Our Franklin digital web design companies work diligently to give businesses the best and highest quality output with their new website. We do this in every facet, including messaging, design, code, hosting, and support. We want to drill into the code portion of the website for a moment because this is where Google begins to rate the website. Code directly correlates to speed and search results. A website that is not canonically correct and optimized with high-quality code has a lot of trouble ranking with search engines.

It cannot be overstated that many Franklin digital web design companies do not write their own code. The downside of a normal website company is that the lack of ability to code results in a lower quality product that the business doesn’t see, but will feel as time goes on. Reasons for this include a slower website, lower search engine rankings, and higher maintenance costs for more complex issues. While the website can still look fantastic, the performance will often suffer. For example, this would be like putting a Kia engine in a Mercedes. Looks great, drives meh.

In some cases, picking a theme off the shelf or using a page builder tool can have advantages. Those advantages, however, should and transparent and felt by the customer directly. For instance, there should be tremendous cost savings with this approach. And, it should be for websites that are short-term or are very minimal in their pages and content. With very little content, think two or three sections of the homepage, added bloat will not negatively affect the overall site. From our Franklin digital web design experience, these are okay for temporary marketing pages or for small information sites like restaurants, but almost nothing else.

Creating a custom theme offers a few benefits that our Franklin digital web design team will explain. First, let’s discuss website speed. With fewer lines of code and smaller, more concise database queries, the code that gets to the browser is smaller. Less code and smaller queries are easier to cache, which means the speed greatly increases. When a customer gets to the page faster, conversion rates increase and the search results begin to favor the website.

Additionally, optimized website code means less technical debt. Imagine busting a big hole in the wall of your house and covering it by hanging a picture on the wall over it. Later when you decide to redecorate the house, you also have a patch and a huge hole, causing your redecoration budget to increase and take longer. This unplanned event is like technical debt because you are saving a little time now and causing a bigger headache later. In website development, this drives maintenance costs up and likely increases the number of bugs on the website. Buying a theme that serves lots of purposes that your website doesn’t need increases technical debt.

It should be noted that purchasing a ready-made theme or using a page builder is almost synonymous with the heavy use of plugins and extensions. Plugins and extensions are great in that they can save time and lower costs but often these tools either add lots of unnecessary features or are created in a way that doesn’t allow them to be modified to meet a business growing needs. We see this time and time again when companies build a directory, manage a custom product order flow, or almost anytime they need to change their website and solely rely on an off-the-shelf solution.

Since it is hidden behind a pretty design in a website browser, code is often overlooked and forgotten. When the code is not high quality, everyone suffers. The website is slower, the search engine rankings are lower, the customer experience is worse, and the ongoing costs and frustrations will begin to mount. Creating a custom theme that works specifically for your business needs creates a better product and saves money in the long run. 

At Bennett Web Group, we only work with custom themes and have many happy clients to attest to it. To learn more about working with us visit thomasgbennett.com or give us a call at 615-678-2699. We offer a free consultation where we can discuss the benefits and see if there are any downsides to your current approach. It is completely free and available to you so reach out today to learn more about improving your website.