What is custom web design?

A custom website is what it says on the tin. Essentially, you enlist web designers and developers to build custom web pages unique to your brand and without the use of third party templates.

Liaising with professional web designers has heaps of advantages for business owners after a one-of-a-kind site. With a completely bespoke solution, you can align your website and branding to your marketing strategy and provide an unbeatable user experience to your target audience.

That said, there are also a few limitations to consider when it comes to customised web design. Mainly, this route can be more complex and costly than ready-made templates found on content management systems (CMS) like WordPress.

How to build a custom designed website

There are five basic steps to building your custom website. Of course, each web designer will have their own preferred processes for producing a custom-made website, but the actions below can be adapted to pretty much any business, from a custom Ecommerce site to a standalone content-only landing page.

1. Identify your goals

Before you even think of anything code, you need to assess your goals. What are you looking to gain from your website? Step back and take the time to analyse your technical and commercial needs. As it’s completely customised, you have the freedom to add or take away almost any features you want!

If you partner with a development and design agency like Redback, our experienced specialists are here to create a website design from scratch for you. Or if you have the skills, you can customise your web design DIY (unless you’re a pro web designer, we recommend the former!).

2. Frameworking

Next, start outlining the framework of your website. This step should incorporate specific site functions, how they’ll work, and a profile of the result. Again, we can cover this part if you’d rather leave it to the experts!

3. Designing and building

A big milestone, this is when the coding begins. Your development team will start tying together your website’s design and functional aspects into one stand-out site!

4. Testing

With an almost-complete website, it should go through several stages of testing to check for any errors, bugs, and performance issues.

5. Launch

With all the wrinkles ironed out, your site is now ready to launch. Keep an eye on its performance in its initial days to ensure that its running smoothly! Custom-built sites might need more support than template-based ones, so make sure to monitor your masterpiece.

What are the benefits of a custom web design?

We’ve mentioned the slightly higher cost of a custom design already. But instead of turning away at the expense, consider it a smart investment! If you can afford the upfront cost to build your site from scratch, the long-term advantages make the price more than worthwhile.

From unique landing pages to highly engaging user experiences across your entire site, customised web solutions will boost your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), conversion path and customer loyalty. So, without further ado, here are the pros and cons of a customised web design!

1. Unique style

Firstly, your website should embody your brand identity. With customised graphic design and a professional website designer, you can ensure your website looks and feels just the way you want it to!

Thanks to customised web building, you can wave goodbye to (most) restraints to website dimensions, layout, graphics, and features. With the entire world of web design at your fingertips, you’ll be able to create not just a custom logo, but an entire site that matches your brand down to the last letter.

2. SEO rankings

Optimise your custom-designed website for search engine rankings with ultimate ease and efficiency. As you build your site from the ground up, you can craft SEO-friendly code and support your content marketing strategy.

Using custom page layouts, optimising load times, and ensuring a responsive web design will all contribute to a first-rate user experience – a vital ingredient for SEO! And improving your page rankings helps your business overshadow its competitors and reel in more customers.

3. Customer-focussed

Your business relies on new and loyal customers to survive and thrive. So a successful website should keep them at the core of its custom design!

When starting on your custom website design projects, think about your ideal target audiences. Then brainstorm what they’ll want from your online store or lead generation site. How can you meet their needs?

With a completely customised Ecommerce web design, you can get creative, devising a tailored solution that’ll win over and keep customers coming back for more.

For example, include a custom call to action that aligns with your distinct customers’ needs. If you work with a design company, its designers and developers can help you make the most of this step.

4. Competitive

The best thing about custom-designed websites? You’ll knock your competitors out of the park! Rest easy knowing no other business will have a site the same as yours, or as solid a user experience.

Because even a professional website template or theme thats allow for flexible web design is not 100% unique.

Plus, professional custom website designers can help you create a new, inventive way of selling products and services for even more revenue.

5. Scalable

Finally, if you create a custom web design that’s entirely your own, you can also scale it as your business. With just a few lines of code, your web designs will stand the test of time, adapting as your brand grows!

Meanwhile, if you opt for a template design, you might not have the same scope to evolve your site (and online business) down the line.

Examples of custom designed websites

To give you a better idea of what a custom designed website looks and feels like, we’ve shared a few of our favourite projects below! You’ll notice these modern sites are all super engaging, fast to load and easy to navigate on any device.

Check them out on your computer, tablet and phone to see their seamless user experiences for yourself:

Example #1 – Marble Plus

Example #2 – Macquarie College

Example #3 – Clooney Foundation for Justice

Example #4 – Bounce LED

Example #5 – Sydney University CCE

More examples here

What are some of the drawbacks to a custom web design?

Custom-made websites are not entirely perfect. There are some limitations and disadvantages when it comes to engaging a design team to create a site from scratch.

Firstly, the design cost can get pretty expensive. That’s because this complex process requires a range of expertise and a considerable amount of time. To give you a rough ballpark, the average price to create a completely customised web design can range anywhere from $10,000 and up. And the more extensive the site and requirements, the higher the cost. On the flipside, a templated design costs a fraction of that.

But again, if you choose to look at it as a long term investment, then the higher price tag is worthwhile. Plus, the SEO benefits, faster page load speeds and conversion rate performance could very well end up cancelling out the additional fees you might have to pay for these extras with a template web design.

Secondly, custom web designs take longer to create. Depending on your website’s complexity, it’ll likely be a few months before you’re looking at the completed product!

That said, once you’ve got it, few modifications will ever need to be made to a custom web design. As so much care and thought are put into the layout and functionality, you won’t need to make ongoing tweaks like you might with a templated design.

How to design a website with a template / theme

Building a website with a templated design is quick, easy and affordable. To kick things off, you’ll need content and a template (also known as a theme) from website builder software or a platform like WordPress.

In plain English, a theme has a range of pre-built pages ready to go for content entry. They’re already coded and waiting to be integrated into your site. That said, you can usually tweak and tailor your template, with the level of flexibility depending on the builder you use and the theme you choose. Typically, you’ll be able to change things like style, layout, and colours.

A template design project is straightforward. If you’re not too fussy about being unique, you can create a sharp, modern and professional website with template for a lot less time, effort and money.

Step 1: Select the template

To begin, start by selecting the template you wish for your site. There are an endless number of templates to choose from on plenty of platforms!

Think about the features you want to include to narrow down your options. Then, look at forums and blogging sites for reviews and opinions. You can also work with a web design company for expert support at this stage – we’ll be able to pinpoint the most suitable WordPress theme and suggest ways to adapt it to your brand and objectives (more on this below!).

Step 2: Refine its features

Now that you’ve got the right template, you can style it to your needs (again, what’s possible will depend on the theme you’ve selected). Adjust the navigation, customisable functions and editable visual design elements to suit your business.

Remember to keep your brand and customers at the forefront of your mind when making these calls. Your site should represent your brand and be accessible to your customers.

Step 3: Enter your content

Lastly, your site is ready to populate with content. Upload your text, images, videos, PDFs, products, blog posts, and marketing materials. When it’s all in there, your site will be ready for website hosting!

What are some of the benefits of using a template / theme?

If you’re looking for design solutions with less hassle, using a template to build your website might be the right move. Here are the main benefits:

Easy to build

First off, you don’t need to be a programming expert to create a website with a template. You actually don’t need to know anything about coding at all. Most template platforms have intuitive interfaces and simple drag and drop tools so that anyone can create a professional-looking website without the stress.

However – and that’s a big however – if you want to get the most out of your site and ensure it’s optimised to hit the Google ground running, then we strongly recommend avoiding the DIY approach.

Affordable prices

The great thing about using a template to create your website is that themes can cost next to nothing. Many WordPress web design themes are completely free!

If you want something a little less basic, you might pay between $30-$500 for the template/theme itself. Then you’ve got the costs of having someone build the template-based website for you.

You can try and build your template-based website yourself (but again, best to leave it to the experts if you want reliable results), or partner with a professional web design and development agency to do it for you, with prices starting from around $5,000 for a decent theme-based site. Compared to the cost of hiring an in-house specialist to create a custom website, you could save yourself a fortune!

Fast to create

You could technically create your site and begin web hosting that day. Nevertheless, most people want to spend a bit more time customising their template, getting it just right and making sure it’s optimised for Google before launching.

Even so, the design process only takes a couple of days to a week to complete, depending on schedules of course. And while testings is always a must, you don’t need to spend quite as long on it because the code is already there!

Plenty of choices

Most web applications for template designs offer thousands of different themes, so you can sift through all sorts of looks and feels until you find The One.

Templates vary from sleek and simple to sophisticated and intricate. Plus, you can customise each one to a certain degree, so you’re still guaranteed to end up with a website that matches your brand!