What is a custom-designed website?

February 24, 2022

The term "custom website" is often mentioned by web businesses and designers, but what does it truly mean?

There are many types of custom websites, but here's a quick and simple definition:

Custom websites are developed to meet the specific requirements of a particular business and to reinforce its unique brand identity. The colours, layout, icons, photos, and fonts of the website can all be customised. 

Creating a custom website can be as simple as editing an existing template or as complex as starting from scratch with a page builder or a coding language.

When it comes down to it, practically any website may be deemed custom since almost every website is tailored to match the needs of a company. That's why it's difficult to define a custom website. 

Think of customised websites employing a gradient in a design element.

Using a pre-made website template without changing any of the stock photos or even the placeholder text is the least personalised website. In contrast, the most customised website is hand-coded, features custom photographs, and has original content.

Customised template websites are a better fit for your company's image

The colours, logos, content, photographs, and occasionally even sections of the design can all be changed in a template website. It's possible that even further modifications are made. 

Bloggers, self-employed workers, small enterprises, and startups who are time-and-money-conscious might benefit from templated websites.

Look at some of the reasons why using a template can be a good fit for your company.

If you're on a time crunch, the use of a template eliminates the requirement for custom design or coding. Creating a new website can take months of work, including designing, developing, and putting up content. 

Going with customised templates means you'll be able to publish your new website sooner because all you'll have to do is change the template slightly, and add your unique content.

With a template, your website will have a clean, uncluttered appearance. If you're aiming to design a simple website without bells and whistles, a template is the way to go. It's also a good idea if you don't have a lot of material or a large number of pages.

Additionally, when you use a template, you don't have to worry about learning a new programming language. In fact, you should avoid tampering with the CSS code at all costs. If you have no experience in the field, it is best to leave the coding to professionals. 

With a completely customised website, the sky is the limit

Building a custom website in collaboration with the best website development agencies can give you access to numerous consultations, a detailed plan for the website, and wireframes and prototypes of the design. 

If you need revisions, design companies can offer a limitless number of revisions depending on your contract. You can even request special features, such as:

Taking the time to make your website perfect

Preparing a website might take anything from six months to a year. Three to six months should be a fair estimate for the completion of a site. Starting from scratch gives you greater latitude in terms of fine-tuning the site, and you can be as nit-picky as you want.

Making a unique website, unlike anything that is online

Only professionals can build a site from scratch for it to be genuinely unique.

If you need some really unique or difficult-to-implement features for your website, custom is the way to go.

Implementing special elements

Anything that is not simply text and graphics on a website, like eCommerce, interactive content, or gaming, needs to be done by coders.

To what extent are custom and template websites different?

Template websites use pre-made themes or templates, whereas custom websites can be tailored to fit the brand, voice, and desired look of a brand. However, because each agency and developer do things differently, the contrast is not as stark as you might hope.

Modified template websites are considered custom by certain agencies. Other agencies can consider custom writing all of the code for the website from scratch. If you want complete control over your website's content, you may want to consider a custom website.

Is it worth it to pay for a custom website? 

Getting a custom website has the most noticeable benefit of allowing for a customised design. Your company's unique identity can be better communicated with a personalised website.

The most crucial advantages, however, are not visible.

In order to maximise the return on your investment, you can also have a custom website designed from the bottom up to generate more leads and sales for your company.

A custom website's main objective is to make certain that:

Your brand is expressed 

Your brand is integrated with overall design and style decisions. With a custom design, you can get a highly customised website. 

Moreover, you can take your brand and incorporate it into the website to the best of your abilities. You can do so using colour, photos, or a specific font. 

Optimised for Search Engines

With a custom web design, you have an advantage in search engine optimisation (SEO). Visitors are immediately drawn in by a custom design with seamless user experience. Of course, in order to improve your website's ranking, you should also focus on content marketing.

The speed of a site also has an impact on SEO. If a page on your site takes longer than three seconds to load, you may lose as many as 53% of your visitors.

Additionally, search engines don't like vertical design, which is scrolling down the site indefinitely. Instead, use a mobile-friendly approach to design. Because it is more search engine friendly, this version has a higher position in the results.

The Website is Scalable

With a personalised website, you in full control of your website. As your business grows, you'll be able to react swiftly to the demands of your customers.

The problem with inexpensive, generic websites is that they don't allow you to quickly grow your site. With a personalised design, you can decide what's right for you now and in the future. In the end, it's up to you.

Higher Levels of Control and Safety

Your company might come to a grinding halt if a severe security flaw is discovered. 

Improved safety is a benefit of a custom-built website. 

You won't have to worry about some weaknesses since you'll be able to deal with them on your own. You'll also be less vulnerable to large-scale cyberattacks.

Better User Experience

More than half of your site's visitors use the menu to find their way around the site. When it comes to navigating a web page, make sure you are considering all your customers' needs. 

The major shortcoming of most websites is a poor user experience. By using a custom website design, you can fix all these issues and improve the user experience overall. 

Your custom website will be built by a web design company that has perfected the procedure over time to ensure that each of these objectives is met.

What is the price of a personalised website?

A personalised website may cost anywhere from $800 to $100,000, or even more, depending on how much effort is put into making it unique. 

Because it takes less time to develop a custom design website with a drag-and-drop website builder, the cost will be lower. 

Depending on the agency's or developer's degree of experience, a basic custom website design can cost anywhere from $800 to $3000 if an in-depth consultation is not included.

What is the price of a completely customised website?

Naturally, this depends on what you understand by "completely customised."

If you have many specific requirements for your website, constructing it may take up to a year if it is done from scratch. Projects like this can cost upwards of $100K.

Developing a website for a large corporation might easily cost millions of dollars.

It's not uncommon for a custom-built WordPress website that includes a consultation to cost between $3,000 and $6,000.

Typically, a skilled designer would create a website at the pricing point that is completely tailored to your specifications.

How long does it take to construct a customised website?

Depending on your requirements, creating your own website might take anywhere from a few days to several months.

It is common, however, for a custom website to go through several iterations, resulting in a significant amount of back-and-forth, which takes time.

Additionally, the implementation of each change might take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. When it's all said and done, building a website can take a lot more time than initially anticipated.

Other services that might add time to the development of your own website include:

  • Custom logo design for your company
  • Photos taken at the scene
  • Copywriting (writing text to sell your services or products)
  • Custom icon and illustration design services for your website
  • Programming-intensive features

These services might prolong the publishing timeframe of your website. 

Final Thoughts on Custom Web Design

While custom web design and templates are virtually indistinguishable at first glance, it is much better for your company to go with a customised design. 

So, pay a little more to have your website customised. It will power your growth and offer a better user experience, and more quality overall. 

Boost the online presence of your business today.

Get a free quote