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What Is A Website Template?

How Website Templates Shape Your Build

When you're building or redesigning a website, the term template comes up fast. Like most platforms, HubSpot uses templates to control how pages look, feel, and function. But templates include more than design—they’re a solid way to improve site structure, efficiency, and scalability.

If you're leading a site build, managing a CMS, or trying to speed up production across your marketing team, understanding what a website template is (and isn’t) can help you make smarter choices and avoid major headaches.

What Is a Website Template in HubSpot?

A website template is a pre-designed layout that defines the structure and styling of one or more pages on your website.

It controls elements like:

  • Header and footer design
  • Navigation placement
  • Typography and color styles
  • Module layout and spacing
  • Responsive behavior across screen sizes

In HubSpot, templates are built using drag-and-drop modules or custom-coded files, and they’re applied to specific types of pages, like landing pages, blog posts, or standard web pages.

Using templates helps you scale content creation quickly without reinventing the wheel for each new page.

How Website Templates Differ From Themes or Modules

While the terms often get mixed up, website templates are not the same as themes or modules.

For instance: 

  • A template controls the structure of a single page.
  • A theme is a set of templates and design settings applied across your site.
  • A module is an individual content element (like a form, CTA, or image block) placed inside a template.

Think of templates as the blueprint for your page. The theme sets your overall visual language. And modules are the building blocks you use to populate each section. Keeping these distinctions clear helps you know where to make changes and avoid accidentally breaking sitewide consistency.

Why Website Templates Matter for Marketers

With the right website templates in place, marketers can launch pages faster, keep branding consistent, and reduce layout drift over time.

Well-built templates save time on every new launch and make handoffs smoother between teams. Poorly built templates do the opposite: creating friction, confusion, and technical debt that slows down everything from SEO fixes to redesigns.

Can Website Templates Be Customized in HubSpot?

Yes. Website templates can be fully customized to fit your brand, but how much flexibility you have depends on how the template is built.

In HubSpot, for example, developers can lock certain areas of a template while leaving others editable via the page editor. This protects structure while still giving marketers freedom to update content.

If you’re planning a redesign or CMS migration, it’s important to define which elements should be fixed (like navigation, layout grid, or button styles) and which should be flexible (like copy, images, or CTAs). That balance makes your templates useful without making them fragile.

How to Use and Edit Prebuilt Templates in HubSpot

Prebuilt templates in HubSpot are designed to help non-technical teams move quickly. You can install them from the HubSpot Asset Marketplace, then customize content areas using the drag-and-drop editor.

Once installed, you can:

  • Assign templates to specific page types (landing pages, blogs, site pages)
  • Use the page editor to swap out copy, images, CTAs, or modules
  • Adjust styling through theme settings or by editing the template in the design manager

If you're working with a developer, they can also modify the coded template files to fit your needs. But for most teams, the out-of-the-box layout plus the editor provides enough control to launch polished, on-brand pages without developer lift.

What to Watch For in Prebuilt Website Templates

Prebuilt website templates (like the ones in HubSpot’s template marketplace) can be a great starting point. But they’re not always plug-and-play.

Some templates are bloated with unnecessary code, outdated styling practices, or modules you’ll never use. Others look great in a demo but break down when you try to edit them for real campaigns.

Before committing, make sure the template:

  • Uses HubSpot’s drag-and-drop system if your team is non-technical
  • Includes responsive design and mobile optimization
  • Allows editing of core content areas without needing code
  • Matches your team’s structure and content types

The best template is the one your team can actually use. Not just admire.

How Website Templates Affect SEO and Page Speed

Templates play a major role in technical SEO and performance. A bloated or poorly coded template can hurt load times, disrupt responsive layout, or lead to improper heading structure—all of which impact search rankings.

Well-structured templates, on the other hand, support clean semantic markup, fast rendering, and accessibility best practices. These elements help search engines crawl your site correctly and improve overall UX.

If you're selecting or building a new template, test performance in tools like HubSpot's page performance analyzer or Google PageSpeed Insights. You’ll catch issues early and avoid shipping something that looks great but loads slowly.

Can You Change Website Templates Later?

Yes—but with caution. In HubSpot, you can assign a new template to an existing page, but if the structure changes significantly, you may need to rebuild the layout or reinsert content.

That’s why it’s helpful to start with a flexible, well-built base template and clone it as needed. Making template changes midstream is possible, but expect extra QA time and layout adjustments if the new template is materially different.

Who Builds and Maintains Website Templates in HubSpot?

In most marketing orgs, templates are created by developers or CMS specialists. But if your templates are built using HubSpot’s drag-and-drop tools and structured well from the start, non-technical marketers can manage them too.

For example, a marketing manager can:

  • Clone a template for a new campaign
  • Swap modules or adjust layout spacing
  • Customize content areas without breaking the underlying code

That’s the real benefit of investing in a strong template system—your team stays in control, without constant developer support.

Website Templates? No Problem

Understanding what a website template is gives you better control over how your site gets built, edited, and scaled. Whether you’re a marketer trying to move faster or a team lead managing a redesign, the template you choose (or create) will set the pace and quality of your entire site.

You don’t need to be a developer to make the right call. You just need to know what the template controls and whether it’s set up to support your real work.

Need help auditing your templates or setting up a scalable CMS structure?
FMK helps marketing teams build clean, efficient templates inside HubSpot and other platforms so you can move faster, launch with confidence, and keep your site in shape as your team grows. Reach out if you want to future-proof your next build.