Search engines and templates

[supergo6o]

I need one question,which answer I suppose is in the forum,but I'll ask you if you don't mind!My question is that is is true that the search engines don't rank you well if you use templates?

[Linda Buquet]

Well I think it depends in part of the type of template. I've broken templates into 3 categories.

1) Their are templates that would be considered more like cookie cutter sites, where every one is almost identical. (Some business opportunities have sites like this.) Search engines don't like them.

2) Then their templates like you find at template monster. Even though people may customize them somewhat MY GUESS is that tons of newbies could be using the same template without doing much to change it. It would not rate a duplicate content penalty or anything, but my guess is G may not like it as much of it has the same footprint as hundreds of other sites.

2 A) Another issue with highly stylized templates like some you find at template monster (for example) is that many are designed for looks and not for SEO so may not rank very well to begin with.

3) There are lots of CSS, HTML and Blog templates that are great for SEO. Some are designed specifically for SEO. But these templates are more just a framework of design elements. Each site designed with one would be pretty unique.

Here are some good resources for templates - many are free. In the thread below I highly recommend GoldenPineCone because the templates are mainly designed for affiliates and are pretty SEO friendly.
http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5s...resources.html

[supergo6o]

Could you give me site with SEO-friendly templates which ate free,because I'm out of money?

[Linda Buquet]

I think all of the ones in this post I made are free.
http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5s...html#post13350

If I were in your shoes I would pick 3 or so that have a look you are interested in, then analyze them from an SEO perspective.