There are many web templates out there
these days and many of our customers get confused on what is a
good design and what makes for a bad design. Here are a few pointers
for consumers to look out for when shopping for a quality web
template.
1. You need to consider your site objective
when shopping for a web template. And you need to know who
your target market or the majority of your site visitors will
likely be.
The majority of site owners want a professionally
styled web site. They are providing some type of information,
products or services to the WWW community. Heavy graphics can
be beautiful, but if they leave little space for your content,
they really are not realistically functional for your site needs.
On the other hand, if you do not have an abundance of content,
like the WOW factor when your page loads, and you know that the
majority of your site visitors will have high speed Internet access
then that is a different scenario. Always remember that your web
site should be designed with your VISITORS comfort in mind. If
you do not mind waiting three minutes for your site to load those
WOW graphics, that does not mean your site visitors will appreciate
it. Your visitors comfort is your number one concern if you really
want them to stay or return.
2. Graphics should not take up more
than one-third to one-fourth of your web page.
Content is king. People are searching the
Internet for information. Web templates that are designed so that
the graphics take up the majority of the page are not really functional.
If the person viewing your site is forced to do a lot of scrolling
downward or worse - horizontally because the template is too wide
for their screen, they will leave your site. The same is true
if the template graphics takes up one-half to three-fourths of
the page and you have to create 12 pages to publish your content.
Perhaps if the web template were designed correctly or you chose
one that was not as graphic intensive, you could have put the
same amount of content on 2 or 3 pages. Your important site content
that you want your visitors to be sure to see should be placed
as far toward the top of the page as possible. When the page loads
in the browser, and the graphics immediately forces the user to
scroll downward just to view what else is on the page is very
poor designing for the majority of web sites online today.
3. Avoid the use of splash pages unless
you have a good reason to use them.
It may seem like a cool thing to have and
they look great. However, splash pages simply force your site
visitors to make one more extra unnecessary click before they
find what they are actually looking for at your site. Although
splash pages were the rage several years ago, they have outlived
their usefulness long ago. Unfortunately, some designers use the
splash page concept as an added incentive to buy or a reason to
price their templates higher, because after all, you are getting
two pages. But do you really need two pages? More often than not
… no.
4. Avoid buying templates that use redundant
font tags, color tags, inline or internal CSS, etc.
Professionally designed templates should
ALWAYS be designed using "external" CSS (cascading
style sheets). We cannot stress this enough to the consumer. But
how can you tell when you do not get to examine the template before
buying? That is simple. Take a peek at the source code of the
template designers own web site. If they are not using "external"
CSS, have redundant font and color tags, the program GENERATOR
meta tag is shown in the source code, the code looks cluttered,
disorganized and simply difficult to read, then you can make a
fair summation that their templates look just as bad. Avoid buying
a template from this type of designer, because they are likely
inexperienced in website template development. Their main goal
is making a sale and not the end users ability to use their product
with ease. In the long run you will be the one who suffers by
using a poorly designed template.
5. Avoid purchasing multi-page template
packages.
99% of the time you will not need to purchase
a multi-page template package. The designers who develop them
(approx. 5-25 page packages) are doing exactly what you could
do within a few minutes. They feel that supply you with unnecessary
pages (ie. about.html, info.html, contact.html, etc.), it justifies
a higher price. In reality they are charging 10x what the template
is really worth and delivering a template to the end user that
is underdeveloped but stuffed full of unnecessary pages and filler
text that you have to delete or modify on every page! Argh! :(
Read more information regarding the "Myth
of Multi-Page Template Packages".
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