If you are a whizz at writing website copy but you fall short of being able to create good looking web pages, then a free website template could be just what you need. It gives you the basic look of your website but still allows you to fit whatever content you like into your pages.

Now you would be forgiven for wondering whether using a free template is really such a good idea. After all if it’s free there are bound to be lots of other people out there who are going to have a website that looks exactly the same as yours.

That’s a fair point, but it’s not necessarily true. A website template is what you make of it, and you should remember that it gives you the bare bones of your site – it’s up to you to fill it with information, images and everything else that makes your site stand out as being yours and no one else’s.

Think about your logo for example. Every business should have a logo or image that immediately identifies them, and this should be given a priority placing on your home page.

You can use graphics or photographs which you have permission or a licence to use, which will add colour and interest to your pages. But a big part of any website is the writing. It has the capability to pull in visitors from the search engines by using keywords, and if you are good at writing attention grabbing headlines you will be able to use these to generate interest and pull people in.

It’s possible to use free articles from article directories to put on your site, but it’s far better to write some yourself. Not only will they be written in your own unique style, they will also personalise your site in a way nothing else can. A big part of being successful online is being able to stand out from the crowd. Your content will help you to do just this – and it will ensure your free template enhances your content rather than stands out by itself.

In short a free template should be used to help you arrange your content so that it is easier to sift through to find what you need. It shouldn’t hamper the overall feel of your site; instead it should act as a firm base on which to build your site and make it look professional to others.

If you can do this, people won’t even notice you have used a free template – even if they have already seen it used somewhere else.