Using a pre-design template and SEO

[seoanalytics]

Hi,

If I use a template that maybe 50 other websites use but customise it my way will I still rank or will it hurt my ranking because other websites have the same template (even though they are in a different industry).

Thanks,

[EGOL]

I agree !

A long time ago, before I knew much about SEO, I had a website redesigned and the traffic tanked big time.   After that, even though I am not a "designer," almost all elements of our websites are built in-house.  Not only do you have control over the SEO, but you also don't have to pull teeth and get into arguments to get things done the way you want. We keep 'em simple and they look OK.

[ThomasHarvey]

Also I feel that it's important to say that could be an issue with a custom website too, due to the fact that a lot of web developers are not seo professionals, so they don't build a site to be seo friendly.

[EGOL]

The fact that many other people use the same template is not a matter of concern.

What might be of concern is the code that underlies the template.  It could be really inefficient, lack important optimization elements, have links that are not search engine friendly, have css or scripts that slow down the delivery.... there are many potential problems.

If you are using a template and are going to put a lot of work into your content and into your SEO then a quick evaluation by an experienced SEO might save you problems.  I would want to spend a lot on content and SEO and only get fractional value because of a crap template.

[ThomasHarvey]

There are lots of templates that rank really well, I have customers who have used templated sites and beat all of their competition. If you create lots of unique content and modify what you've got (make sure to change alt tags from the default template) and url paths for example, then you should be fine.