In today’s world, a fraction of a second is enough to assess a website and a brand. And in many situations, a custom domain is the only contact a potential impression has with an organization. Considering how easy platforms like WordPress have made web development, it is easy to see why people use a free WordPress template for money-saving purposes.
A grim reality exists, however: a free template for a professional website is the same as wearing flip-flops to a boardroom meeting. It works, but it does not leave a lasting impression.
Countless of our clients, almost all of whom request free templates to save money, have come to us asking for redesigns after realizing how much value they lost and how template websites lack creativity. If you truly care about being noticed for your business, brand, and online presence, you need premium or custom templates – web design done by a professional.
In this blog post, we have shared some of the reasons why you should never use a free template to build your website.
#1 Lack of Unique Design
These templates claim to save time. However, they end up delivering a cookie-cutter experience. One template will be used by tens of thousands, even millions, of websites. The conclusion? Websites that use these templates are indistinguishable from one another.
When it comes to designing the best business website, a template will simply not cut it. Fully customized designs are the best for setting your business apart and helping it stand out. This is because a custom WordPress design built by an experienced designer ensures your brand gets the needed visual identity, coupled with uniqueness.
#2 Lack of Functionality and Flexibility
Beginners and inexperienced designers will usually offer free templates and designs that, in essence, have very few features. Even though a free design may look appealing at face value, there are lots of restrictions it imposes when it comes to constructing the site. Want an advanced contact form? Searching for advanced layout control? For those features to work, you will need to download many other plugins, which more often than not come with compatibility issues.
Flexible design structures are the hallmark of premium templates and custom-built structures. Unlike basic templates, a good WordPress developer will incorporate cutting-edge solutions that address the specific needs your business has right from the start, eliminating the need to clutter your site with numerous plugins.
#3 Poor Code Quality and SEO
Not all code is created equal. Many free WordPress templates are built by hobbyists or novice developers. The result is outdated, cluttered, and basic coding that severely damages your business SEO and also decreases your site’s responsiveness.
Search engines place higher value on websites that have clean, efficient code structures as well as mobile responsiveness. Sites that do not follow advanced practices usually struggle to rank, even with content.
#4 Risk of Security Breaches
If a website collects sensitive user data or handles transaction data, security is always a top priority. Many of the free templates available out there have not been maintained for a long time. Without maintenance, these templates become exposed to cyber threats such as malware or SQL injections.
When you make the move to premium designs or even custom designs from a skilled web developer, you bolster your security. Such designs utilize up-to-date and secure coding standards, allowing for decreased risk as the templates and designs are controlled and regularly updated.
#5 No Technical Help from Developers
In the case of using a free template, the options available to you are extremely limited. Support is virtually nonexistent or neglectful at best, therefore it becomes impossible to resolve issues. That implies that, should the template break, the website could crash until it is permanently fixed.
However, premium templates come with help from the initial developers, and custom sites offer ongoing maintenance and support from your WordPress developer, which means you will always have someone to contact.
#6 Not Flexible Enough
Move the menu? Rearrange your homepage? Add a different section of content? These simple tasks are next to impossible without knowing how to code and having access to advanced knowledge of coding languages.
Most unassumingly looking free templates do not allow for much modification, and as your demand changes, you will no longer be able to use them. Unlike the template web design offered by skilled developers, which can be modified for your business’s growing needs, these free template designs will not serve you.
#7 Sluggish Performance
Many free themes come pre-packaged with features that you’ll never use—like sliders, widgets, or animation libraries—just to make them look more advanced than they really are. This leads to intricate codes and pages that take a long time to load, both of which are detrimental to user experience as well as SEO.
These features, while making a website “look” professional, slow it down, generate zero conversions, increase bounce rates, and irritate visitors. Letting a genuine web developer go through the domain will help, as they will ensure that the site is properly streamlined with no excess components.
#8 The Costs That Come From “Free”
As strange as it is, the templates that are marketed as “free” templates will end up costing you more in the long run.
In the attempt to better their website, users tend to spend on plugins, performance enhancers, security measures, and even SEO assistance, which will inevitably lead to a vast redesign whenever they realize how the template cannot adjust itself to the expanding domain needs. The nominal amount they planned to save initially will become an expenditure that needs to be paid multiple times over in futile makeshift attempts.
On the other hand, by using a premium template or even investing in a customized template on WordPress, a user will only need to put in a singular amount, which goes towards custom-building a universal template for long-term utilization.
#9 Lack of Competitive Advantage
A website serves as an essential tool for branding, given that it possesses a striking design and operates effectively. Using a free template shows that your brand is likely to cut corners, but having a custom-built site shows that your business is reliable, modern, and trustworthy.
Final Thoughts: Make Well-Thought-Out Decisions For Your Online Presence
The charm of free WordPress templates could most certainly appeal to small businesses or startups, especially those with tight budgets. However, in web development, you only get what you pay for. If your business relies on attracting and converting visitors, then you are bound to incur unanticipated expenses by choosing to cut on essentials.
Do not use a generic, limited, and template-based approach that can put your business at risk. Opt for the premium template or work directly with a professional WordPress developer who can create a template web design specifically tailored to your brand, objectives, and growth.
