The idea of creating a gorgeous website without a whole heap of effort is mesmerizing. But how can you do it? Using website templates. You can buy a template from sites like ThemeForest or use a website builder, which is the easiest option.
Website builders offer numerous website templates which you can modify according to your business's theme. It's essential to understand that not every template will fit right for the type of site you want. Therefore, choosing the right website template for your business is vital.
You must consider numerous things to pick the right website template, such as what style will suit your business, the template's navigation if it's mobile responsive, content area, customization options, and functionality.
A vital ingredient of the best website template is its ease of use because the whole point of using a template is to make your site-building process hassle-free.
Speaking of website templates, you must be confused about choosing the right site builder, mainly because the options are endless. Well, worry not. We've mentioned a great website builder below, along with some template recommendations based on the type of site you want. For that and more, read along.
Things to Consider While Picking a Website Template
First of all, think about your goals for your website. Do you need to set up a shop only? Or do you plan to build a blog as well? Note down what you need before setting out for website template shopping.
Here are some things to consider while choosing a website template.
1. Responsiveness
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s website
Responsiveness is the critical ingredient of the right website template. Today majority of the website's traffic comes from mobile devices. Not just that, Google favors mobile responsive websites and rewards them with a high ranking.
When viewing the website template, look for the options to view it in mobile or tablet mode. If there are no options like that, you can resize your browser window and view that template in different sizes. When resizing the window, check the template's readability, the images and columns' appearance, and the overall layout.
Here's a crucial thing to remember. Don't neglect the desktop users. Even though 59.5% of site traffic comes from mobiles, 40.05% is also a significant number. Therefore, ensure the template you choose is suitable for viewing across both large and small screen sizes.
2. Reviews Section
The consumer reviews section is vital to show your prospects that your business is credible and open to honest reviews from its users. Feedback from the users helps you recognize your customers' needs so you can enhance your products according to them. Moreover, positive reviews encourage prospective users to make purchases from your business.
Image taken from Strikingly
Even though most website templates include a review section for e-commerce websites, it is essential to check if your chosen option does too.
3. Well-coded
Platforms like WordPress and Shopify offer excellently coded templates that enable you to modify the code in the future without hassle. But it's the other platforms where different sellers sell their templates. Another example of poorly coded templates is being unoptimized for search engines, which affects your site's ranking.
Ensure you choose an eco-friendly template. And you can always check the reviews to know whether it works well.
4. Overall Layout and User Experience
The layout of your website decides how your content will appear to the user. Different target audiences are attracted to other structures. Therefore, researching your target audience is vital.
You must consider the following points to choose the best website template for your business.
- Content Area
Your images, texts, call-to-action buttons, etc., all come under the heading of your site's content. When considering website template options, it's crucial to see whether the content area suits your needs.
- Header Layout
Your website's header should grab your audience's attention and make them curious about your brand to the extent that they explore your whole site.
The header's layout depends upon your brand. If explaining your company's purpose is complex, you'll need a different design. For instance, the purpose of the businesses such as hotels and restaurants can be easily recognizable by only displaying a banner image. On the other hand, explaining a complex business, such as data science consulting services, can be difficult without a text overlay on the banner image.
- Navigation Menu
A navigation menu tells people about your product/services and lets them navigate to your site's web pages. You need your visitors to explore your web pages to encourage them to purchase, but they don't need it. Therefore, if they find it hard to read your navigation menu or experience any other hurdle, they will leave without a second thought.
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s website
Your navigation menu's style must be best suited for your target audience. Some brands' target audiences prefer using vertical navigation, and other brands' target audiences prefer horizontal navigation. Research your audience to know what style they like and see whether the template has the type of navigation they want. Moreover, ensure the navigation menu isn't cluttery because it disturbs the user experience.
- Features
The features your chosen template should include depending upon your audience's needs and your website's type. For example, if your audience wants to contact you directly without delay, you can add a live chat feature. Strikingly's live chat feature is an excellent example. When users build a website with Strikingly and get stuck somewhere, they want to contact support immediately to continue their site-building process as soon as possible. That's why Strikingly's happiness officers respond to live chat messages within 20 seconds max.
Remember, your website will be your best salesperson. Therefore, it needs to be fully functional 24/7. A poorly functioning website will create a terrible user experience, driving visitors away and forming a bad impression of your brand. In worse cases of a bad user experience, people go to the brands' competition.
5. Ease of Use
When using website templates a website builder provides, ensure the site builder isn't complex. An easy-to-use website builder will keep you or team members that don't have a lot of tech knowledge from depending on others for making simple changes to the site. All in all, the whole purpose of website builders and templates is to simplify the website-building process and enable everyone to create a website.
What Website Builder Should You Go For?
Image taken from Strikingly
Strikingly is one of the most accessible website builders on the internet, considering its ease of use, template options, robust features, and customer support which is the vital ingredient of a great website builder.
With the help of Strikingly's extensive features, such as an intuitive site editor that lets you edit your website templates hassle-free, Simple Store, Simple Blog, etc., you can build your business's website and create brand awareness.
Strikingly offers more than 200 free website templates for every type of website, be it an E-commerce store, portfolio, blog, or landing page. What's the best thing about Strikingly's templates? You can switch them anytime without losing your content.
Strikingly's intuitive site editor puts forward a drag-and-drop feature that makes modifying your chosen template as easy as a walk in the park. The website editor also offers many customization options, from changing the layout of a section and modifying background media to creating your sections.
Furthermore, Strikingly's templates are suitable for viewing across different screen sizes. When previewing the template, you can switch to three different screen sizes (desktop, tablet, and mobile phone) to see how it will appear on every device.
Strikingly Template Recommendations
When you proceed to Strikingly's templates section, you will see a list of template categories. Choosing the right category will narrow your options to the relevant ones only.
To make choosing the right website template easy, we've suggested some Strikingly templates based on the type of site you want to create.
1. Sparks
Image taken from Strikingly product
As the appearance suggests, Sparks is the best website template for artists who want to display pictures on their website. Like every other website template, Sparks also come with e-commerce store features.
Because of the design grid, Sparks is highly recommended for a photography website or any other site where you know images will play an essential role.
2. Pawfect Food
Image taken from Strikingly product
Pawfect food is the right website template for an e-commerce store. It already has everything a store needs, from the reviews section and a shopping cart to the CTA button to encourage consumers to buy your product/service.
3. Sleek
Image taken from Strikingly product
Sleek is the perfect fit for CV websites. Its minimalistic design doesn't include any extra decorations, which is excellent for keeping your client focused on the relevant information, which is your skills and education.
We've discussed everything you need to know about choosing a website template. Remember, what your target audience likes is crucial in making website-related decisions. After all, they're the reason you're building your site.
Lastly, ensure the website template you choose helps you create a site that does a great job of showcasing your brand values, themes, and identity.
