The Difference Between Custom and Customizable Sites
Is your website custom or customizable? In the past, many of our clients have been led to believe custom is the same as customizable but the differences are vast. At Rosemont Media, all of our sites are custom. Our graphic designers work closely with our clients to create unique websites for their practice. Customizable sites, on the other hand, are template-based and have a generic look.
Below, we explain the differences in more detail using a little help from a universal love: Mexican food.
Customizable Sites are Like Fast Food
Think of customizable sites like the Chipotle restaurants. You wait in line, and create your meal from set ingredients. Customizable sites are templates with set layouts. You may be able to change photos and colors, but your site will look similar to many other sites due to the template. Just like how burritos and bowls at Chipotle vary slightly in ingredients.
With templates, the company basically takes your assets and plugs them into the layout. If you don’t like what you see, you ultimately won’t have the flexibility necessary to make changes. Sometimes you can customize the layout yourself, but often you pay a company for the template in addition to the ability to manipulate it.
Chipotle restaurants are standard-looking, and the meal is cheap, but you may not impress a first date by going there. The same goes for customizable sites: the cost may be less, but you are getting an average-looking, non-unique site. When it comes to technology, many custom sites are basic, like Chipotle’s Americanized version of Mexican food.
Custom Sites are Like Hiring a Private Chef
Custom sites are a whole different class when compared to customizable sites. Instead of going to Chipotle for dinner, custom medical and dental websites are akin to having expert Mexican food chef Rick Bayless cook a meal for you in your own kitchen. Chef Bayless would use the freshest ingredients, listen to what you like or dislike, and create an authentic dish that matches your palate. Your guests would be wowed and enjoy their time breaking bread with you.
Ultimately, you want the same experience for visitors to your website. A custom site is made according to the needs and mission of your practice. With a custom website, you can “taste-test” your way to a final dish that turns out to be something you love.
Value of Custom Sites
Besides the obvious top-to-bottom personalization missing from template-based sites, customizable designs also have other limitations that directly affect your patient base. These platforms typically do not have a robust support system capable of quickly addressing emergencies, such as a buggy user experience or a hacked site. What’s more, whatever technical support that these template services have on hand will likely fail to deliver the quality of service a specialty website design and digital marketing company would; remember, their consumer base is often so vast that they can be less incentivized to provide superior service.
Custom-built sites not only reinforce your brand and alleviate worries that your practice will become synonymous with competitors who opt for the same web design—a concern with mass templates worth mentioning—but they also usually rank better in Google search engine results. You’re not only paying for a beautiful, tailored website, you’re also investing in tools to grow your business.
What Experience Do You Want Patients to Have?
Your practice website is your virtual storefront; how do you want it to appear and what experience do you want your visitors to have? By knowing the difference between custom and customizable sites, you can choose the type of site you want to complement your practice.
At Rosemont Media, we work hard to make sure your new site is created with the best quality and process. We have a team of graphic designers to create the perfect design, developers to build the site, writers to develop original, comprehensive content and SEO strategies, and project managers to make the entire process flow smoothly. Our consultants are our client’s main contact and they are dedicated to making sure all communications are implemented. We keep up-to-date on developing web technologies and changes in Google’s suite of products to make sure client sites have what it takes to surpass their competition. In the end, paying a little more for quality and support is going to be worth it to your practice and your patients.
If you would like your website to be one-of-a-kind and of the highest quality, Rosemont Media and our experienced team can develop a custom website for you that fulfills your expectations. Contact our representatives today for more information… and don’t blame us if you start craving Mexican food!
Editor’s note: The original version of this post was published on April 30th, 2013.