There are two kinds of people who build websites. One who builds a website to impress one’s spouse or parents or whoever, and another who builds website for more meaningful purpose than this. This article is for those who want more from their website than impressing their girl friends or moms.

If you have ever asked a SEO guy to optimize your old website for a better performance in search engines then the first suggestion that might have come from him is this: get rid of your old template-based website and replace it with CSS/XHTML website, which is more SEO friendly.

What the heck are XHTML and CSS?

XHTML stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or in a layman terms it is developed version of plain vanilla HTML. This is used to create the basic layout (DIVs and tables)using all the HTML elements.

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. It also goes by the name of style sheet. It is responsible for how XHTML elements display in the web browser. The style sheet can be kept as an external file or can be embedded in the XHTML file itself.

Why would you need a custom website?

Lots of web designers or developers provide you a cheap website made using the template he purchased from website template resellers like TemplateMonster.com. There is nothing wrong in the template themselves. The problem lies in the fact that for one template there are 10s of 100s of websites, which make your website looks like a carbon-copy of other websites; neither visitors like it nor search engines like it. Hence, you should get a SEO friendly 100 % customized CSS/XHTML website.

Are you worried about your budget?

Let me assure you that you can get a 100% customized website that SEO will love in less than $200.

Surprised?

Don’t be. I am completely in my senses. But before I tell you anything about it, let me tell you this: do not bother customizing the template. It won’t be financially wise to do so. It would be 100 times better, if you get a website build from scratch. Just follow the steps given below and you shall get your 100 % customized CSS/XHTML website in less than $150. You just need to spend a few hours and you are good to go.

Get an under-$200 website in 3 easy steps

Step 1: Create a requirement list

I suggest this to everyone who wants to get a website built. This gives the website designer as well as the webmaster a clear perspective of what all should be there in the website. Make a word document and write everything that you may need in your website. List down the pages you want to have in your website; like home, services, contact us, etc., and develop a link map based on this information.

Step 2: Hire a Photoshop designer

Hire a freelance graphic designer who specializes in designing home page as well as web pages in Photoshop. This guy will design the unique website for you and will put contents in the pages. Generally, a freelancer will charge between $40 and $80 for this kind of work. The price may vary, if the work is too lengthy and complex.

Step 3: Hire a XHTML/CSS coder

Hire a coder who is experienced in converting PSD files to XHTML/CSS website. There are lots of coders available who can do this work. Before delegating this work to a coder, look at his past works. I like to introduce you to one of my associated PSD slicing and xHTML coding service provider that produces quality codes. The codes churned out by CSSFOX PSD to XHTML/ HTML coding services are clean and optimized for a price of $40 home page and $20 for a subpage.

You may find many similar HTML coders who charge $40 to $100 to code a home page and offer above 50% discount to code a subpage.

Conclusion

If we add all the numbers then we come up with the cost for a 5-page website, which happens to be $150 (if you pay $50 for PSD work). The final figure is comfortably lower than the $200 mark we set for a 100% customized, SEO friendly website that doesn’t look like a template.

One last question: After reading this, will you still consider going for a website made by using a mass template?

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