Template or hire a web designer?

[wcroz99]

Hi,

Im starting an online store selling designer clothing and need some help on creating a web site

I am undecided as to whether to purchase a template from a website such as www.templateisland.com or to hire a web designer to create a unique site to my specification

I know nothing about HTML and would ideally like a site that can easily be edited by myself, where i can add/remove products is this still possible when purchasing a template?

Could anyone advise me as to which option would be best for me?

Thanks

[Tin]

Hi

If you expect your customers to ultimately find your products via search engines then don't use templates but get a bespoke seo friendly database and a design to suit. It's not cheap but can pay for itself in a very short period of time. Typical e-commerce sites can consist of 90% or more dynamic pages and very few static pages, make absolutely sure you get 'all' your pages coded in such a way that every single individual product can be seo'd to make the most of things.

[Tin]

Hi again, after re-reading your post I forgot to mention that most if not all ready made e-commerce bundles and templates will allow you to easily add/remove/change any of your product information with hardly any technical skills needed.

[crus]

Agree,


you may wish to choose a template then get a programmer to make it work, this way you save on design costs, have complete control over look and feel and then get somethign that does what you want it to.

D

[Rob Holmes]

The site templates are notoriously difficult to work with. For this reason I would recommend getting a reliable designer in.

Rob

[Pebble Communications]

I guess a lot of it depends on budget. Ideally use a designer but if you can't afford that at the moment, then some templates work quite well.

[crus]

Hi Rob,

I have had a number of clients come to me with purchased templates that they have wanted to have made work. To date I have not had problems with the ones supplied by Template Monster, they have all been available as PSD which I just pull apart, layout and then wack in the code to make the site work.

What difficulties have you had?

D

[YMW]

Hi

If you expect your customers to ultimately find your products via search engines then don't use templates but get a bespoke seo friendly database and a design to suit. It's not cheap but can pay for itself in a very short period of time. Typical e-commerce sites can consist of 90% or more dynamic pages and very few static pages, make absolutely sure you get 'all' your pages coded in such a way that every single individual product can be seo'd to make the most of things.

Is there a way to make a template more SE friendly? I recently bought a template and am in the process of creating an ecommerce website. So far I am adding different key words in each page specific to that page-do you think that will ok?

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Rob,

I have had a number of clients come to me with purchased templates that they have wanted to have made work. To date I have not had problems with the ones supplied by Template Monster, they have all been available as PSD which I just pull apart, layout and then wack in the code to make the site work.

What difficulties have you had?

D

Like yu've said - they need passing to a designer - I tried a template a few years back but dodn't use the psd's just tried amending the sites as they were and failed miserably!

Rob

[DuaneJackson]

I think Fiona has hit the nail on the head: budget.

If you can afford it then a bespoke design will be better. But if ou find the right template then that will do for now.

Tin makes some very good comments on the e-commerce system. Make sure it's SEO friendly. You're better off paying out for a custom e-commerce solution that does all you need and is SEO friendly than using an off-the-shelf system and trying to customise it.

[Tin]

YMW wrote
Is there a way to make a template more SE friendly? I recently bought a template and am in the process of creating an ecommerce website. So far I am adding different key words in each page specific to that page-do you think that will ok?

Keywords alone, nope! Give me a url and I'll take a look to see if you've enough going on to matter. :-) PM me if you feel easier about the url.

[YMW]

YMW wrote
Is there a way to make a template more SE friendly? I recently bought a template and am in the process of creating an ecommerce website. So far I am adding different key words in each page specific to that page-do you think that will ok?

Keywords alone, nope! Give me a url and I'll take a look to see if you've enough going on to matter. :-) PM me if you feel easier about the url.

HI Tin,
Thank you for your reply re SEO. I haven't got the website up yet, I am just in the process of adding content. Could you recommend any sites that have SEO information? I have done a search and found bits and pieces but ther are alot of sites trying to sell some SEO software :roll:
Thanks again!

[Tin]

Yes, this one :-) Look around the Marketing & PR forum, there's quite a lot of posts from myself and other very helpful people relating to SEO.
I agree, there's a lot of sites offering some sort of SEO software personally, I don't rate any of it (yikes... something's just hit the fan) :wink:
but feel free to try it for yourself, if nothing else these sort of programs tend to make people familiar with the terminology used in SEO circles and more importantly which parts of your code you need to concentrate on.

Everyone's got to start somewhere and here is as good a place as any :-)

[Coding Monkey]

The best option for you is a unique design. The best option within budget is another matter. Thus, I'm just repeating what's been said above. I'm go crawl back into my corner