As you might expect, there are pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to opt for a generic template instead of a custom designed site, unique to your business and your requirements but as the title suggests, here we will concentrate on the cons.

So, why should you not use templates for your website? Well for starters, they are so bloody generic and any designer who uses them for a client’s site, either does not possess a creative bone in his body or is downright bone idle but at very least demonstrates little understanding and even concern for the client and his unique needs.

One of the obvious problems with using templates is that anybody else may use the same. You should know that the better the design is, the more popular it will be and sooner or later you will bump into your clone in cyberspace. Just imagine if that clone is in fact a particularly degrading adult site. How embarrassing could that potentially be for you?

Most free templates are aweful

Your template (along with potentially hundreds of others identical to it) will require a certain amount of customising. There is the generic logo or logo placeholder, for example. Replacing it will no doubt mean resizing your current logo at very least, or at worst, could require a complete redesign in order to fit. These prosaic designs insist that you remain within the constraints of its design or else accept the consequences and that is not how the design process goes. Web design follows logo design, not the reverse.

The logo is not the only element you will need to alter. There is the text and images to be replaced with your own and so by the time you have actually tweaked it to suit your needs, you may as well have hired a professional to build it from scratch. A word of warning regarding images supplied with templates. Stock imagery rarely comes with copyright permission and by using them in your template, you will often be contravening copyright laws.

Another important issue, although not just restricted to templates, is accessibility or lack thereof. Templates are seldom cross-browser compatible and invariably do not validate according to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Any bone fide designer worth his salt should be constructing sites in accordance with W3C. It may not be common knowledge but this is the law! You can easily check any website, web page or template quite simply yourself with the tools found at http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/. Use both the Markup Validator and the CSS Validator. If the result is a list of errors, do yourself a favour and walk.

Be aware too, that many unscrupulous so-called designers actually have the audacity to claim that the supplied template is in fact the product of their own creative mind. They are quite willing to claim somebody else’s work as their own. Not only this but they would not think twice about making you pay for the non-existent design work; theft in both cases.

If you ever come across an alleged designer whose very own site is nothing more than a template, I strongly suggest that you keep moving.

Finally, should you decide to take the DIY approach, using a template is a shortcut and like any shortcut, provided you don’t stray too far from the path and you consider the points mentioned above, you should be OK. However, if you are serious about your business and wish to project a professional image, choose a reputable designer; choose Bendigo Web Design.

I am aware that this modest article is not a complete or even a comprehensive contribution to the debate on whether one should or should not use templates and it is by no means a balanced examination of the pros and cons but it may include a few points readers may not have previously encountered and therefore be of some use.

In an effort to balance the debate, we will have to write an article praising the virtues of the contentious template.