Begin with the job
Write down the primary action your visitor should take, the proof they need before taking it and the pages required to make that journey credible. A visually impressive template that tells the wrong story creates more work than a quieter foundation with the right structure.
Inspect the unglamorous states
Look beyond the hero. Check the mobile navigation, long headlines, forms, legal routes, empty states and accessibility behavior. These are the parts that reveal whether the system was designed or merely arranged.
Price future edits
A useful template gives repeated decisions a home: typography tokens, color variables, spacing rules and shared components. If every section must be repaired independently, the attractive starting point quickly becomes technical debt.