Purchased template or bespoke website design?

What to look out for when researching a dentist website supplier

Have you noticed that a lot of dental practice websites are starting to look very similar? Perhaps the photographs and text have been changed but a lot of the main structural elements all look like they are following a theme?

The answer to why this is is quite straightforward and is all down to “templates” or “themes”, in particular for content management systems (CMS) such as the WordPress platform. So why is this and why has there been such a huge proliferation?

WordPress themes

WordPress has built up a large following in recent times, leveraging on it’s original popularity as a blogging platform. The system has now evolved into a content management system with more features and is used as the “engine” which drives a lot of websites. However, many professional web designers look to other systems for their content management needs citing WordPress’s unintuitive administration system and questionable security record as major reasons why. Even so, lots of services have sprung up which provide “themes” or “templates” which can be applied to WordPress to make it look much more visually appealing than it’s default format.

These templates are also very cheap, anything from $30 -> $80 dollars.

Consequently it is easy to install a WordPress site, buy a professionally made template, apply it and you are on your way for < £100 plus a hosting account. But is this the right choice for a dentist’s website or indeed any small business?

So what are the downsides?

If you are happy to put up with rather a lot of security updates and quite a steep learning curve to get to grips with the editing system, it is fair to say that WordPress can get you going on the web very cheaply and quickly indeed. There are numerous websites where you can get hold of a good looking template for a few dollars, add your content and you’re off and running.

Some design companies have also taken advantage of this route and use purchased templates which they then modify to make them “dental” before selling on to clients. However, the underlying features are very similar and its fairly easy to see that it’s just another WordPress installation with some template modifications. This might be fine if your supplier was charging just a few hundred pounds for the work; however it’s often the case that the fee is way in excess of this.

In addition to this, many WordPress themes are not future-proof i.e. they become incompatible as the core engine of WordPress updates. Unless your designer was sufficiently skilled to deploy the theme with a degree of future-proofing, then your site may become defunct quite quickly. Whilst it is fair to say that this is also true for other CMS, the high degree of maintenance needed with WordPress may mean that obsolescence sets in much faster than you expected.

You may also be compelled to “lock-into” an expensive monthly maintenance contract just to keep your website working and secure from hackers. Another insurance contract you otherwise could have avoided.

Questions to ask your web designer if they propose to use WordPress

Understand what you are buying into by asking these basic questions:

• are you building a bespoke theme or is it purchased?
• will you streamline the standard administration panel to make it more intuitive?
• which “plugins” do you propose to use to add functionality and do you guarantee long-term compatibility?
• will my WordPress theme remain compatible as the core engine goes through regular updates? If not, will you guarantee to make changes to keep it compatible and secure?

If your designer will sign off on those questions, then WordPress could be an option for you. However, many progressive website designers suggest that there are better alternatives so please choose carefully. It is fair to say that you should ask similar questions if your supplier offers a different CMS, however, some alternatives are arguably more intuitive than WordPress and don’t require as much maintenance.

Summary

When purchasing a new dental practice website, it is sensible to choose wisely and have a working knowledge of what you are being offered. Is your dental designer simply modifying a purchased template or are they designing a bespoke version from scratch?

Will your templated design still remain compatible as the core framework of the content management updates or will you be left with something which is defunct and insecure in a short space of time?

Are you content to have a website that looks quite a lot like everyone else or do you want to stand out from the crowd? Whilst WordPress is a popular system and does power some very well-known websites, it is worth understanding some of the underlying issues and making comparisons with other platforms before jumping in.

If you would like to know more about website design and the pros and cons of the various content management systems available, please call our team on 01332 672548 for clear advice.