Pretty Site or Ugly Site?

Is it better to have a pretty website or ugly one? This is something I have been thinking about for a few days based on some things I have heard from other marketers.

Some marketers claim that ugly sites are far better converting than pretty ones.

So I am debating whether to craft my blog to be sleek and slick as a whistle, or a little bit more ragged around the edges. What do you think? What is your philosophy on that?

 

Hello,
For me, as an visitor to a website myself, i would focus on attracting visitors by their first sight by showing what your whole blog is all about, in short term. Of course sometimes looks is important, but i say it should also depend on the niche of your blog to give it the coloring. As gaming blog should have darker themes, as i think most gamers like dark theme, as for business and more other niche lighter theme would be nice, such as light blue mxied with white. But must the best of the website on the main homepage, as if they don't attracted by the main page then they might just leave without seeing how good the blog inside is about. But my personal opinion pretty is always better than ugly.

 

It depends on the content.
There is a difference between ugly (a persons on feeling of what looks good ), and a site that looks outdated and neglected.
I can't tell you how many times i've looked for something, and the website looked like it was built in the 90's. They have exactly what i want, but it doesn't have that professional feel. Like they really care about what they are advertising.

If you put 3 websites side by side - A fancy site, a good site, and a ugly site with all the same info, and you asked people which site would they most likely visit. It would not be the ugly.

If you're putting together an ugly site, and that's the purpose it might work out, but if your website looks horribly bad, like it was built in the 90's fix it. If your asking specifically for your own website, because you're really trying to decide if you want to update/beautify it, then post a link and get feedback from the community.

- Hoped that helped!

 

For me ugly site have a better click rate than a good one. But they are not returning to the site again. If you have a pretty site than make sure you are updating it with very good content. The more the users the more money you make. I really don't have much time for nice contents so I make ugly sites and put banners which gets better clicks. You can split test and decide.

 

I think the main thing about a site is that it does not appear cluttered. If you are going to put banners or ads on your site make sure they are relevant to your niche. Make sure that you ad original content on a regular basis.

 

It still comes down to whether or not you can get visiters to your site. You can have the best looking website in the world but if its stuck on page 23 of the SERPS then no matter how good it looks its not going to be seen. Granted some of the simplest websites get to the top of the rankings. Look at how Google become the number one search engine. Just a plain white screen with a search box in the middle

 

From my personal experience, every time I make my sites look nicer and more professional the conversion rate goes up too. However you look at this, the majority of people prefer good design and clean look over something ugly. There's no way around this.

 

Thanks for the responses so far. It looks like the majority think a nice-looking, uncluttered website is best, although with some reservation about conversion.
I just think about sites like The Drudge Report which looks really messy with just a bunch of links and a few pics, but gets tons of traffic. I think I will try to neaten up my site though, and do some split testing as suggested.

 

Many times I came upon a claim that web design is very important for a site
(from posts on authority blogs).
The first impression has an impact on whether a person will stay on site
or go somewhere else to find info on whatever.
It usually takes 8 seconds for the visitor to make a decision on that.
My opinion is that great and 'user friendly' design affects lowering bounce rate
and improving conversions.

For sure copywriting has a major role too (landing pages and blogs).

 

This completely depends n the message that you're trying to bring to your visitors.
If you for example are offering a "website building" business or representing a large company, then yes a nice design would help out.

If you're however trying to give the impression that you're just an ordinary guy trying to share a secret (Clickbank products), then a poor design might help out.

 

I think both pretty and ugly sites work but the main thing you have to focus on is making the site convert.

You can have an ugly site but if users click the right places it works!

You can have the most beautiful site but if people spend more time looking at the design than buying or clicking ads then its also not good.

 

Ugly? What was that?

The website must be simple and as clean as possible but by no means will an ugly website please the visitors, at least not me. I would like to learn more about your "other" marketers.

 

Matt Drudge is an "other." His site is ugly as Hades. He is a multi-millionaire. Also, I used to do PPV marketing and joined a PPV forum. Many of those marketers swore that ugly pages converted better than pretty ones.

 

Is it because people don't trust the beautiful sites with fancy HTML5 animations?

 

An ugly generic "squeeze page" would never convert me because i instantly think the site is a scam.
Nice clean pages like this https://www.zopim.com/product will tempt me very much.

But that is just me, i would say, grab a nice looking theme from themeforest.com and see where it goes

 

There's no need to compete/compare our sites with drudgereport. First, it's Matt Drudge we're talking about. Second, his service has been online since 1995 or something like that (when people still barely used computers).

If he wanted to change his site to something else, he would've done it a long time ago. Same with craigslist. They just don't want anything new simply because the old is working just fine. Why change?

And I think that's what it's all about. If it works the way it is, do not change it. Or implement changes very carefully and over a long period of time.

 

A slick well informed website that oozes authority will always win hand's down every time.

 

Unless you have a specific purpose in mind for having an ugly website, I personally prefer the slicker ones. I can't help it. I just like sites that are appealing to the eye.

 

What do you mean by saying "ugly" site? Are you referring Simple plain website or website with lot of colouring and images?
Recently I had created two landing pages with simple design. And, when I asked feed back from reddit group, I got many comments similar to "looks like 90's design". And, many people suggested that it will affect the conversion. But I am not sure whether that are real comments, or the comments from Designers who are looking for design work.