The term "cookie cutter" is not a positive term in a lot of industries, especially the web industry.

It brings up the image of thousands of identical, cheap, and mass produced products. A sentence I hear a lot is: "I do not want a cookie cutter website."

That is a fair statement, you shouldn't want a website that's the same as everyone else's! But 'cookie cutters' save you a lot of time, money, and stress.

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Why all the bad rep with cookie cutter design?

What do you think of when someone says 'cookie cutter' design?

I bet it's buying a template, putting in a couple of paragraphs, your logo, some pictures, and a few different font styles.

The result? A website equivalent of a 'cut and shut' car.

You want a website as unique as you are!

When it comes to building a new website, you want something "built from scratch," right? Okay let's talk about what this actually means.

First, you'll look at a lot of websites for inspiration. Yes good work! You need to have a clear idea of what you like and don't like.

Then, you'll narrow down the websites you like to three and tell a web design company: "build me a website that is a combination of these three. But make it completely unique to my company.

What happens next? About 8-10 months of mock-ups, phone calls, more mock-ups, extra charges, passive aggressive emails, and reviewing the contract 10 times trying to figure out what a $1500 "holistic review" fee is.

After all that work you end up with a website that looks remarkably like one of the three websites you shared during your first phone call.

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Cookie cutters are designed to work

Those first three websites you picked for inspiration all have one thing in common: you want the features they have on your own site.

Thousands of hours have been spent studying where people look and click on a website. Using this data, website design standards are set out so people can build a website that gets viewers past the first page, submitting their contact details, and ultimately, giving you a lead.

When you create a site using the best-in-class design, you have a website that has a better chance of getting a low bounce rate and some leads. You have the blueprint of an awesome website.

You are now ready to make this website as unique as you are!

"Cookie cutter" is a term that is unfairly seen as a negative. Cookie cutters reduce time, costs, and stress levels by providing ready made and easily updatable components.

This gives you a stable foundation to build your vision on top of. I don't bet, but if I had to put money on who would be happier after building a website: Person with a blank canvas vs. Person using a "cookie cutter," I would put my life savings on the person using a "cookie cutter."