The True Value of a Custom Website (Is It All Just Hype?)

Websites, web design, and coding are essentially all different languages, so it’s no surprise that custom websites can be quite a bit pricier than a template or ‘drag-&-drop’ site. But is it worth it? Is that beautiful, custom-designed website really worth the big bucks? Will it get your more traffic, more customers, and more sales? Or is it all just hype?

Let’s take a look at the data, the research, and the opinions of experts (yes, our expert design, marketing, and SEO teams included) to get to the bottom of the true value of a custom website, and the reasons you should have one (plus, the type of sites that might not actually need one).

Remember, Cheap is Expensive

Nope, you read that right.

Sometimes, choosing that $30 website template and making your own site will end up costing you in the long run. What do we mean?

Customers judge your website graphic

Ouch. If you’re losing out on 94% of your potential customers because your templated drag-&-drop site is a drag-&-don’t, then your bargain website template is actually costing you big-time.

Custom Websites Are More Credible

Having a custom-designed website is a clear indicator that you take your business and your brand seriously. After all, the business world knows that you need to spend money in order to make money, and your website is no different.

Investing time (and money) into your website, brand, business model, and services are what set you apart from all the others in your field. And when you consider that your website is your first impression to many of your potential customers, it makes sense to make sure it’s a great one.

If a website looks poorly made, performs slowly or not at all, or looks the exact same as 50 other sites your customer has already seen, they will question the validity, quality, and credibility of your company, product or service. And in a time where being a thought-leader and showing your expertise and trustworthiness is paramount – you truly cannot afford to lose your credibility and your customers’ trust as soon as they see your site.

Determine the credibility of business graphic

Custom Websites Are Growth-Oriented

Custom websites can grow with you, which is (hopefully) one of the main goals for every business. This means you can add pages, sections, new features, forms, and more without any limitations or template fences holding you back.

Additionally, a custom website can change with your business – even if that change is in a new direction entirely. If you decide to pull away from certain services, and instead rebrand in a new area, you can do that with a simple redesign, or a few additions and cuts.

With a template, you are fixed within the outline that you bought. And that gives you very little wiggle room for the future.

Custom Websites Are SEO-Friendly

First, let us state that if you choose to go the custom website route then you have to make sure it is being optimized and that the designer knows what they are doing. A custom website without SEO is like a beautiful sports car with no gas tank – no one’s ever going to see it.

Custom sites should always be specially designed (optimized) to do better in search engine rankings, which is just another edge you will have over your competition with their cookie-cutter sites and poor optimization. But a custom website doesn’t just mean the user experience (ease of use) or user interface (appearance) is optimized – it also means the speed is, along with a whole slew of other SEO factors.

Expectations of web page load speed

By using a professional web design company like JSL Marketing & Web Design, you can get a fully optimized site that will engage and pull in your ideal customer – and keep them on the site.

Yes, even how long your website visitors stay on your site affects your SEO, by way of CTR or ‘click-through rate’. And do you know what affects your click-through rate? Your design, the ease of the user experience, your site speed, and your content – all of which can be delivered by a full-service SEO and web design agency.

Wow a guest with your marketing business graphic

Custom Websites Are Personalized

Just like it sounds, a custom design allows you to customize everything on your site to exactly how you want it, as well as more accurately target the audience and demographic you are marketing to. The control that a custom website gives in functionality, targeting, and branding, as well as user experience and user interface can make all the difference to your company.

Just look at what a simple Google Search pulls up in images when you search ‘custom website vs template’.

web design template options

Do you see how so many ‘template’ sites are shown with the header, larger text/photo section, and then the tri-section beneath? That’s a 1-1-3 and it looks pretty boring, doesn’t it?

Let’s take a closer look at the picture from Webfries:

Template website design vs. Custom website design graphic from Webfries

Which website would you rather go to? Another 1-1-3 site, or something with a clearly unique design that draws your eye, keeps you interested, and is SEO-friendly too?

We would hope that the choice is clear.

So, Who Doesn’t Need a Custom Website?

Here are a few times where a custom website isn’t necessary:

  • You are just starting out and do not have the money for a custom website
  • You are in an industry with little competition
  • You need your website to be up and ready in a matter of days
  • You want a simple site without design aspects, lead captures, forms, etc.
  • You really like the 1-1-3 style

What About Your Business? Are You One-of-a-Kind or Cookie-Cutter?

If you are interested or even just merely curious about the benefits of a custom-designed website, then get in contact with JSL Marketing & Web Design and see what our brilliant team of designers can come up with to improve or optimize your next website.

How We Started Our Business (And Kept It Growing)

Our company started out like many businesses – we saw an area that we thought we could improve upon and we jumped on it. We didn’t have a crazy new invention or idea – we simply wanted to be the type of Digital Marketing and Web Design Company that we would want to work with if we had a project.

JSL started out small, just my wife and I, then it grew a little bigger, with a designer and an SEO manager, then a Content Creator, then a project manager, another designer, and a coder, etc., etc. But even though we’ve gone from a team of 2 to over 10, that isn’t the kind of growth I want to talk about.

Instead, I want to talk about how you grow a company from a small startup to something truly sustainable in just a few years.

How We Grew Our Company Each & Every Year

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

No, I’m not trying to insult you. But I am letting you in on a secret – a great business doesn’t have to be complex.

JSL Marketing started out simple – be better digital marketers and web designers than the competition.

Now that didn’t mean we had to get all of our clients to the number one spot on Google in 4 weeks, and it didn’t mean we had to offer web designs at the lowest prices – it simply meant we had to be a better company.

And we were.

We listened and took the biggest complaint we heard the most often about other companies, and then we fixed it.

That complaint was about communication, response times, and honesty – so that’s what we tackled.

Yes, we worked hard to use the best strategies, get the best results, and keep our prices fair, but the reason we grew was because we weren’t like the other companies in Dallas or Fort Worth. We answered emails the same day (if not the same hour), we answered questions, and were transparent and honest. We weren’t trying to trick our customers, we wanted to help them.

We did the simplest thing we could possibly do as a new business – we listened and then did what our customers asked us to do. We were a better kind of company.

Do What You Set Out to Do

This coincides with the above point perfectly, and essentially, it just means you need to keep your goal in mind, even when your company changes, the industry changes, or you have to adapt.

This happened with our company early on, as we went from part-time/freelance to a full-blown, first-page-of-Google web design company in a matter of months.

It was fairly easy to reply to emails and give each client the time and explanations they wanted when we only had a handful of them, but what about when we had 15, 20, or 25 clients? We were still just two people.

It would have been easy to start replying to emails less frequently, or to give shorter, less in-depth answers. It would have been easy to brush off some of our smaller clients and give priority to the bigger projects paying the bigger bucks.

But that wasn’t what we set out to do, and that wasn’t what we wanted JSL to become. So, we had a choice. And we decided to hire more people to keep up with the needs of our growing client base.

When the time comes, remember why you started your business and stay true to your values, and your unique ‘why’.

Learn to Delegate

When you make your first hire it can be hard to loosen the reins and let someone else take some responsibility. After all, JSL was the brainchild of Sarah and I, and we had never needed help with it before.

But after you hire someone, you have to learn to delegate – and you have to learn it fast. Because a big part of growing is being able to keep up, and we definitely learned that if we wanted to continue the quality of work and service we had been providing, then we would need more hands on deck (or, on the keyboard).

After our first hire, we had a 50% larger workforce, and an ever-growing workload. So, we began to use programs to help us keep everything straight, to share files and information, and to keep our timelines and tasks on track.

We chose Basecamp, as it allowed us to delegate and assign projects or tasks virtually, something that was incredibly needed as our SEO manager and newest hire was across an ocean and many time zones away.

Oh, and in case you are wondering – yes, we still use Basecamp.

Basecamp Screenshot

Treat Your Clients Like Friends

This doesn’t mean everyone gets the family discount, or even that the ‘customer is always right’ (because they certainly aren’t) but it does mean you should treat your customers fairly, act honestly, and always try to be transparent.

Being in an industry that many do not understand makes it easy to take advantage of those with less knowledge, and that’s one of the many problems we saw in the digital marketing industry when we first started JSL. Dishonest practices, misleading reporting, or even some companies who simply took their client’s money and then never provided any services at all.

You would never treat a friend this way, and that’s the principle our company decided to stand behind.

And, you know what? People noticed.

Referrals, Referrals, & More Referrals

Because our company listened, communicated, and helped our clients instead of taking advantage of them, we quickly gained a reputation for being a ‘friendly, family-styled’ company who offered corporation-sized results.

So, we asked our happy customers for referrals, reviews, testimonials, or to simply talk about us around the watercooler or in their communities and online.

I don’t know if this has been said before, but we think a happy customer is the best advertisement as well as the cheapest. And with each happy customer we had, more came in.

Of course, you will never please all of your customers, but we work hard to try. We even have ‘exit interviews’ for when a client decides to leave us to see what we could have done better, or if there is anything we can do at the end to help the customer feel like they have been treated fairly and gained value from our services.

Are You Looking to Grow Your Business?

If you have a business idea, or are interested in furthering your start-up, then contact me for business strategy or sales coaching, as well as start-up mentorship or speaking engagements. I would love to share more of the JSL story, growth, and approach.