10 Tips For Choosing The Right Template For Your Website

Choosing a website template is absolutely critical to your long-term success online. You need to choose a template design which will help you to build your website quickly and easily. Follow these tips when looking for a website template for your business, and create a website that visitors drool over. You want a website that people will remember. Do it right, and you will have a site that people will remember, and cannot wait to come running back.

 

1) Find Something Unique

You don't want a template that everyone else is using. Instead, find something that nobody else has. There are literally thousands of templates out there, and most of them are so over-used that you will find hundreds of sites all looking exactly the same.

 

2) Choose A Template That You Can Easily Edit

There are many templates that are set up to only work with certain HTML editors. Look for one that is easy to edit, no matter what web editor you are using. If you change programs, you should still be able to edit your website.
If you are using a 'graphics-heavy' template, you should make sure that the graphics are easy to edit. Use graphics that are saved as .jpg files. This will make them easy to edit in almost any graphics program.

 

3) Your Template Should Be Eye-Catching But Not Too Distracting For Readers

Remember, your visitor's focus should be on your content not on your template. You want it to stand out and look good. There are some that look like the graphics were made by a 2 year old. They are not well formed, and they look unprofessional. Make sure you choose one with great images that look clean and well formed.

 

4) Stay Away From Flash Templates

Flash takes too long to load, and is going to distract your readers. If your website takes too long to load, people will want to leave fast. Many flash sites take about 10+ seconds to load. This will have people leaving your site lightning fast.

 

5) Make Sure It Is Easy To Read

Many "flashy" templates create a bad combination of colors in the main text area. You want a light, easy-to-read color for your site. If you make your site colorful, it will be hard to read, and people will leave, never seeing your content.

 

6) Choose A Template Targeted To Your Niche

Sounds simple doesn't it? After all, if you choose a template with a lot of fancy alien graphics, for a site on camping and hiking, you will lose your visitors. You can find many templates that are targeted, or that are plain. Most website's that sell/giveaway templates should have them categorized within niche-specific sections anyway. 

 

7) Limit The Number Of Images On Your Website

They make your site load very slowly and more often than not, they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size, and for SEO purposes; label them correctly with the required alt text tags.

 

8) Avoid Using Scripting-Languages Unless it's Absolutely Necessary

Scripting languages are used to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.

 

9) Try To Find A Template Package

If you can find a package with multiple templates, you can mix and match different pieces and really create an amazing website. You can use different parts of the templates for different sites, and make each one unique. Just pay attention to the color schemes when you choose your templates; you want to ensure that it will look clean and professional, and you can accomplish this with a little time and effort.

 

10) Know What Your Plan Is Before Buying A Template

Some templates come with easy navigation, and are great for setting up an article site, or Adsense site. However, some templates are better suited for your sales page, where you do not want a lot of links to the other pages on your site. For best results, find one that can do both. However, if you cannot find one, make sure you know how to add the navigation into your site when you need to.

 

Take your time when choosing your website template. You want to make sure you invest in a template that you can use for years to come. Whatever you do, you need to choose a template that you can use for any website you build. Choosing your template is one of the most critical things that you will do for your site.