Up To Par Marketing creates websites for our golf course clients and develop comprehensive golf marketing solutions. We often find that many clients have templates sites from major Domain Hosting Services such as Godaddy. While these services purpose is to get a business an on-line presence there are a few things to evaluate if you want to grow your on-line audience.

Up To Par Marketing is here to assist you in making informed decisions and answer many of the questions our golf course design clients have when they are looking at their current needs. Below are a few Items to think about as you explore your options.

Pros of Template Websites

Template websites are the least expensive method of getting a websites up and going.
These templates are easy to create and take less time to create than a custom websites which is why the site cost is so low. The template website should be cheaper than custom websites but that is not always the case.
Many website companies say they build custom websites but in reality many out there build template websites and charge clients for a custom website. So how can you avoid paying too much for a template website?
- Get a quote from a custom website company and compare it to the price of a template website company. Since templates require a lot less work than custom websites, the price of a template website should be significantly lower than that of a custom website.
Template are usually simple, less complex and have less functionality than custom websites.

Cons of Template Websites

While template websites usually offer simple and clean, they can be very limiting. With a template you get what you see.
Template websites are very limited in the changes that can be made to the functionalities.
A company paying less for a site is not always worth the limitations offered by templates.
- Limited Pages, Basic Navigation Bars, Content Writing is left up to the user which can be a huge downfall for driving traffic to your site.
Websites should be built around the golf course image, brand and with a keen eye on the visitors who come to the website. A custom websites should reflect who a company is and what they do, while most template websites offer options for the masses.
A template website doesn’t allow you the freedom to separate your brand from all the others. Look around at your competitors and you will begin to notice some common themes and your goal is to stand apart from others.
Appearance: First Impressions are all you have in the online game. 86% of all new purchases start with a web search and this is your time to shine.
Most template websites are not search engine optimized. If a website is not search engine optimized it isn’t on the radar of the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
SEO- This is the biggest asset you have to capture on-line traffic and potential buyers. Templated websites leave this up to you….Did you know most custom sites do as well? We see this everyday: “I paid $10,000 for my site doesn’t it look great.” The endgame is traffic..rather than an empty suit. I liken it to the beautiful muscle car that is perfect in looks but what makes it even more spectacular is what’s under the hood and that is the SEO.

The bar has been raised as we have become more dependent on the Internet in our daily lives. The fact is there is a place for each site option but the future is set and the bar has been raised by the consumer who is looking for you and wants to find out about your company and by you making it easy for them to find you and offering a pleasing experience it is a true win-win for both the consumer and your company.

If you have questions or need to explore what is the right action for you please feel free to contact us for a free evaluation of your needs. As we say all the time, a website is vitally important but that is about 30% of what we do for our clients. Managing on-line and off-line marketing programs, social media plans and overall needs working together to brand your business is what we are here for and love to do.

Rob Pritts, VP National Accounts rob@uptoparmarketing.com

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