As an Arizona business owner or freelancer, you probably know the importance of a good design for a website, and you may think you have found an effective web design for your site. But is that outstanding web design really unique, or is it a template that dozens of other sites also display? There are few things as unprofessional as having the same website as some other business out there, and this blog will explain why.

If you are an artist, photographer, author, or interior decorator, do you tell potential clients that they should select your business because it is exactly the same as everyone else’s? Or do you focus instead on explaining why you are different and above average? Most likely, your marketing plan includes the latter. Many companies love to constantly explain how unique they are, but what is really important is to show customers that you are different from your competitors. It is all well and good if you claim to be above average, but when people view your site and then notice that it looks exactly the same as a direct competitor’s, all that explaining goes out the window in one minute.

One real-life example that was recently touched on in a previous blog is the existence of two competing photography websites that display the exact same template (here and here). When potential customers are looking for a photographer, they will usually use a list of Google search results. They will simply go down the list, checking out each website, concentrating first on quality of pictures, then on price. They will likely keep a mental list of photographers to keep in mind for whatever event they are thinking about, most likely using mental images of the website to remember which is which.

Obviously, if your website has the same design as another photographer, you have less of a chance of being remembered, as it will be more difficult for customers to do so. On top of being considered easily forgotten, the potential customer will most likely think you might not have anything to offer that is different from the competition, as you can’t even be bothered to make your website unique. Clearly, you would be better off if your site reflected your business’s inimitability.

In order to avoid such a business faux pas and actually practice effective web design, you need the help of a professional web designer. If you have avoided doing so because of the cost, as you can see from the potential consequences of using a common template, a unique site design will pay for itself with the business it brings in.