This is a commonly asked question and something that people get emotional about.  A lot of businesses don’t want a “template” web site design.  A template is defined as a predesigned concept for a web site that comes with the files and the original photoshop files and HTML files.  You can customize the template, but the odds are that there is another web site or other company out there that uses the same design.  So is it good or bad to use a template?

In my opinion, the end goal for your business is what matters most.  In other words, your goal is to generate business and if you don’t have a huge budget for web design, then you might want to consider using a template.   If there is another design out there (in the billions of web pages), then it wouldn’t look that good for your company.  What are the odds that a client or prospective buyer would see a similiar site as yours?  In my experience, pretty slim.

If you use a template, the name of the game is still to create a message that will convert to business.  Just because you have a template will not diminish that message.  You need to have a web designer that understands marketing to help you use that template and add text and images that will convert traffic to business.  Just a design won’t do anything for anyone.

So, my answer is that I think templates are good for a lot of companies, but the message in the design is more important than anything.