An online presence is imperative when it comes to growing your business and is one of the most important investments you can make. Your site needs to be mobile-optimised, easy to navigate and have a good user experience. A poorly built website could mean you lose out on sales opportunities. If you are a business looking for a new or re-designed website with a CMS, there are a couple of different options to consider when it comes to choosing how your website is built, either ‘off-the-shelf’ or bespoke website development.

‘Off-the-shelf’ software for building your website comes with pre-built integration and templates. It’s ready made and sold to a mass market and created to benefit as many users as possible. WordPress for example, falls under this category.

Bespoke sites are created entirely for the purpose of your specific business goals. Your site can align with your processes and be personalised with everything from your designs to your e-commerce system. One of the main reasons businesses approach us is because they want their website to do more than its current capabilities, that a template cannot offer. 

Platform's such as Wordpress have a place in the website market but sometimes as businesses grow, they also outgrow the service. Wordpress is a great option if you are looking for a straightforward website and your business doesn't require any additional features outside the standard website templates. If you prefer to be more 'hands on' with your website, then a bespoke build may be for you.

Read on as we dive into the benefits of how investing in a bespoke build could benefit your business.

Specific design – your website can be created entirely for the purpose of your business goals, giving you a site that aligns with your processes, designs and e-commerce systems. Great if you are looking for ultimate personalisation when it comes to showcasing your brand 

Additional features and upgrades – you can access a vast number of software features not covered by standard templates. Bespoke builds are flexible, so as your business changes and grows, your site can be adapted to meet the needs of the business too

SEO and social media – can be built in right from the beginning of development to influence ranking

Competitive advantage – you can set yourself apart from your competitors with a unique, innovative, user experience. You can offer your customers options a competitor may not be able to, such as an e-commerce system that ensures you are ideally positioned to sell your products and that offers the best experience possible to the user

Cost-efficient – there is no waste on features that you won’t utilise as all systems will be selected especially for your business

Better security – bespoke websites are more secure than ‘off-the-shelf’ websites. Your developer can write the code so you can have complete control and you also don’t have to worry about third-party plugins that might contain security vulnerabilities.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a unique website that can support your business as it grows, a bespoke build is a great choice. At OwlTree our developers are experts in bespoke coding and build so please get in touch if you’d like our help in turning your website ideas into reality.