The number of templates available can be overwhelming. Once you have reduced your choice of template providers to a managable number - see related article - you will of course wish to begin searching those suppliers for the right template.

We would strongly suggest that you do this in two steps. The first is to make a list of templates that appeal on a visual level. Only in the second step will you judge whether each short-listed template would work on a practical level for your site.

Step 1: Select Templates that Impress You Visually

There's no easy way to do this. It takes time. Especially for the biggest providers, like Template Monster, who represent almost 3,000 of the 11,000 or so templates that we can supply, you will need to trawl through multiple categories related to your business, opening larger views of some of the designs and judging them on appearance. But you can make the time you spend at this stage much more productive by asking questions like these about each template that you like:

• What is the first adjective that comes to mind to describe this layout?
• Does that adjective have a huge significance within our company?
• Would this site appearance enhance our clients' impression of us?

Alternatively, if all that sounds a bit too technical, you may prefer to simply do what we do at the first step - give each design a visual star rating, so that in the second step we can try to optimize the required visual and practical characteristics to narrow our choice down to the one!

Don't take any decisions at this stage, even if a certain template really impresses you. Instead, for each design that catches your eye, jot down the provider and the template category and/or template number, to enable you to find it easily again.

Step 2: Think About Practical Considerations

We would suggest leaving at least 24 hours between the two steps. This is usually just enough time to let you view the templates you selected in step one with some degree of objectivity.

Revisit each template on your list. If it no longer looks good, just strike it off the list. For any template that still impresses you visually, you need to weigh it up against the answers to these main questions:

• Can this template be customized to fit our site's requirements?
  
  Suppose you need eight menu items on each page, but a beautiful template that really appeals to you visually can only accommodate six such items. If it really isn't flexible enough to handle such a change, then it's no good - unless of course you can think of a way to reduce the number of menu items without negatively impacting your customers' user experience.
  
  Make sure the functions of your site are decided before finalizing your choice of template. What menu items will you need? What links? How many images? What image sizes? How much space do you need for content? Will you have a search box? An email newsletter signup form? What else? Can this template accommodate everything we need? Is there any element on this template that we don't need, and if so, when we remove it will that reduce the coherence of the design?
  
  
• Does this template have room for growth?
  
  You're starting a site. You have a plan for what it's going to contain. You know how many pages, what's going to be on them, the layout for each... but do you have a crystal ball? How's your site going to develop, grow, change over time? If you can predict that six or nine months down the line - congratulations! That's called good planning. But if you think you can predict it three years down the line, you need a reality check! So make sure that the design is sufficiently flexible - contains enough space, to allow for the occasional reshaping.
  
  
• Will this template work well on all your site's pages?
  
  Does the template include layouts for only one page or multiple pages? If one page, will the same layout work well on all your pages? It is tempting to look for a template that will work really well on your homepage but to forget that all the pages inside your site will have the same layout. In most cases, that's exactly what you want, but sometimes it's not at all desirable. (Liquid 2D have some of the best multi-page templates we have seen. Template Monster also have a great range of what they call full sites.)

So to summarize, you should have a solid idea of what your site needs to include, and scrutinize templates you have short-listed to make sure they fit with your design. Only in rare circumstances should you change your site requirements to fit a template.

Making Your Final Decision

By this stage you probably only have a very small number of possible templates left on your list. If that number is one, you're done! Congratulations!

If you still have more than one option at this stage, relax. Each of the templates still on your list will serve your purposes well. You might like to consider what the biggest negative point is about each template. Or the biggest benefit. Which one is prettier? Which one just feels best? Allow a little time and the decision will probably make itself at this stage.

Finally, retain the notes you made at both of the preliminary stages and at the final decision stage. If, in the future you wish to redesign your site, they will provide a hugely time-saving starting point.

Getting Extra Help

If you need some information about a template design before you can advance the decision-making process, don't hesitate to email the template provider. Or, if you wish to buy a template through us from one of the providers we work with, feel free to contact us with any query. You are under absolutely no obligation, and if we don't know the answer ourselves, we will inquire on your behalf with the template provider or designer.