What is a website template?
Definition
A website template is a ready-made website design, with pages, layout, fonts and colors already set, that you fill in with your own words and photos. Website builders offer templates by trade or style, and the same template is often used by many other businesses, sometimes in your own town.
Templates vs custom design: the trade-offs
Templates are quick and predictable. You can see the finished look before you start, and a well-made one already has a sensible page structure and works on phones. That's why so many do-it-yourself sites start from one. Some platforms call them themes; it's the same idea.
The catch is fit. A template is made for an imaginary business, so its sections rarely match yours: a gallery where you need a menu, three service boxes when you offer nine. Owners end up padding it with filler text and stock photos, and the site looks like the template it came from. A custom design starts from your business instead, but has usually cost far more time or money.
For restaurants, check that a template has a real text menu, not just a slot for a PDF, plus room for hours and an Order button above the fold. For churches, look for service times, events, sermons and a giving link built in. For landscapers, you want big before-and-after photos and a quote form, not a portfolio grid made for photographers.
How to pick a template well
- Start from what your customers need to do, then find a layout that fits it.
- Look at it on a phone before anything else.
- Count the sections you'd delete or pad with filler; fewer is better.
- Check for your trade's must-haves: menu, quote form, booking or service times.
- Swap every stock photo for your own before you publish.
- See how many businesses in your trade nearby already use the same one.
How Future handles it
Future starts somewhere else: from your answers. Name the business, the work and the city, and Future draws three homepages for that business alone, not picked from a pile. Choose one, and every word, photo, font and color stays yours to change.
Rather start from a template? You can. Future's templates come already filled in with your details and colors, so even a template feels like yours. Any leftover sample text shows up on Future's publishing checklist, a reminder to replace the filler with your own words.