Why The Appearance Of Your Website Is Not That Important
OK, I’m going to put on my asbestos overalls, because I’m sure to upset some people.
Lots of people have an almost unnatural obsession with how their website looks.Especially many web developers, who convince their clients to spend tens of thousands of dollars for award winning sites that are monuments to the skill and flair of the developer, but may not do much to improve the profits of the client.
Well, I don’t believe that the look of your website is that important, if the visitors REALLY are interested in what you have to say to them.
Sure it needs to look presentable, and have an effective navigation system so that visitors can find what they want.
It also must contain content that is important to them.
But I believe that most of the other stuff is just eye candy.
My reasons for making these heretical statements are:
1. Nobody ever refused to read a letter from someone they love just because it’s on the “wrong” colour paper, or the writing is too large or too small, or it doesn’t have pretty pictures.
2. I recently saw a museum exhibition of wartime relics, which contained letters from soldiers written on toilet paper. The writing was small and hard to read. And then the paper was turned 90 degrees and filled with more lines of text.
Paper was precious.
And reading those letters was extremely difficult: but I’ll be that none of them were ever screwed up and thrown away.
Because again, the readers were vitally interested in what they had to say.
The reason that there is so much emphasis on presentation these days is because a lot of people are saying basically the same thing, and they need to have the gimmicks to attract the attention of visitors.
That’s why I believe that if your content is good enough - and you have the attention of your readers, the look of your website isn’t that important.
cheers,
Eric G.
Eric, thanks a lot for this post.
I’m a 60-year-old beginner at all this, and have had my website up for about seven months now (should have thought a bit harder about the niche though).
I was starting to worry that the site was too basic and didn’t have enough bells and whistles.
You have put my mind at ease, because I’m happy with the content.
It took quite some time to get it to the level I’m at now, but at least I can add a basic image to a post to make it more appealing.
Next step is to try to put together a more professional header.
I’m paying the price of relying on my mates in the IT section at work and now that we’ve moved to the country, no kids in the house to solve techy issues.
Cheers, Leon