If you are finding it difficult to retain visitors to your blog despite putting in some great content, your run-of-the-mill blog design might be a contributing factor. Blogging with premade, downloadable template makes it difficult for your blog to compete with other well-known blogs with highly customized themes. Here are some reasons why or why not should you go in for a custom template for your blog

Go for it!

•    Branding: A custom built template gives an identity to your blog which is impossible with a pre-made template. You can build a custom template to layer the brand promotion efforts of your company. A unique logo, header and layout make it easy for the onlooker to remember your blog and revisit.

•    Search Engine Optimization: Custom themes can be built with several features that can boost your blog’s ranking in the search engine. SEO friendly features can ensure that your blog is crawled often and there is no duplication of content. These aspects are ignored while coding a pre-made template.

•    More features: Since you are getting a template built exclusively for your blog, you always have the option of adding features that are unavailable in downloadable templates. These features can increase speed, reliability and functionality of your blog, and make it more appealing to the visitors.

Do you have the money?

Unless you have the skills to modify the code of a pre-existing template to customize it, getting a custom template built specially for your blog can be an expensive exercise. It can range from anywhere between a couple of hundred dollars to upwards of $5000.

A lot can be achieved with the downloadable templates and persistent marketing efforts. However, if you have the money to spare and very specific branding goals for your blog, going in for a custom-built template might be a great idea.