Website templates can be cost effective and they can save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new theme for your website. However, a lot of users make mistakes in the process of choosing and implementing a site template and end up with a creation that is not even close to the image they had in mind. Here are a few helpful pointers to help you avoid those mistakes.

The most common mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is extremely popular. If a lot of people are using the same template, your website will not stand out as unique at all and your reputation as a solid, original website will be tainted. To put it another way, you will appear generic just like many other websites.

The main reason to use a web template is to spare yourself some time. You just modify the title and appropriate details and you are. The most costly mistake a start up business might make is to modify the template beyond recognition. While this might be ok in the sense that you’ll get a unique website, you’re going against the main reason for using a web template :saving time and effort.

However, from another prespective, if a template you aquired is suitable but some editing must be done to match your site’s theme, then you might want to spend the time to make the changes. For example, you might come across a good template that suits your hobby site except the creator has put an image of stamps at the top. You can find images of garden plants and tools to replace the stamps for your gardening niche website. However, you should only make the necessary changes and avoid redesigning the whole website template.

In some circumstances, users simply make a bad selection of templates. This is a rather subjective matter but you should be careful in choosing templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they are shiny, choose them because they suit your needs.

With web 2.0 becoming more mainstream, many web developers are turning to dynamic content. A very easy way to incorporate this would be to use a Content Management System, or CMS. WordPress is 100% free and has a wide range of options, allowing you to make a very professional looking website with little to no effort at all.

Never, and I stress this strongly, violate any terms of copyright when using a website template. Many authors/designers have specific rules for leaving a backlink to their site. Leaving these links in place will help ensure that there will always be someone out there willing to develop free tools that we can use for our own marketing purposes.

Remember that there are many website templates out there, and the only real way to make any of them work is to fill them with quality content. So save time, and be sure to provide quality content to your visitors.