If you are a new business owner, just setting out on your first web design adventure, you are probably being bombarded by a huge amount of information concerning the various choices and approaches available when it comes to web page design, web development, search engine optimisation and online marketing techniques which probably all sound like they're written in a different language. After all, you just want a simple, low-cost website to put your business in the public eye. If that's the case, then the first and only important decision you need to make right now is to decide between building a website using a template web design, or consulting an IT expert for a unique and personally customised website design. When faced with this decision, most newbies on the scene will be attracted to the quick, cheap and easy option of a template web design. Big mistake. Here's why you should always go for customised :

• Template web designs are formed from a series of linked pages that are pre-prepared. These pre-built template pages have limited capacity for personalisation with alternate colours and typefaces and their overall lay-out is fixed. In contrast, customised website design offers literally limitless options for presenting your company in a unique and exciting way.
• Although template web design is always promoted as the quickest and cheapest method of getting a website up and running in record time, you may find that choosing a template design restricts the future development of your website. Your website needs to be flexible enough to accommodate changes to your business, but template website design offers only limited functionality and little scope for revision.
• If you are interested in promoting your company in a unique and striking way, template website design must be avoided for the reason that so many other businesses will be using an identical template. Having a website that is exactly the same as that of your competitors is no way to shine. Yet another reason to choose customised website design!
• There's no doubt that template website design is cheaper than customised design, but it also results in a website that looks cheap – hardly the impression that you want to give your potential customers. Your website must present your company in a good light through a top quality approach to web design.
• Template websites may be able to go live quickly, but they are fixed and the initial unimpressive impression they give your customers may last forever. Fully customised websites provide any number of design options that can evoke the precise mood of your business and allow for future development.