If you’ve ever used a blogging site like WordPress, you may be familiar with the idea of “themes”different “skins” you can put on the basic blog appearance that add images, links, and more. However, if you’re designing a website for your business, you don’t have to go through a blogging site. There are plenty of website “templates” to choose from that will drastically decrease the time and money you spend on creating your website.Simply enter “website templates” into your search engine of choice and you’ll find sites with plenty of user-submitted templates in their archives. FreeWebsiteTemplates.com, FreeSiteTemplates.com, and OSWD.org (Open Source Web Design) are some examples. Some templates will be free, while others (single-use copyrighted templates, for example) will be for sale. How do you know which ones to use? It can depend on both your level of skill with web design, as well as what you want to get out of your site. Make sure before any money changes hands that you’ll be able to work with what you’re ordering.The reason templates are so popular is because you can see what your site will look like before taking it live. Editing the templates is simple and only requires a program like Microsoft’s Expression Web or Adobe’s DreamWeaver. Some companies specialize in creating templates for purchase, such as Entheos, and some templates are only compatible with certain editors, such as FrontPageCentral’s Expression templates. Templates also come in both copyrighted and non-copyrighted varietiesyour business will likely want to spring for a copyrighted version.When browsing templates online, always look for easy editing and compatibility with HTML editors, along with the ability to be easily downloaded to any browser. You don’t want to bar any users from seeing your site the way it’s meant to be seen. If you need to get your website up and running quickly and with little investment, web templates are a worthy suggestion.