This is an interesting question because the answer probably seems obvious from both a business point of view and from a marketing point of view, however the this answer isn’t likely to be the same from both parties.

In an age when being online is vital to the development of any business, large or small, it could be argued that any presence online is better than none but it’d be naïve to believe that your business’ brand can be properly represented by a template website that takes 20 minutes to build. 

Of course finding fault with a free website provider is easily done for company that specialises in web design, but professional designers and marketers have years of education, training and experience in creating, building and developing brands and the collateral that represents them.

Obviously the fact that a template website is free and/or inexpensive is a huge pro – all businesses need to keep an eye on overheads these days - but there are often several points in the terms and conditions of free site providers that are worth close consideration as they can be tricky things to deal with should you decide to make any changes once you’re all signed up.

Typically once you have signed up with free site builders, they launch a sales offensive and will try and up sell you on everything from upgraded hosting packages to websites back-ups. A lot of the free site builders will charge fees for additional services that will be required for a fully working site, this could be web hosting, domain names, extra bandwidth (the amount of visitors that can visit your site) and sometimes a fee to remove excessive advertising. 

The hosting may be free, but it is likely that your website will be put on the same server as thousands of other free websites and which therefore could be running overcapacity, at extremely slow speeds. This can mean people visiting the site can't find what they need quickly and competitor sites become more appealing. 

Just a few things to consider, as there'll likely be tick boxes to opt in and out of these things that are designed to sound like they're making your life easier but in the long run can become a burden. 

On the flip side a professional designer will work with your business to create a bespoke site with all options on the table whilst being totally transparent about the costs involved, most importantly the end result will be true to your brand.

So much more than a logo, your brand is inherent to the perception that your potential customers have of you and your products and services. It conveys a mix of experience, image and expectation that ensures a customer’s high expectations will not be misplaced. This is not something that can be conveyed via a one-size-fits-all template designed by someone who has no idea about your business and what it stands for.

Furthermore a bespoke site is entirely flexible, meaning you control what functionality the site needs as well as its content and style; do you want a news page that you can update or perhaps an image gallery? 

As with all things, you get what you pay for so while a template site is probably appealing to your accounts department, you should consider that an investment into your website is an investment into your brand and the return on that is immeasurable.

Do you want to know more or do you have another marketing question we can help with? Is PR proving to be a nightmare? Or design doing your head in? Talk to us. Email your questions anonymously to us today hello@silverbulletmarketing.co.uk or Tweet us (not so anonymously) @SilverBulletPR and use the hash tag #AskSB