Table of Contents
- What’s Custom Web Development?
- Custom Web Development vs. Templated Web Development
- A Word on Custom Web App Development
- 7 Reasons Why You Should Choose Custom Web Development
- Unique Brand Identity
- Stoner-friendly and Flexible
- Fast Loading
- Long-term Investment
- Third-party Integration
- SEO
- Excellent Security
- Why Make a Custom eCommerce Website?
- Conclusion
Companies worldwide are busy developing a digital presence for themselves. This is no surprise; we are, after all, living in a digital age. Except for small-size retailers and the cabin industry, every business wants to profit from having an enterprise web presence. It allows them greater access to their customers, enables targeted marketing at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing means, and helps drive business growth. In all this, having a custom website is pivotal to building business credibility and digital presence. Custom web development is the key to success in the digital world. A custom website is the end of every client and business. Through a custom website, businesses reach out to the audience in a special manner, making them feel cared for.
This article explores custom web development, custom web solutions, and customized website development—how they differ from templated web development, the role of a custom web developer, and why custom website development might be the best option for you.
What’s Custom Web Development?
Custom website development is the process of building a website from scratch without any pre-defined templates or themes to choose from. It’s tailored to meet your specific business requirements and allows you to better target your personas compared to templated web development (discussed below). In customized web development, custom web programming developers design targeted and specific websites with a purpose.
Large enterprises always choose to go with custom website development, and correctly so. Custom websites let you offer an enhanced user experience while helping you build a unique brand. This is made possible due to the extensive customization capabilities offered by companies that provide custom web development services. Custom web development is your ticket to success.
Let’s discuss off-the-shelf web development, also known as templated web development, and how it’s different from custom web development.
Custom Web Development vs. Templated Web Development
Ever wondered why businesses prefer custom web development over templated web development? Going with a custom website is generally the favored option when you want to create a unique website that doesn’t look like a run-of-the-mill site. And why not? Your website is your company’s digital face; it represents you and what your business has to offer. Why settle for less? Custom web development gives you a chance to showcase your brand through targeted campaigns.
Functionality, page loading time, scalability, etc., are all critical factors that let you quickly achieve online and offline business success. Offline, because a good user experience helps build a strong brand character, thereby driving business growth.
Here’s a brief comparison between templated web development and custom website development in businesses.
As a rule of thumb, remember that templated websites, as opposed to custom web development, work best when you’re on a budget and quickly want a website. However, if you require a highly flexible and customizable website, go for custom web development. A custom web is a product of custom web programming, intended for a specific audience and purpose.
Here are some examples of off-the-shelf web development platforms that many custom website developers use:
- WordPress
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Shopify
- Joomla
- Drupal
A Word on Custom Web App Development
Sometimes, people confuse web development with web app development services. The engineers behind custom web design are custom-made website developers who offer just the solution your business is looking for. Custom web app development is the process of creating a web application from scratch to meet the specific requirements of a business or organization. The following will help you understand custom web development in detail.
This type of development is more costly and time-consuming than using a pre-made platform.
Here’s what you need to know about it:
- Complexity: Custom web apps are generally more complex than custom websites, as they require the integration of different components, such as a database, user interface, and back-end logic. Custom web design is typically quite complex.
- Cost: Custom web apps are generally more expensive than custom websites, requiring more development time and expertise.
- Time to Market: Custom web apps can take longer to develop than custom websites, requiring more planning and testing.
Back to custom web development and why you should choose it to develop your enterprise website. Here are some reasons to persuade you that custom web development is the best.
7 Reasons Why You Should Choose Custom Web Development
Here are the top seven reasons why custom web development and custom website design and development are the right approaches for your business.
- Unique Brand Identity
Brand identity comprises the values your brand espouses. It also includes how you communicate with your target personas, your messaging, positioning, and how you want customers to feel when they interact with your brand. Custom web development preserves and enriches your unique brand identity.
A custom enterprise WordPress website via a custom web development service helps you develop a unique brand identity by enabling you to create a website that exactly matches your brand identity goals. This is just not possible with WordPress or other templated websites. That’s because they offer pre-defined templates that limit your ability to customize the site.
In the end, custom web designing is a field in its own right. And while you can design an incredibly engaging custom web design, you still need a web developer to bring functionality to your website. Thus, aim to build a good development team. Custom website design and development take care of this.
- Stoner-friendly and Flexible
Another crucial reason for choosing custom web development and a good custom website development company is that it allows you to offer a user-friendly website to your customers. With a good web developer, you can make all the necessary changes to your site to align with user interests and make it easier for them to navigate the website.
Additionally, custom sites are very easy to scale, allowing you to add or remove features, landing pages, etc., whenever needed. Templated websites don’t allow the same level of customization. Even when they do, you must use plugins to get certain features. These plugins may impact your site’s performance negatively. Custom web development makes ample use of such tactics and practices.
- Fast Loading
Website page loading time is a critical standard that determines the quality of experience a user receives when visiting your site. It also helps drive SERP rankings. According to research, a website visitor will bounce off the page and exit if they are made to wait for longer than three seconds. Custom web development services ensure the fast loading of a website.
Custom websites solve this problem by providing native experiences to users. That’s because these sites are built using specific programming languages, making it easier to ensure faster loading times and better responsive UI/UX design services.
- Long-term Investment
There’s indeed a higher price attached to developing a custom website. However, it depends on how you perceive it. For enterprises that prioritize the benefits of custom sites, creating one is a long-term investment with a good enough ROI (return on investment). This higher ROI is also due to the customer-first approach that custom web development uses. It prioritizes how to attract, satisfy, and retain users. This is why custom web development is preferable and better.
In addition to offering a better ROI, custom websites are easily scalable and can grow in tandem with your business. This means that you won’t have to rely on a never-ending use of WordPress plugins to add new functionality or scale your website. A good custom website developer will use plugins to design customized websites.
- Third-party Integration
It’s very convenient to enable third-party integration when developing a custom website. Here the role of a custom website developer is integral. This integration helps you incorporate existing tools, apps, and platforms with your website while reducing development costs. - SEO
Some off-the-shelf websites are not designed to be high-speed. That doesn’t mean that all WordPress sites are slow, no. Some are fast, but they require a dedicated WordPress developer to keep them in shape through regular updates and security patches. However, none of this implies that Google prefers custom websites over templated websites. Custom web development considers SEO.
Nevertheless, custom websites are still more performant than templated ones. That’s because higher quality and performance are crucial goals for developing custom websites. Naturally, custom web design and development cost the client more. This naturally converts into higher SERP rankings and SEO performance. SEO is critical to helping your customers find you online. To make the most of custom web design and development, businesses should focus on SEO best practices and learn SEO fundamentals to optimize their digital presence.
- Excellent Security
Website security has become one of the leading concerns of enterprises worldwide. While no website is 100% secure, custom-developed websites are still more secure than their templated counterparts. A good developer uses SSL (secure sockets layer) and other security measures to ensure your website is secure and less vulnerable to security breaches.
Through custom web development, businesses offer heightened security. Custom web design services can help you design your type and level of security for your website.
Now you might be wondering if there are reasons why you shouldn’t choose custom web development. Here are three factors you should consider when deciding which option and custom web design services to select:
- Budget – If you’re a small company with a tight budget and you only want to have a digital presence for your business, a templated website will most probably do the job for you, and custom website development services may not be ideal for you.
- Deadline – The great thing about off-the-shelf websites is that they don’t require lengthy development time. You can create a good WordPress site yourself in a matter of weeks. However, remember that it will not be able to offer the exact functionality, speed, or design you want.
- Specialized Capabilities – Building a WordPress website requires no previous coding experience; anyone can develop a WordPress site. However, you may need a WordPress developer to customize your WordPress site. You require custom web development services. With custom web development, you solely rely on a web developer to build your custom website.
Why Make a Custom eCommerce Website?
A whopping number of customers worldwide like to shop online. The internet has transformed our lives. A user is first likely to search for their desired product online, read reviews of different options, and then make a purchase. Given the huge number of internet users today, traditional companies with brick-and-mortar stores have also set up e-commerce websites to make the most of the opportunities the digital realm offers. Only a good custom web development company can lead you in this situation. As such, just the way there are many templated custom web solutions available, there are also numerous e-commerce platforms available that offer templates you can use to create your e-commerce store. Custom web development services assist users in employing the various platforms to build custom websites.
However, these solutions might not be the best option for your business. Instead, building a custom e-commerce website might be a better way to go about it. Custom web development services can help you on your way to success with e-commerce websites.
Although custom e-commerce trends are costly to develop, they offer critical benefits that templated or off-the-shelf solutions don’t. Here are some of the leading benefits of creating custom e-commerce websites:
- Customer Satisfaction – A reputable web development company prioritizes customer satisfaction. The primary objective of any e-commerce platform is to meet the needs of its users and visitors. Two key metrics that indicate visitor satisfaction with your website are the conversion rate and the bounce rate. The conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors who make a purchase, while the bounce rate reflects how well you retain visitors. Custom e-commerce websites tend to outperform pre-designed solutions in these metrics, as they allow for tailored customer experiences. The core principle of custom website development is to ensure customer satisfaction.
- Business Integration – It is essential to integrate your business with your e-commerce platform effectively. Providing a cohesive brand experience for visitors, whether they are in your physical store or browsing online, is vital. Custom e-commerce platforms offer superior integration capabilities compared to templated solutions like Shopify or WordPress.
- SEO & Customization – The choice between web solutions such as WordPress and custom e-commerce sites ultimately hinges on customization. Custom websites can be tailored to meet specific needs, thereby enhancing user experiences. In contrast, pre-designed templates offer limited customization options, restricting the ability to personalize user interactions. Additionally, custom websites generally provide more robust SEO capabilities, whether they are e-commerce platforms or other types. Custom web development services play a crucial role in this aspect.
Conclusion
It is now clear that opting for a custom website is significantly more advantageous than using a templated one. Custom websites offer improved functionality, a distinctive brand identity, an exceptional user experience, and much more. This approach is a reliable strategy for gaining a competitive edge.
Codepul has successfully developed custom websites utilizing contemporary practices in web development for both startups and Fortune 500 companies. Our skilled team in Web & Mobile App development possesses extensive programming expertise. Reach out to us at info@codepul.com to schedule a free consultation session regarding custom web development services.