Website templates

If you want a website but don’t have a big budget then using a template and or open source software can be a HUGE lifesaver. But with so many templates and website solutions around, which template should you go for? And will it really be easy to change it yourself if you want to do it all yourself? This article will answer most of these questions for you. Let’s start with an overview.

Static Html websites

These templates are for basic html websites which can be customised with programs like Adobe Dreamweaver and MS Frontpage. These templates are usually easy to customise if you know how to work with these programs. However, hese templates do not include functionality like search or forms although they can be added on by a programmer. The code also tends to be outdated with many table tags on many of these templates, so it’s much better to go with the modern CMS templates instead.

Get them at:  The template store

CSS website templates

These are usually also static html website templates. Instead of tables they use pure css though which is the recommended way of building sites by W3C, the world wide web consortium. These websites load quickly and if developed well will display well accross platforms, but they still lack a lot of functionality.

Get them at: Template Monster

Shop templates

If you want to have a shop you will need a shopping cart and back end functionality. There are now several open source applications that you can get for free. They can also be customised by templates.

Get them at: The Oz Commerce store

Content Management Websites and blogs

Open source applications can be downloaded for free from the web and they can be used to build your website. Popular applications are Joomla and WordPress and naturally a lot of templates are available. You may find it tricky to setup these sites but once done they are very easy to update.  Joomla is a complete content management system. WordPress tends to focus a bit more on blogs but you also set up these sites as a cms and functionality can easily be added on. Google also likes WordPress websites and if you have set it up with search engine friendly urls then a wordpress site can be indexed well by Google.

Here are my recommendations for good premium WordPress themes or excellent ProntaCMS templates.

Please note that if you are new to web design you may still need help customising and using these templates. Any further questions let me know.