While there are endless web development platforms available that allow you to build websites in different business niches and verticals for little or no money, they all come with pre-designed templates that lack originality. Much like a kit-home looks almost identical to the other 50 kit-homes in the street, so it is with the free web design platforms such as (but not limited to): Wix, Squarespace, Zyro etc.

Building a website with these types of web development platforms is what we call in the web design biz: ‘The cookie-cutter approach to website building!’. And if you’re looking to make your website stand out, then you need to avoid them like the plague. Because as in all things in business (and life): you ultimately get what you pay for. Because, putting aside the fact that the free web development platforms tend to be REALLY BAD FOR SEO, they’re just visually dull and completely lacking in originality.

Having a website built from the ground up by a professional web designer allows your website to stand out from the crowd and to increase website conversions and click through rates.

But even when you’re paying for a web design, there is a whole lot of chaff and not that much wheat! Because most companies (unbeknownst to you), either outsource the build to India or wherever, or else build it locally, but do it with stock website templates that are no better, visually, to one of the free sites! So it’s important to get your new website built by a company that actually gives you what you want. Not just what you’re paying for.

Below are a few of the most important reasons to pay special attention to the visual aspect of your new website.

1 – Your Website Needs to Showcase Your Brand’s Unique Personality

Your brand’s personality is where you can excel and really connect with your customers and website visitors. What we marketers call being ‘on-brand’ with our advertising, regardless of the medium. Every brand has its unique traits, colours, tone, voice, etc., and they can easily get lost when you shoe-horn your band into a pre-designed website template. Much like forcing a square-peg into a round-hole, it’s just never going to look right. And more importantly, it’s never going to feel right. Because how can you expect your brand to stand out from the crowd, if your brand message (expressed through your website design and graphic design media) is bland and oh-so-similar to your competitors’ websites?

2 – Your Website Helps You Stand Out from Your Online Competition

The internet opened the doors to whole new customer bases for businesses around the world, but it also increased the competition between brands to levels never seen before. Standing out from the crowd is getting more and more difficult for small businesses, and this can make your brand vanish into the background so far as your customers are concerned. A bespoke, one of a kind, website build ensures your brand is remembered rather than forgotten. And given everyone these days seems to suffer from some digital form of ADHD, you have just 8-seconds from when they land on your website home page, to get them to stay. And if your web design is dull, template driven, or just plain ‘vanilla’, you’ll have lost the lead before you even knew they were there.

3 – A Bespoke Website Design Gives Greater Creative Design Freedom

When you go with a ‘free’ web design platform or an off the wall ‘template’ driven web design, most of your backgrounds, images, and font choices come in a pre-set package. Thus you, as a business and as a brand, get told what you can and cannot use on your website. And guess what? Your looks just like everyone elses website design because of it.

A bespoke, one of a kind website design comes without the shackles of a template. And much like an architecturally designed home will always stand out from the kit-homes in the street, a professionally designed website will always stand head and shoulders above the template websites your competitors often use, thus allowing you to be viewed as ‘first among equals’.

4 – A Professionally Designed Website Increases Click Through Rates and Conversions

Never underestimate the power of an emotional connection with your audience. People that feel emotionally invested and connected in a brand are more likely to engage with it. They’ll ask questions, participate in surveys and giveaways, recommend you to their friends, and more importantly, they’re more likely to BUY WHAT YOU’RE SELLING.

However, as I mentioned above, it’s been demonstrated that you only have 8 seconds from when someone lands on a website to get them to engage with that website. And that’s where using a professional website designer really pays off, as they can design your website with conversions at the forefront of their design concept, not as an afterthought. And isn’t that what you, as a business owner need? Because your website is, at the end of a day, a tool for making the phone ring. And boxy, template websites end up being nothing more than the online equivalent of a brochure, rather than the interactive digital lead funnel you expected (and wanted) them to be.

Web Design Your Way – Because Your Brand Message is the Only One That Matters

Web Design is obviously a complex topic to discuss, and we can only cover off so much in this article. But ultimately the key to making your website design stand out from your competitors is to make sure your small business website is tonally ‘on-brand’, emotionally connects with your audience, and by connecting, drives the audience to do something you want them to do. Be that pick up the phone, click ‘buy’ on your ecommerce shop (if you have one), fill out a form, download an e-book, send an email, etc. And the only way to do this is to design your website from the ground up. Because this is what’s going to allow you to get the website you want, rather than a clone of a thousand other websites.

At Central Coast SEO & Web Design we specialise in building websites for small businesses just like yours. We build them locally. And we build them well. And when we build your new website, we make sure the website design is UNIQUE and brand-specific.

Click here to see recent websites we’ve built for businesses just like yours:

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And remember, with Central Coast SEO & Web Design on your team, you can get your website built today, but not have to pay for it for a year! (Interest Free!)

Small business websites start at just $68.20 + GST p/m, so there’s never been a better time to get the website your brand deserves. So call (02) 4339 4034 for a now obligation discussion on your web design requirements.