WordPress websites- Custom Design or Theme based, what to choose?

You've chosen to build your website using WordPress, adding to the more than 75 million websites already using this platform. A fortifying question for your website arises then; whether you should go with a custom theme completely or base your website on one of the thousand-plus free (and premium) themes WordPress has to offer. There have been many healthy discussions around this question. Why wouldn't there be? You'd like to juice this platform for everything it has to offer, everybody would.

The simple answer to all of this depends on the audience your website would cater to, the traffic you expect, your budget, your resources, and to some extent, even your knowledge.

Your website would be your first footprint in today's digital world and you can't afford any distortions. The first impression of your website has to be long-lasting. Your customers should be able to recollect your website and access it easily. So, which option do you go for? This will help you decide.

Budget

Numero uno is always the amount of money you are willing to spend on your website. While a ready-made theme would barely have any effect on your war-chest, a customized theme would run into lakhs, with a requirement of coders and designers.

Although a pre-made theme would be cheaper than a customized one, you would be tied to the limits of that particular theme, whereas the customized theme, well can be completely customized to your taste and your brand's identity.

Your Time

What you must also consider is the amount of time you are willing to allocate to your website's development. A customized theme takes time to become a reality, with a lot of heavy work usually propping up towards the business end of things.

This would make sense for you if your website's launch is far away and if you can dedicate this amount of time to your website's development. If the requirement of a website is pressing, you could go for a theme for now.

Know Your Audience

Customers too should be considered while deciding which option you choose. An easy-flowing website becomes a necessity when you expect some heavy traffic on it. The pre-styled themes would limit the number of things you can do with your website, thus limiting your customer. If your customers prefer a style not available already, you would require a brand new customized design.

A good idea is to always test the waters before making any firm decisions. If there is one certainty in all this confusion, then it is your need for an SEO-optimized website that is also professional-looking.

You would need an agency to help you design a custom website for your company, which would also give you an SEO-friendly website. On the other frontier, even if you go for a theme-based design, a web design company would be required to make it more appealing to the professionals out there and heavily optimize it for SEO.