I’ve been getting this question a lot lately, so I thought it might be time to address it. What is the difference between a custom designed website and a pre-made template website? Which is right for you?
First let’s start with some definitions.
Pre-made Template Websites
Pre-made templates designs cut costs by using a pre-made, out of the box, template. You can usually add your own logo, upload your content into the predesigned layout and add or remove pages. Beyond a few options for changing colors or fonts, the design is predetermined by the template and is difficult to modify.
Many templates come with a specific set of features, so it’s important when picking a template to make sure it has the features you need. It can be difficult to add features or change things in the template and it is not recommended.
Note that some templates come with a text-based logo, as well as the option to upload your own logo. Make sure you know this before you purchase any template.
Custom Design Website
A custom design Website has a unique design, made by a professional graphic designer and cannot be used for anyone else. It was made with your branding, your target market and your design style in mind. Because we are starting from scratch, a custom design is very flexible and adaptable. You have plenty of room for all the features you need, without code bloat or extra fluff features you are never going to use that can slow down a website.
Along the same lines, a custom design is scalable should your business grow. You can add features, remove features allowing the website to grow with you.
Website templates can work under the right circumstances.
They might work great for you if you fit the following:
have limited budget
have only limited content, such as text and photos.
have no complex functionality
are flexible on the design and layout
A custom design is recommended for you if…
you want a completely unique design that no one else can use
your branding is important to you
have complex functionality
plan on adding features in the future.
get a decent amount of traffic
Now for my opinion. I generally prefer custom designed websites for a few reasons. I believe custom built sites are a higher quality product. The coding is higher quality, the branding is created specifically for your business and the websites last longer and are more scalable for future growth.
When coding a website from scratch, I can guarantee that the site will work well, be up the highest standards of SEO and standards compliant coding, and fit all your needs.
Nonetheless, many businesses are working with limited capital, and here at KL Creative Design, we pride ourselves in helping people grow their business. We understand this. We never upsell for the sake of upselling, but only if we feel it would benefit you. Many templates are notoriously poorly coded or even broken. Being a coder myself, bad code makes my brain twitch.
Don’t get me wrong, pre-made templates have their place. When chosen with the help of a professional and under the right parameters, a pre-made template might be the stepping stone needed to help your business grow to the next level.
Keywords are the building blocks of any digital marketing plan. If you are considering starting or have started a online marketing plan, you are sure to have heard the word tossed around. So why are keywords important for you? Let’s break it down.
What is a keyword?
A keyword is a word or phrase that someone would use to find your website, social media profile or the like. Despite their name, keywords are not limited to just one word. They are often a phrase, also called long tail keywords. For example, if you are interested in finding a local web developer, your keyword might be something like “web designer in Grand County” or “web developer in Winter Park”.
Why do you need to define your keywords?
It’s important to know what keywords are the best opportunities for a particular business or industry. Often times, the chosen keyword list is different or altered from a traditional marketing plan. We might avoid some keywords that are not likely to be used by the general public, such as technical jargon, even when it most accurately defines what you do. Or perhaps a keyword is oversaturated and so highly competitive that a modest marketing budget would be swallowed up by the attempt.
While keywords are important, it’s important to remember that they do not encompass the entirety of your marketing plan. Keyword marketing is meant to drive relevant traffic to a website. If a keyword will not drive traffic to your site, we don’t market for it. That doesn’t mean you need to change your business plan. It just means we choose another route to get you the traffic you need.
What makes a good keyword?
Simply put, keywords are judged by 2 main criteria: search volume and competition. We rate each keyword by the amount of monthly, national traffic it receives (more is better obviously) divided by the competition. The competition is judged by how many other websites (nationally) have that particular keyword in their title tag. (Marketers generally agree that to market for a keyword, you need it in the title tag so it’s a safe bet.)
There are also a few other guidelines we like to keep in mind.
Keywords should be geographical
Google believes local results are better for the user, and will generally give priority to local results. We can capitalize on this by including a local definer to our keyword phrases. So “website developer” becomes “website developer in Winter Park Colorado”. Keyword ranking for national keywords can be difficult; the smaller the circle, the lower the competition. We like to make you a big fish in a small pond, working outward in concentric circles. Keep in mind, increased ranking and traffic from one keyword helps the website as a whole.
Keywords should be natural language
Google is moving more and more towards what they call “gist”. What does this mean? They are trying to figure out the intent of the user, and match the search results with that concept instead of an exact phrase. For example, if you search for the phrase “movie about a tiger in a boat” you would hopefully get results about the movie Life of Pi regardless of whether that exact phrase was on the page! Search engines are definitely getting smarter, and because of this you might consider using keyword sets instead of one keyword per page.
Statistically, the top 3 results on a google results get the lion’s share of the clicks. First page is also a good goal. Without knowing your keywords, how do you even know how you rank for them? Learn more about how we can help you develop a keyword plan to drive more relevant traffic and increase conversions.
As an owner of a small business in Grand County myself, I understand the need to lower costs and cut corners. The question I’d like to address here is whether or not a website builder is a viable option for cutting corners. Of course, my opinion is going to be a bit skewed being as I am a professional web developer myself. Nonetheless, I think there are some important factors to think about when making this decision.
First off, you should be wary of anyone who tells you can “build a site in minutes”. Building a website, branding and marketing take time and effort. Just like anything, if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. Yes, you can produce a website with little more than your blood, sweat and tears. The question is whether or not it is worth the time you will need to invest and whether or not the final product will do what you need it to (SELL!!).
The Pros
The Price. Website builders allow a non-coder to build and edit their own website. With a drag and drop interface, you can add content, images or change page navigations. This saves the cost of hiring a professional and allows you to invest that time yourself. Website builders are generally free or have a minimal monthly cost and many startups don’t have the option of hiring a professional, and this can be a great way to get started in building your web presence.
Be aware there is often a steep learning curve. If you are tech savvy and have an eye for design, you might have a fighting chance at producing a decent site to get you started. You should also budget a minimum of 10 hours, upwards of 30-50 to build the site depending on the complexity.
Unfortunately, the price tag is the only real con to using a website builder, such as Godaddy or Squarespace. Below are a few things to think about when making the decision to go or stay.
Cons
Who Owns the Site?
Not you! That’s who. If you should decide to leave Godaddy, Wix or Weebly or whichever company created the website builder, you cannot take you site with you. Your site will not work outside of their website building software. You do not own the website, the website code or even the content (most likely). If you leave or stop paying, you have nothing to show for.
Some do not even allow you ownership of the domain name and force you to transfer it to their domain registrar (i’m looking at you square space).
Outdated Code and Templates
Most website builders offer premade starter templates. While these can be helpful in providing a starting point for your website, they are often outdated or at the worst, broken. Things to think about: Is your template responsive? (Learn what that means here.) Is it modern looking? Squarespace does a good job of offering sleek, modern templates. Most other website builders do not.
Hidden dangers in the code.
At the risk of sounding doomful, there are often issues within these templates that can cause problems for your site. I recently had a client call me about their website’s search engine rankings. Despite having good keywords, proper titles tags and decent looking site, they were not visible in google at all. Upon further inspection, I found that their template was adding 3 copies of their title tags- and not a one was being picked up by google! So while they had added the appropriate keyword rich titles, google wasn’t able to recognize them. There is no way to fix this within the actual template.
Many of these templates are of poor quality or straight up broken. There is no way for a non-coder or a coder for that matter to know this ahead of time. Be sure to read your reviews and learn from the mistakes of others. Don’t just trust that the website builder company is looking out for providing you a solid product.
Search Engine Optimization Capabilities
This is the biggest downfall of website builder websites: their inability to be optimized for search engines. I get calls from clients wanting to market their website and I have to be the bearer of bad news: your Godaddy website can not be marketed very well.
Yes, most website builders will offer the basics in term of SEO: meta tags, title tags and description tags but it stops there. Not only do these website builders create sites full of bloated, outdated code that is hard for search engines to read, you cannot edit it, add important SEO tags such as heading tags and alt tags, change image names and a myriad of other things SEO’s will do to help your site rank well. And if you can’t edit it, you cannot optimize it for search engines.
What about that Facebook box? it’s hard to know what you will want to include on your site when you are building to ask all the right questions. Many website builders do not allow many third party plugins.
10 years of Website Experience
What about website usability? Have you thought about what colors look best for call to actions? Do you know how to write good engaging website content? I don’t want to overwhelm you with things you might not have thought of. Nonetheless, you will have to think about these things when designing your own website. When involving a professional, you are bringing their years of experience and knowledge of creating successful websites.
Now, going back to what I said previously. I understand the need to cut corners and lower costs. To offer an alternative solution, I suggest WordPress. WordPress has fantastic options for search engine optimization, creates decent code and is very scalable. For those with limited marketing budgets and flexible design needs, a premade template can be a good starting point. Whether you work with a web designer to set it up, or have a web designer do the heavy lifting, you will end up with a higher quality, more flexible product. WordPress can grow with you, instead of against you, as many website builders will.
We all know content curation can be a point of struggle for many a business owner. Graphics in particular can make or break a website’s aesthetic. To help you with the process, I’ve compiled a few stock photography sites that offer free images. Not a bad deal!
Unsplash
This site is one of my favorites. There photos are all free, and tend to be a different style than the traditional stock photography images. Lots of unique static imagery and artistic poses.
This site is predominentally nature photography- and gorgeous nature photography. Mountains, horses, camping, flowers. If you doing anything involving outdoor sports, this site will be a wealth to you.
This site tends to offer less traditional options as well. A pack of images is sent out once a month, for the price of nothing more an email address. Each pack has a theme. I get the idea that it is a few people hanging out with their friends snapping quality photos. There are lots of “20 somethings in the city” type photos. They might not fit everyone’s needs but solid photos.
This site has got a vast catalog of photos, templates, icons etc. The photos are arranged by category (which is always helpful but far from the norm) and easy to search and browse.
Another vast catalog of images. This site has a unique concept and is sort of crowd sourced. Users can upload their own images which are then screened and approved and added to the general collective. If you see a photo or two of the Rocky Mountain wildflowers…
Looking for that obscure illustration? This site will have it. Lots of quality photos with unique and interesting messages. I’m not quite sure how I would use them but they are fun to look at. You can easily get lost in browsing through them, and you are likely to since they don’t seem to have any searching capabilities.
Lots of abstract landscapes, textures and walls and unique nature portraits. This site, like many others, has no searching capabilities but produces some good photos nonetheless.
We are hiring! KL Creative is looking for a WordPress guru for project based work, averaging around 10-20 hours a week. General duties would entail converting Ilustrator files to WordPress themes, setting up plugins, installing content, basic HTML. Experience with social media profile construction and basic PHP knowledge a plus!
To apply, please send resumes and sample work to info (a) tandemdesignlab.com. Please be prepared to offer past works and/or do a small test project to test your aptitude in WordPress.
Must be available to meet weekly in Summit or Grand County! We do not outsource.
If you’ve heard me speak before, you know that I’m a big fan of social media marketing tools such as Hootsuite, WordPress or using Jetpack to funnel your social media posts. As the owner of a small business myself, I know that time is gold and often in short supply. Auto-posting or scheduling posts is a great way to maximize your reach and get the most out of your time.
That being said, these social media marketing tools do have their downside. It is a big pet peeve of mine when I see my twitter feed overrun by nonsensical auto-posts. An example? If you post a photo to Facebook, the auto-post is something like “I posted a photo…” with a link. If you post 15 photos individually, this message will be displayed 15 times in a row!
Along the same lines, a link with no text is often associated with spamming and can be perceived negatively. Each post should have it’s own title or a few words of description to entice the reader to click.
It’s important to be mindful of what is happening when you click that “Post” button. Social media can be a powerful tool. Use it wisely.
Open Apple Mail. Click on Mail -> Accounts in the toolbar on the top left of your screen. It will ask you to choose an account type. Go with the default “Add a Mail account.”
Step 2
If the types of mail accounts are visible on the right, scroll to the bottom and click on Add Other Account. If the mail accounts are not visible, click on the plus sign on the bottom left of the screen. It will tell you that the account needs to be manually configured. This is normal. Click next.
Step 3
This should bring up a box similar to the one below in the image. “Full Name” is whatever you would like your outgoing display name to be when sending emails. Email address and password should be copied and pasted from the setup documenation you received. Maake sure it is copied and pasted directly as typing can be inconsistent. Your mail client (apple mail) will attempt to auto feed in this data. Check it anyway!
Step 4
Next you will be setting up your incoming mail server information. You have the choice here between IMAP and POP and it is important to understand the difference between the two. IMAP syncs with the server. This means that if you have multiple devices connected to the same email account such as a phone and computer, and you delete an email on your phone, it will be deleted on your computer as well. POP does not sync and only downloads email. Changes you make to one device are not reflected on another device.
I generally recommend IMAP as it is easier to manage and keep those inboxes clean! Do what works best for your system. The configuration is the same whichever you choose, although you may be prompted to edit the ports with POP.
POP Email setup
Step 5
Test your emails! Send yourself an email and don’t forget to send a reply message to yourself as well. If the test sending email fails, your outgoing mail server information are misconfigured. If you do not receive the email in return, your incoming settigns are misconfigured.
Editing your SMTP settings
If your test emails went through correctly, you do not need to follow this step. Frequently these settings are applied correctly. In case that the defaults did not apply correctly, here is how you edit the Outgoing Servers.
Step 1
Click on Mail -> Preferences on the toolbar, top left.
Step 2
Choose your account from the list. On the bottom right, click on “Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) and scroll down to Edit SMTP Server List. This will allow you to choose and edit the Outgoing Mail Server for this account. From the list, confirm that the server with your info is highlighted. If Apple Mail settings this us using the defaults, it may not have a description so just look for “iserenity” in the Server Name column. Double check your settings against the below two images. Password Authentication is required.
Notes: Your email is always accessible via the web interface at http://yourdomain.com/webmail. (Change yourdomain.com for your domain). Here you can set up forwarders, change your password and access email from remote computers.
Let’s face it: we are visual people who put far too much empathsis on what something looks like. Your logo will be the first impression people have of you. Is your logo memorable? Is your logo scalable and adaptable to all mediums?
This one is easy. You can register a domain name with a company such as namecheap.com or bluehost.com in minutes. Choose something with keywords if possible or that is easy to remember. Many people choose to have a simpler, less keyword friendly url for their email accounts.
3. Website
If you are reading this, you have already decided that you need a website. But what kind of website do you need? Do you want to be able to edit your website frequently? (Hint: You should.) Do you want to blog? (Hint: Ummm, yes. Do you need mobile optimization? (Hint: YES!!)
What about website usability? Talk with your web developer about heat mapping to improve website usability, call to actions and the flow of the eye.
Web Hosting
Web hosting is the rented space where your website and email lives. If you have your own domain, you will need this. Most likely, you can get this through your web developer, but you can also purchase it yourself.
Get professional email accounts and no, yahoo and gmail do not count! These email servers are free and free means that you don’t own it. Free means if it is hacked there is no one you can call. Free means it is perceived as less professional. Free means it can be removed/deleted/hacked at any moment. Get self-hosted email addresses such as me@yourdomain.com and info@youdomain.com. Not only does this add an extra level of protection, it gives you tech support and a higher level of professionalism.
6. Social Media Presence
Remember that snazzy new logo you have? Use that to create a Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn page or whatever social media sites you are choosing. Pick 1-2 to get started. Make sure they are consistently branded and don’t forget to fill out the profiles. Add a link to your website. Add keywords into the bio to increase search ability. And post regularly. Here’s a few tips on how and when to post.
7. Keyword Plan
Keywords are searchable words or phrases that someone might use in order to find your website. By researching possible keywords, competitors, and analyzing the market, you will come up with a list of 10 keywords to use for search engine marketing. Gone are the days where you can build a website and have it rank. Marketing, keywording and search engine optimization are essential.
8. Compelling Web copy
Your website will stand or fall on your web copy. Web copy is a big part of how search engines find you (or don’t). Generally, I suggest business owners write their own copy. Who knows your business better than you? Take the time to write your own web copy, keeping keywords in mind and have a search engine optimizer tweak it for keywording purposes.b
Lately Yelp has been getting a lot of bad press. It’s being sued by a number of business owners who believe that Yelp has purposefully manipulated its review rating system to favor paying advertisers or penalize those who do not choose to advertise. In short, bad reviews are featured (allegedly) unless you pay (ie. advertise with them) to have them removed.
Whether or not this is true is up for debate and debating this is unlikely to help you out much. The fact of the matter is that Yelp, Trip Advisor and the like are big players for B2C businesses and cannot be ignored. Understanding how they work and how to handle bad reviews can help you use them to your advantage instead of disadvantage.
Take the High Road
When responding to negative reviews, remember to be empathetic and calming. Negative reviews can often feel like a personal hit; it’s important to not let your emotions dictate your response. Don’t attempt to defend yourself unless necessary. Offer to mend the situation whenever possible.
No matter what, do not engage them negatively or get caught up in the back and forth. Doing so publicly only tarnishes your reputation further. Accept the negative feedback graciously or do not respond at all.
Give Reviewers a less public outlet to be heard
More often than not, a negative nancy reviewer just wants to be heard. For whatever reason they feel wronged and they are looking for an outlet or a place to vent. If possible, give the reviewer a less public outlet for his/her frustrations such as a direct email or phone number. Knowing they have been heard often dissipates a lot of the anger and frustration. Having someone hear them and respond to their complaints is often enough to change the mind of a negative reviewer.
Facilitate Good Reviews
Positive reviews can help hide some of the negative reviews. How can you make it easy for people to leave positive reviews? While it is not recommended to “buy” positive reviews, you can encourage users to review (again- without influencing their opinion). Print out cards with a QR code to review sites, include your social media sites on your website or any printed material. Follow up a visit with a link to review and a coupon.
Like water on a duck’s back…
The internet gives people anonymity, and allows them to say things they would never say to a person’s face. Some people just enjoy giving poor reviews. It’s a fact of life. Most users understand this and know that one negative review doesn’t represent the whole of the business. When positive attempts to make someone happy don’t work, move on.
I really like this image. It is easy as a small business to get caught up in doing what has been working well enough, instead of moving forward to discover what works best. Running a small business requires a lot of personal effort and development. Whether you work from home or not, you rarely actually clock out. Anyone who runs a small business knows that the “working” in the phrase “working vacation” is basically understood to always be a part of the phrase.
Nonetheless, it can be a rewarding process. It constantly pushes us as people to grow and to take risks. Use this photo to remind yourself to look up from the plough once in a while.
For this week’s post, I’d like to tell you about two upcoming events that i’m super excited about. The first, August 14th, is the Colorado Health and Wellness Symposium, put on by the lovely folks at the Northwest Colorado SBDC. This event is for people or business owners who are involved in the health and wellness industry. They are offering a myriad of free resources- panels, workshops and speakers. I (Kristy Lee) will be talking about discussing how MOBILE changes the way you do business. (If you have read this blog before, I’m sure you are surprised on the topic choice as you’ve probably heard me rant and rave about this before! 🙂 )
The second event is the Breckenridge Startup Weekend. This event takes place from Friday August 15th to Sunday the 17th. It’s an action packed weekend where entrepreneurs or wanna be entrepreneurs can put their skills to the test. Participants can pitch an idea on Friday night (or not pitch an idea) and join up in teams to put that idea into action- in one weekend. Consult with coaches (such as myself) about your idea and get some guidance. One lucky team will get to see their idea come to life and win prizes. KL Creative Design will be offering $250 of SEO work for the winning idea.
Both of these events are going to be a blast and a great learning experience for everyone involved. Hope to see you there!
Pre-made templates designs cut costs by using a pre-made, out of the box, template. You can usually add your own logo, upload your content into the predesigned layout and add or remove pages. Beyond a few options for changing colors or fonts, the design is predetermined by the template and is difficult to modify. 
A custom design Website has a unique design, made by a professional graphic designer and cannot be used for anyone else. It was made with your branding, your target market and your design style in mind. Because we are starting from scratch, a custom design is very flexible and adaptable. You have plenty of room for all the features you need, without code bloat or extra fluff features you are never going to use that can slow down a website. 
When coding a website from scratch, I can guarantee that the site will work well, be up the highest standards of SEO and standards compliant coding, and fit all your needs. 
Google believes local results are better for the user, and will generally give priority to local results. We can capitalize on this by including a local definer to our keyword phrases. So “website developer” becomes “website developer in Winter Park Colorado”. Keyword ranking for national keywords can be difficult; the smaller the circle, the lower the competition. We like to make you a big fish in a small pond, working outward in concentric circles. Keep in mind, increased ranking and traffic from one keyword helps the website as a whole. 
