your business a little easier.

What to consider when choosing a website template for your business

Business goals

Before choosing your website template, it is important to consider what you are trying to achieve with your website. Consider which of these goals you want to fulfill:

• Provide information about your business: Your website will have all the information that your customers need to know. This will include information about the history of your business & your experience, a list of your services, a portfolio and contact information.
• Generate leads: Your site is intended to generate new sales leads and make it easy for your customers to place an order or book an appointment.
• Generate sales: The website will act as your store. It’s where your customers go to purchase your products.
• Have an edge over competitors: Your website needs to include whatever your competitors’ doesn’t. If your competitors don’t have a website, your site is ensuring that you’re the only supplier of that product/service online.
• To provide customer service: Your website will make it easy for your customers to get in touch with you to solve FAQs and any issues with bookings.

Understanding your website’s goal helps you eliminate templates that do not fulfill your needs.

Your budget

Your budget plays a large role in choosing your template. If you do not subscribe to a website creation tool (e.g. Wix), a basic template can cost you around $100 to start with, with additional costs if you choose to add an online store. When setting a budget for your template, remember to consider other costs that come with building a website (website development, stock imagery/photography, copywriting, website policy etc.).

To ensure that you are not going over budget, make a list of the features you absolutely need and features that you are willing to pass on if required.

Your audience

It’s super important to consider your target audience when choosing a website template for your business. Think about what kind of people your customers are and what kind of website they’d find easy to navigate and nice to look at.

Age is one of the biggest factors that influences in how your audience interact with your website. Older audiences who aren’t very tech-savvy will prefer simpler designs, while younger audiences are more focused on dynamic visuals that capture their attention.

Other factors such as geographical location are also important. Whether your audience is local or international can influence design features.

We recommend listing the key characteristics of your target audience so you can keep them in mind when selecting a website template.

Industry

In addition to your audience, your industry can also set the tone for the website design. Industry can set certain expectations for your website. Businesses in the beauty industry are going to have very different websites to businesses in the building industry and so on. These industry standards and expectations can influence the layout of information and images, colour scheme and the way your site is navigated.

At Redsteps Web, we often use Divi website templates to get started. Divi has a variety of website designs that categorised by industry. While the recommended industry is not absolute, the guide can help determine whether it will work well for your business and with your branding.

Brand

And of course, one of the most important things to consider when selecting a website template is your brand! We recommend choosing a website template that is already very similar to your branding to make the build an easier process. A key indicator of how close the template is to your brand is the fonts and colours. It is unlikely that you’ll see a template with your exact fonts and colours, but don’t worry – this is all customisable!

Other branding elements to consider when looking at templates are shapes and content layout. Which templates look and feel like they could be representing your brand?

We hope that this blog has given you more insight into choosing a website template for your business! Need help designing and building your website? Redsteps Web can help! We build websites for a range of industries and can help you create a site that works perfectly for your brand. Check out our website building packages or contact us today for more information.

Want more website tips? Follow us on social media! We share digital tips and ideas every week.