Your website should look professional, but it should also look and feel like your business.
That’s where website customization becomes important.
Many website builders make it easy to get started with templates and pre-designed layouts. That’s convenient, but it can also mean that your website ends up looking similar to many other websites built on the same platform. Kind of like if you have AI build your website.
A customizable website builder gives you more control over how your website looks, how information is organized, and how your brand is presented online. Instead of making your business fit into a template, you can build the website around your business.
What Does a Customizable Website Builder Let You Control?
With a customizable website builder, you can control the details that shape your website’s design, including:
- Colors – Use your brand’s colors consistently throughout your website.
- Typography – Choose fonts and text styles that fit your brand and make your content easy to read.
- Page layouts – Decide how sections, images, text, buttons, and other elements are arranged.
- Spacing and sizing – Control the amount of space between elements and how prominently different elements appear.
- Navigation – Organize your menus and links around the way visitors actually use your website.
- Images and graphics – Use your own photography, graphics, illustrations, and other visual elements.
- Content structure – Decide what information appears first and what deserves the most emphasis.
- Calls to action – Place buttons, forms, and other calls to action where they make sense for your visitors.
- Individual pages – Create different layouts and structures when different pages have different purposes.
The more control you have over these elements, the more freedom you have to create a website that fits your brand instead of simply filling in someone else’s design.
If you’re building your website yourself, see our guide: How to Design a Website From Scratch: The Ultimate Guide for Builders
How Website Customization Supports Your Brand
Your logo and color palette are only part of your visual identity.
The overall combination of your typography, imagery, layouts, spacing, content, and page structure creates the experience visitors associate with your business.
For a broader look at the fundamentals of branding, see our guide to Building a Strong Brand: The Key Elements of Successful Branding.
For example, a creative agency may want a bold, visual design with large images and distinctive typography. A professional services firm may prefer a more structured and understated design. A restaurant may want photography and menus to take center stage. An online store may need product information, categories, shopping features, and calls to action to be especially prominent.
There isn’t one ideal website layout for every type of business.
When these elements work together consistently, your website feels like a natural extension of your brand rather than a separate online presence.
Related: How can I use a Custom Font on my website?
Stand Out Instead of Looking Like a Template
There is nothing inherently wrong with using a website template. Templates can save time and provide a useful starting point.
The problem is that a template can become a limitation when you want your website to look substantially different from the sites built from the same design.
Imagine two local businesses that offer similar services.
The first uses a standard template with a familiar layout, standard typography, and a predictable page structure. The website works, but it doesn’t give visitors much of a reason to remember it.
The second business uses a more customizable approach. Its homepage immediately communicates its unique value proposition. Its typography and visual style match its existing branding. The content is arranged around the questions customers actually have, and important calls to action are easy to find.
Both websites may contain similar basic information.
But the second website can feel much more distinctive, intentional, and connected to the business behind it.
That’s the advantage of having control over the design.
Customization Can Improve the User Experience
Customization isn’t only about making a website look different.
It can also help you make the website easier to use.
You know your business and your customers better than a generic template does. That means you may want to organize information differently from the way a pre-designed layout expects you to.
For example, you might want to:
- Put your most important information near the top of the page
- Make a particular service easier to find
- Highlight a special offer or important announcement
- Put testimonials near a relevant service
- Create a shorter path to your contact or checkout page
- Organize a large amount of information into logical sections
- Design different landing pages for different audiences
When you have control over the page structure, you can design the experience around your visitors instead of trying to work around the limitations of a template.
Want to take a more hands-on approach? Our How to Design Your Own Website: A Step-by-Step Guide walks through the process from planning your website to designing and building it.
Customization vs. Convenience
This is one of the biggest differences to consider when choosing a website builder.
Template-driven website builders generally emphasize speed and simplicity. You choose a design, replace the sample content, make some adjustments, and publish.
That’s useful if your primary goal is simply to get a website online quickly.
A highly customizable website builder takes a different approach. It gives you more control, which means you may spend more time making design decisions – but you also have more freedom over the finished website.
Neither approach is automatically right or wrong.
The important question is:
Do you want the website builder to determine much of the design, or do you want to determine the design yourself?
If your website is an important part of your business, having that extra control can make a significant difference.
Your Website Should Be Able to Evolve
Your website today may not be the website you need two or three years from now.
Businesses add services, change their branding, create new content, expand into e-commerce, add membership functionality, launch new marketing campaigns, and change the way they interact with customers.
A website builder that gives you plenty of customization freedom makes those changes easier to accommodate.
You can redesign a page, change your navigation, add new sections, create new types of pages, or adjust the overall appearance without having to start over simply because the original template no longer fits.
That flexibility is especially important if you expect your website to become a long-term part of your business.
If you’re considering a major change to your brand, you may also be interested in What are some successful examples of rebranding in the startup world?
What to Look for in a Customizable Website Builder
If website design and branding are important to you, don’t judge a website builder only by its template gallery.
Look at how much control you actually have once you start building.
Before choosing a platform, consider questions such as:
- Can you create your own page layouts?
- Can you freely customize colors and typography?
- Can you control spacing and positioning?
- Can you change the structure of a page rather than just replace its text?
- Can you add custom HTML and CSS if you need additional control?
- Can you create different layouts for different types of pages?
- Can you add functionality as your website grows?
- Can you change the design later without rebuilding the entire website?
A platform may advertise hundreds or thousands of templates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it gives you extensive design freedom.
The number of templates isn’t the same thing as the amount of customization.
Why UltimateWB Is Built for Customization
UltimateWB is designed for people who want substantial control over both the design and functionality of their websites.
You can create custom layouts and pages, customize the appearance of your website, work with HTML and CSS, and build your website around your own requirements rather than being limited to a rigid template structure.
For more on how UltimateWB can support your overall branding efforts, see UltimateWB: More Than a Website Builder – Your All-in-One Branding Software.
UltimateWB also includes an extensive amount of built-in features, including SEO tools, e-commerce, photo galleries, slideshows, forums, directories, social networking features, and more.
Whether you’re creating a business website, online store, portfolio, membership website, community, or another type of website, you have the flexibility to build something tailored to your needs.
Build a Website That Actually Represents Your Business
Your website is an important part of how people experience your business online. The more control you have over its design and structure, the more easily you can create an experience that fits your brand, your audience, and your goals.
If your website is an important part of your business, having control over its design isn’t a luxury – it’s an advantage.
Ready to design & build your own custom website? Learn more about UltimateWB! We also offer web design packages if you would like your website designed and built for you.
Got a techy/website question? Whether it’s about UltimateWB or another website builder, web hosting, or other aspects of websites, just send in your question in the “Ask David!” form. We will email you when the answer is posted on the UltimateWB “Ask David!” section.