If you want to use WordPress as your content management system, you still have the choice of whether to use a web studio to design a site or to figure it out yourself.
There are a few considerations with this to come up with the right decision for you. We look at a few of those in this article to help to narrow your focus.
How Important is a Custom Design?
A web studio, like WSI Digital Ltd, can produce a custom design for a web site. It’s an intensive process that involves multiple virtual meetings, mock-up designs, finalization, design execution, and completion of the project.
A custom appearance is ideal when you don’t want your brand to have a website that looks identical to several hundred others. When using a free or premium WordPress theme, that’s the reality.
It costs more to have a custom theme produced for your brand. However, when that’s the minimum that you’ll accept, then this is the way to go.
Should an Existing WordPress Theme Be Modified to Save Money?
Either you or a web agency can take an existing WordPress theme and modify it.
Essentially, it then becomes a redesign at that point. Either you or a web studio has the goal to redesign the theme to make it not look like all the other sites using it. The degree of success varies considerably.
From a security standpoint, using any other theme rather than designing one from scratch inherits any security issues or software bugs present within it. These are then difficult to fix later because of the redesign and other modifications made to the premium theme. It’s now non-standard and most likely cannot be updated to the latest theme release. At that point, you’re kind of stuck.
Is It Possible to Design a WordPress Theme from Scratch?
It depends on your level of skill whether this is a sensible option.
If you’re already a web designer, then you might prefer this choice for a new website that you’re planning to launch.
One of the issues here is that there’s a risk of the designer (or the technical programmer) getting lost in the design of their site. In the process, they launch it much later. So, they lose time to grow the site sooner.
Any updates or bug fixes either due to a poorly conceived theme or a major WordPress update like the recent version 5.5 may break the design and it must be revised again.
Depending on how large your team is – solopreneur or a team of 5 people – it’s easy to get bogged down in the site design and updates. This then distracts from the main focus of making the site or brand successful in the marketplace.
If you’re serious about your new brand requiring a unique looking website, then a custom design is best. On the other hand, if your budget doesn’t allow for that, then it’ll be necessary to look at all other options and decide between them.
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