Match the structure to the customer’s decision
List the essential pages and journeys: understanding the offer, assessing evidence, comparing options, and completing an inquiry or purchase. Inspect whether the template supports real content lengths, legal disclosures, error states, and secondary navigation. A dramatic hero does not compensate for product information that has nowhere to live or a form visitors cannot complete.
- ✓ Use actual headings and realistic copy during evaluation.
- ✓ Check product, service, article, and legal page templates separately.
Inspect the implementation beneath the preview
Test navigation with a keyboard and on a small screen. Inspect heading order, form labels, focus visibility, image behavior, and layout shifts. Look at the scripts, fonts, and dependencies needed for a basic page. Demo performance can differ from the finished site, especially after adding analytics, embeds, photographs, and customer support widgets.
- ✓ Test loading and interaction with representative production assets.
- ✓ Confirm licensing, supported versions, and the update process.
Calculate adaptation and ownership costs
Estimate how much work is required to change layouts, add page types, and maintain the result. Verify that source files, deployment access, and content exports remain available. Choose the template that reduces ongoing friction without restricting the business model. HGM’s architecture work can help assess those tradeoffs before a redesign turns into an expensive rebuild.
- ✓ Write acceptance criteria before purchasing or implementing.
- ✓ Keep a rollback plan for the eventual migration.