Benefits of Custom WordPress Theme for Your Website
Top Digital Agency reported that about 64% of small businesses have a website in 2019. While this is fairly impressive, the number deserves to be significantly higher.
This is because a website can offer a lot to your business including a boost in credibility, higher traffic, and increased sales.
Once a company decides they need a website, they need to consider how they’re going to build that website. For many businesses, this means turning to one of the most popular platforms available today: WordPress.
One of the first decisions to make when creating a WordPress website is to choose a theme. The two main options are to use a pre-made template or work with a development company to create a custom theme. These are some of the biggest reasons why custom themes are the better choice in this scenario.
Originality
Originality is one of the biggest advantages of using a custom WordPress theme. Using an unaltered, pre-made template is one of the surest ways to end up with a cookie-cutter result.
Since, according to Hosting Tribunal, about 661 new WordPress-powered websites are released daily, a custom WordPress theme can go a long way in helping your company stand out from the crowd.
Shortened Development Time
Many businesses make the assumption that using a pre-made template theme is the fastest option. After all, everything is already there and set up for users. However, these templates can actually carve out more work for developers.
This comes back to the company’s need to stand out from the high volume of other WordPress websites on the internet. If a template is used as is, the website isn’t going to stand out.
In addition, even a template that matches a website’s visual theme might not fit the technical specifications perfectly. Unused assets can crowd a website while missing assets can leave the site without necessary functions or even give it an unfinished appearance.
This all means that a template theme has to be heavily edited to fit the unique theme of the business creating the website. In the time it takes to edit these templates, WordPress development services can create a one-of-a-kind theme that will better suit the company and encourage higher site traffic and exploration on the behalf of consumers.
Faster Load Times
As just mentioned, any unnecessary features tacked onto a template theme can easily crowd a website. Unfortunately, the result of this crowding isn’t just a confusing website or one with a lackluster graphic design. An overcrowded website will also run much slower than a well-planned and efficient one.
How fast a website will load both when opened and during use has precedence over two important factors. First, consumers don’t want to struggle with a slow website.
If they click into a website and it doesn’t load, they’re likely to click away faster. According to Unbounce, the average website loads in about 15 seconds.
Even though this is the average, consumers who experience a load time of five seconds or less are likely to spend up to 70% or more time on that site than one that loads longer.
Secondly, the load time of a website affects its search engine optimization. This, shortened to SEO, references how high your company’s website will appear on a relevant query in a search engine.
The better the website is rated, the higher it will appear on a search engine. The higher the site appears, the more likely it is to gain traffic.
SEO is based on a number of factors including the quality of the site and the language used in the content but performance assets such as a quick load time are a part of the equation as well.
Custom Themes Are Easier to Update
When developers use a template theme, they’re going to find it difficult to update that theme over time. Alternatively, custom themes are much easier to change and edit.
The idea of editing a template theme may seem simple in theory but it can actually be a weighty task. That’s why, as discussed earlier, custom themes can be a quicker choice. On top of being faster, this trait also makes custom themes more adaptable.
This is important in the long run because a website can’t stay the same forever. It needs to be updated regularly to keep up with the growth of the business, the needs of the consumers, and new technologies.
With a custom theme, website developers will have a much easier time adapting the website to the company’s growing needs as time goes on.
Higher Security
One of the biggest drawbacks to blanket technology like WordPress templates is that they often have blanket flaws.
In other words, if a template has a security loophole or a glitch in its programming, every website that uses that template will have to adapt to either patch or work around these bugs.
Alternatively, custom themes for WordPress websites don’t have standard limitations. They can be designed with high security and polished performance in mind. Once again, they can also be altered in a faster and simpler fashion than a template.
So, if your company notices a flaw in the website design after its launch, it can quickly be taken care of rather than allowing the bug to sit and disrupt the website’s performance and consumers’ experiences.
Added Benefits of WordPress Development Services
When it comes to creating a custom WordPress theme, this isn’t likely an in-house job. Instead, the company will need to consult WordPress development services to develop these themes. Luckily, these services come with their own set of benefits alongside the direct benefits of using a custom theme.
For one, WordPress development services help to keep projects on track. These companies, by design, have an organized approach to the development process.
Aside from the step-by-step process of development, working with a professional team can help in the case of emergencies. Instead of being left to try to pick up the pieces in a situation such as the website crashing, your company can call on professional help.
Taking the time to work with a WordPress development team on a custom theme rather than using a template offers plenty of benefits both in the short-term and long-term. Not only does the team offer seasoned aid, but the custom theme will give the website a quick performing, reliable, and scalable nature from the beginning.
