A cookie cutter website is often the route start ups go to set up their website quickly and cheaply. But sometimes businesses don’t even realise they have a cookie cutter site at all. Lets take a look at what a CC site is and 3 reasons to avoid.

What is a cookie cutter website?

In the web industry, a cookie cutter website is a term given to a site that has been pre made. The site has been pre-designed and pre-built for people to ‘just add content’ and launch their  website in no time.

Whilst this sounds like a good idea, it can stunt online growth and cost businesses more money and time. Here are 3 reasons to avoid at all costs:

1. Your website looks like everyone else’s

Pre-existing cookie cutter sites are designed to look as generic as possible to cater to everyones requirements. After all, they’re made to be used as many times as possible. By using a cookie cutter website you lose your business’s unique voice and message.

Your online presence is a big part of your branding and values which needs to be reflected instantly when people visit your site. This might be the first time a person has come into contact with your business so don’t leave them feeling underwhelmed by a forgettable web experience that’s just the same as your competitors.

With markets saturated like never before and businesses trying to capture as much attention as possible, you need to do what you can to stand out from the crowd.

2. Wastes time and money

Instead of developing a website around your content, business goals and target audience requirements, everything is squeezed to work around a pre-designed and pre-built website. This means your website might not actually perform the way you needed it to, wasting time and money from the start.

Many businesses when starting out choose a cookie cutter site to get online as quickly as possible. But when businesses start to grow, it’s not long before requirements change and the website needs to adapt. A cookie cutter website usually has restricted web capabilities and the inflexibility leaves you stuck with no other choice but a rebuild.

Whilst WordPress does offer the ability to add ‘plugins’ to extend your website’s functionality, you can’t always find a plugin to do what you need. Some come with membership fees for premium functionality or hefty one off costs. Security is also an issue and you need to ensure the plugins you use come from a safe, reputable source.

If you’re hiring a web designer/developer/agency, it’s important to discuss with them how they plan to make your site. Someone who uses a pre-existing cookie cutter site is either:

a) too inexperienced to code their own, just uses lots of plugins, doesn’t really know what they’re doing etc – this could lead to problems later on when you need a professional to rely on.

b) They just want to make a cheap website, caring only to make a quick buck. They’re not out for your best interest and have no intention of supporting you after your website is live.

3. Limited SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) visibility

SEO is the process of boosting your website’s position in the results pages of search engines such as Google. Cookie cutter websites often limit their potential to do well in search results as the design and code hasn’t been optimised to the particular business it belongs to.

Yes, you can optimise your content with keywords and images but there is so much more to SEO. Speed, Schema markup, meta data, security – lots to think about. These might be very difficult to implement into cookie cutter code. And because the website has been built to cater to everyone, there is usually more codes and files on the site than it needs causing it to load slower which is bad for SEO, bad for site visitors and therefore bad for your leads or sales.

No more cookies!

If you’re serious about your business, be serious about your website. Cookie cutter sites are a bad investment that limit growth and take up more time and money in the long run. I only make websites that work around your content and what you need which is why all my websites are completely bespoke, built from scratch, using a design that’s built for you.

If you’re ready for a custom website, request a website quote and let’s get you a professional website for your professional biz.