What’s Best For Your Business?
Custom Fit Web Design vs. Website Templates
No matter the industry, market, or niche, we all have that special something that distinguishes us from our competitors.
The challenge we all have is to present our unique selling points online.
Perhaps it’s just the brand recognition and awareness that you need, which can be achieved with a simple WordPress website.
On the other hand, an omni-channel solution like Magento 2 can provide even the most complex custom features to support your sales and communication funnels.
Here are a few things to take in consideration when deciding what’s the best fit for your business.
Every business has its own unique needs.
No matter the industry, market, or niche, we all have that special something that distinguishes us from our competitors.
The challenge we all have is to present our unique selling points online.
Is a templated web design enough to boost awareness for your brand or do you need custom features to drive brand recognition and conversions?
We discuss the important factors to consider when making your decision, showcasing why a custom website design created by a professional website design firm can deliver superior online growth for your brand.
We build custom websites. Request a Quote
What Are The Benefits Of A Custom Website Design?
While theme and page templates are often a quicker and cheaper option, there are numerous benefits to choosing a custom web design for your website:
1. Supported Brand Identity
With only 50 milliseconds to make a strong first impression, your website is against the clock to portray your brand identity from the moment it loads.
While adaptable website templates go some way to providing a bespoke user interface, only completely customized designs can highlight your unique brand values, messaging and style upon entry and throughout the user journey.
2. Enhanced User Experience
UX can be vastly improved with a custom fit web design, but only when implemented correctly. Without the support of an experienced custom web design company, your tailor-made website design can become cluttered and confusing for users.
However, with a successful, streamlined custom design, users can receive a better experience through engaging content, exciting visuals and easy-to-use navigation not possible in templated designs.
3. Tailored Functionality
Themeforest may have over 30,000 design templates, but many of these will contain repetitive features and similar functionalities.
If your business model contains complex aspects that set you aside from the competition, then a templated design will fall short for your customers.
4. Seamless Integration With Other Systems
Custom web design services are a necessary step to take if your business relies on various systems or tools.
By building your website from scratch, without the use of a website template, a custom web design firm can meticulously place and fit integrations with CRM and eCommerce platforms, such as WooCommerce or Magento.
5. Long-Term Cost Savings
Did you know that page and website templates are extremely code heavy? According to data gathered by Google, 53% of users will bounce from a page if it takes more than three seconds to load?
By getting your website’s code right in the first place, you will save time and money on later upgrades to meet user expectations. You will also know exactly what code has gone into your website, meaning potential issues are easier to locate and flush out.
What To Consider When Choosing The Best Custom Website Design Company?
Choosing the right agency to deliver your custom web design is an individual process, but there are several factors to keep in consideration:
1. Experience & Expertise
Whether a comprehensive website design or a simple site refresh, choosing to work with a highly experienced, professional website design agency on your custom web design project can make sure you receive a high-quality result.
How to decide: Visit your selected custom web design agency’s portfolio section. By viewing previous designs, you will gain a greater understanding of their standards, as well as the types of businesses and industries they have previously worked with.
2. Client Testimonials & Reviews
Reviews and testimonials can act as a key differentiator between two competing custom web design companies, but only when correctly analyzed.
How to decide: Read between the lines of the testimonials and reviews you are looking at. Does a comment highlight the communication standards of the agency? Does a review come from an industry similar to yours? Has an award been received from a prestigious ceremony?
3. Understanding Of Your Business & Goals
Your business will have a unique set of targets. From eCommerce sales to community signup conversions, the role of a web design firm experienced in design custom websites is to unearth these intricacies and create a digital experience that delivers for you.
How to decide: Ask the agency on your discovery call how they plan to develop a unique solution that performs specifically for your business model.
At Digital Silk, we carry out deep company, competitor and industry research to gain an all-round understanding of your environment before tailoring our design services to match.
4. Customization & Flexibility
A high-quality web design company must act with agility, nimbly navigating a project’s problems and proposing creative custom features.
How to decide: Discuss your current concerns with an agency to see how they plan to approach your custom web design project.
Our award-winning designers at Digital Silk are experienced at producing results in fast-changing, adaptable environments. Take our recent refresh of the Buddha Brands website, for example, where we adapted the design to meet a revamped brand style guide and identity.
[Source: Buddha Brands]
5. Full-Service Capabilities
End-to-end custom web design services can raise the ceiling of your digital presence. However, adding a full suite of digital solutions can blow the roof.
How to decide: Explore an agency’s website, specifically header or footer menus, to discover the range of services they provide.
For example, as a full-service branding and web design agency our expertise at Digital Silk spans:
- Website design & development
- Branding & marketing
- eCommerce
- Software & app development
- Consulting
6. Project Timeline & Communication
Strong communication between agencies and clients is vital in reaching deadlines and managing expectations. In turn, the best digital agencies will act with complete transparency throughout the process.
How to decide: A full-scale custom website design can take several months to finalize, but the true timeline will depend on the individual project. By requesting a quote from your chosen custom, professional website design company, you can discuss timelines in depth and begin to map out the journey ahead.
7. Support & Maintenance
It’s important to consider the long run on any web design project, especially those with complex custom features and integrations. Keeping everything in-house is one way to limit costs and potential crossed wires.
How to decide: Before choosing your custom web design company, ask them about their maintenance and support services.
At Digital Silk, we provide monthly retainers to not only give around the clock support to our clients, but also boost their performance through areas like SEO and lead generation.
5 Signs That You Should Invest In Custom Web Design
Not sure whether to go custom or to purchase a theme?
Here are five telltale signs to look out for:
1. Your Page Speed Is Lagging
As mentioned, a Google study found that 53% of mobile users will abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. In fact, the probability of a bounce increases 32% as page load speeds rise from one to three seconds.
Lagging load time is a sign of poor site optimization — something professional web developers can remedy for a fast and functional site ecosystem with custom website services.
2. You Are Not Reaching Your Target Audience
Do you find that you are attracting consumers who are not compatible with your offering?
Or maybe your website traffic is lacking and your page views feel out of control?
If you’re attracting the wrong audience and/or your website has a low number of views, the answers lie in your SEO and digital strategy — something that the pros at an expert web design company know exactly how to handle.
We know that the majority of consumers are discovering brands through search engines such as Google. There are algorithms that dictate which websites appear for specific keywords and how they rank.
To reach your target audience, you’ll need to use relevant target keywords, and social media platforms, to name a few.
3. You Are Not Achieving Your Conversion Goals
Your website's ultimate goal is to convert target visitors, right?
Growing on-site conversions requires a deep understanding of your target audience and their online behaviors, as well as a design that answers their unique needs.
Custom website design allows you to tailor your conversion funnels and user journeys for a seamless and engaging on-site experience. In turn, this tailored experience is more likely to grow your user engagement and conversions.
For example, they know that placing a booking form in the hero section of your hotel website can increase conversions, and they know that including a searchable product catalog with a spec sheet can do the same for manufacturing websites — insights that are key to increasing your conversion rates.
4. Your Website Looks Generic
By using a website template, you are sharing the same designs with thousands of other brands.
A custom website is designed to meet your unique goals, reflect your brand, and satisfy your target audience's expectations.
As such, a custom website provides a truly unique user experience.
5. Your Site Is Optimized For Desktop Viewing Only
Have you ever tried to open a website on your phone and were met with a massive wall of text and navigation buttons so small your entire thumb covers most of them?
It’s safe to say that you didn’t stay on the site for very long. In fact, 67% of users consider bad UX as a main reason to leave a website.
As of 2024, there are over 6.9 billion smartphone users. That’s almost double the number from 2016, and it is steadily increasing.
Today, custom web development projects include responsive development by default as mobile friendliness is one of Google's core web vital signals.
Whether you choose a traditional desktop-first or the increasingly popular mobile-first approach, we recommend testing your website thoroughly during development to ensure it renders well across devices.
Custom Web Design Best Practices
We utilize industry-leading best practices and industry insights to inform our web design decisions for every brand we partner with.
Our professional website developers are experienced in a wide range of design techniques and technologies, ensuring that we can create custom solutions that meet the unique needs of each client.
Additionally, we assign a dedicated, senior-level digital strategist to each project to ensure that all communication is streamlined, deadlines are met, and the project stays within budget.
This approach allows us to provide personalized attention to each client and deliver successful projects that exceed their expectations.
Some of the best practices we follow that make us a professional web design company include:
1. Strategic Planning
To build websites that perform, we begin every custom web design project with a deep dive into your industry, target audience, competitors, user behavior, and your goals.
Based on the insights we gather, we then create a custom digital strategy that’s unique to your offering, including an actionable roadmap to help you achieve your goals for online growth.
2. Responsive Design
More than half of the total internet traffic stems from mobile devices.
We conduct research into your user behavior to determine which custom website development approach works best for your target audience, whether desktop- or mobile-first. Our experts build seamless digital experiences unique to every brand, to boost engagement and conversions.
3. Search Engine Optimization
Did you know that 53% of the total website traffic comes from organic search? Through SEO, you can grow your online visibility, reach more people, and attract organic traffic.
Based on our SEO experts’ findings in extensive keyword research, we optimize your web pages by utilizing target keywords in your headers, title tags, meta description, and image tags – to name a few – so your website ranks on search engine results pages.
What To Do Once You Hire A Custom Web Design Company?
While project ownership should lie in the hands of your chosen custom web design agency, your contributions as a business owner continue to be invaluable.
Here are some common steps you will need to take:
1. Establish Clear Communication Channels
Interaction is key in communicating your expectations and providing consistent project updates.
Therefore, we recommend setting and maintaining a clear set of communication channels from start to finish. At Digital Silk, we utilize multiple channels for diverse forms of interaction, including email, project management systems and video calls.
2. Share Your Brand Vision & Goals
To create a custom design that stays true to your brand identity, you’ll need to share your brand vision and goals.
Best shared through a bespoke brand book design, designers will use these guidelines to create and on-brand, results driven user interface and experience.
3. Provide Required Media Assets
Providing content is crucial in keeping your website’s visuals in line with your wider brand identity.
Take our design for Dunnion Law, for example. Only by utilizing the media assets we were provided with could our expert designers create a beautiful design that speaks directly from the brand itself.
[Source: Dunnion Law]
4. Collaborate On Design Concepts
From initiation to launch and beyond, your input and collaboration will help direct our designers’ strategies and decisions.
For example, by highlighting the design aspects most important to your business, our team can then create a wireframe layout that revolves around the areas you hold in highest regard.
5. Review & Provide Feedback
Before launch, our design team will present mock-ups of your website design. This will first occur in a stripped back wireframe form before design aspects such as colors, animations and visuals are added.
Your feedback as the client is an important step to ensuring a custom design has been created to perfectly match user intentions and desires, while promoting your business’ brand values and style.
Custom Website Examples From Our Kitchen
From seamless navigation to engaging effects and animations, our award-winning designers deliver winning custom websites. See a selection of our best work.
1. EV Universe
The client: EV Universe is an online car marketplace that focuses on electric vehicles, allowing a community of motor enthusiasts to buy and sell both electric cars and car parts.
The design: Our design team reinvented EV Universe’s digital presence with a one-stop website for all electric vehicle knowledge, socialization, and purchasing needs.
The signposted menu and search functions created a transparent, simplified navigation for users to easily filter and find what they are looking for in just a few clicks.
[Source: EV Universe]
2. Sandler
The client: Sandler is a leading sales training and development organization, responsible for empowering sales professionals and leaders worldwide.
The design: Our team brough Sandler’s corporate branding strategy to life with a sleek, on-brand custom web design.
The site's professional tone is provided by a blend of UI-optimized features, from smooth transitions to colors and typography born in brand research.
[Source: Sandler]
3. G Pen
The client: G Pen is an advanced cannabis vaporizer engineering company, focusing on transforming the current cannabis experience through aesthetics, portability, functionality and UX.
The design: Our eCommerce design experts delivered a custom Shopify store to drive conversions at G Pen, with on-brand messaging implemented throughout a custom eCommerce experience.
Meanwhile, our SEO experts produced incredible results in generating online visibility.
[Source: G Pen]
4. American University in Bulgaria
The client: The American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) offers a range of higher education opportunities and extra curricula programs across a trio of campuses.
The design: Our custom website design for the AUBG focused on creating a streamlined user journey for prospective applicants.
With engaging call-to-action buttons and easy-to-navigate menus, we helped to increase applications at the university.
[Source: AUBG]
5. Buddha Brands
The client: Powered by plants and fueled by purpose, Buddha Brands sells a collection of sustainably made and healthy snacks and beverages.
The design: We delivered a fun, vibrant e-store redesign to match Buddha Brands’ energetic brand identity.
Exciting animations, popping hover features, and captivating colors all add to the invigorating online experience.
[Source: Buddha Brands]
Drive Higher Conversions To Your Tailor-Made Website With Digital Silk
At Digital Silk, we provide bespoke services based on consumer, industry and competitive research.
This way, we make goal-oriented decisions and custom web designs that drive conversions for your brand.
As a full-service professional web design company, our key services span:
- Custom web design and development
- Local web design and development in New York, Miami, California and more
- eCommerce development for Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and more
- Digital branding
- Digital marketing and consulting
For every project, we deliver:
- Project ownership
- Transparency
- Measurable results
Our design team offers free consultation & custom proposals for custom website design projects. This gives both us and our clients the opportunity to explain our processes, understand your website requirements and further discuss the project at hand.
Simply fill out the Request a Quote form, tell us about your goals and our experts will provide you with actionable insights and cost estimates.
Or, call us at (800) 206-9413 to start the conversation.
