Forum Moderators: martinibuster
A week later I went to make a change and copied the wrong code out of the adsense generator. It was for a leader board format instead of the perty stock format. So the whole site looked a mess with a big ol banner in the middle of every page - some times covering content itself.
I didn't/couldn't check the results and didn't know what had happened until a user wrote me a week later.
Interesting though, that the click through rate doubled overnight. It stayed doubled too... hmmmmm maybe this is what they were talking about putting ads in the middle of the content? Man that is annoying.
"I've seen plenty of ugly (in my opinion) sites generate millions of dollars in sales because the text, layout, color scheme, and information architecture are exactly what the target audience wants to see. I've also seen hot, Flash-based sites generate little or no sales."
[clickz.com...]
An ugly site can be more trustworthy - "this is made by a person, not a professional company that doesn't do anything without the purpose of taking my money"...So, ads on ugly pages can similarly be more trustworthy to some users, that think of them aas recommandations from a "little guy".
Also, sites that look "too good" sometimes compromise in respect to usability (pageload, simplicity, navigation, not enough text etc.) - making them "less sticky" than an ugly site.
You can view his research at [credibility.stanford.edu...]
Now, the research mentioned here doesn't tie in adwords, but does cover the ugly = trustworthy concept off.
Dwayne
brandboerge was saying that an ugly site will convince people that it was created by a person, not a big company. This is true.
Will people BUY anything from a little guy? No, people prefer to buy from a big company, not a little guy. Why do you think Walmart is putting all the little stores out of business?
If you want people to buy something directly from your website, it has to look "professional." What looks professional is what people are used to seeing at big websites. What looked professional in 1997 might look amateurish today.
The advantage of the internet is that one person sitting in his bedroom on a Saturday (that's me) can make a website that looks just as respectable as a multi-billion dollar corporation.
brandboerge also said a while back that flash and slow loading pages can turn of people because the website is too much of a pain to navigate. That's true. Keep it simple, but professional. The current state of the web is that a site with NO graphics at all looks unprofessional. You have to at least have a logo at the top of the page.
Will people BUY anything from a little guy? No, people prefer to buy from a big company, not a little guy. Why do you think Walmart is putting all the little stores out of business?
That might be a reasonable observation in an e-commerce forum, or even in WW's Web-design forum, but AdSense isn't about selling things--it's about running ads for other businesses that sell things.
I'm not sure that the statement is true in any case, because in some businesses, personal service is more important than size. In the travel-agency business, for example, users may like dealing with Expedia and Travelocity for air fares and mainstream vacation packages, but most will prefer dealing with specialist agencies or organizers for things like barge cruises and bike tours. In those specialized categories, bigness may actually work against a vendor. The same thing is true for many tangible products, such as grooming supplies for Bearded Collies or electronics equipment for radio amateurs.
As for why Walmart is putting little stores out of business, that's a topic for an economics forum, not a PPC advertising forum at Webmaster World. :-)
I hate to tell you this EFV, but your website looks professional.;)
Thanks, but I wouldn't say it looks pretty. :-)
I think for the first time i agree with EFV :) ,ugly is the way to go for a adsense or an affiliate site where the customer click a link to go to final ecom destination!
If you want people just to click on the affiliate link or the Adsense ad, then it doesn't matter how trustworthy your site looks.
In fact, maybe the best Adsense page would just be a blank page with nothing but the Adsense ads on it. The user would have nothing to do except click on the Back button, or click one of the ads.
Of course, getting people to visit the page would be difficult. And the Adsense would just show PSAs without any other text on the page. I was just writing from a theoretical viewpoint.
Why do you think Walmart is putting all the little stores out of business?
Major retailers put smaller stores out of business by selling KVIs (Known Value Items) at no profit, and sometimes even at a loss, in order to convince consumers that they are better value all round, which is often untrue. Once the small businesses are gone, Walmart et al are free to charge what they like.
The advantage of the internet is that one person sitting in his bedroom on a Saturday (that's me) can make a website that looks just as respectable as a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Which is what makes Internet retail such a wonderful thing!
(that's me)
Lol! Me too :)
[Edit]
>> As for why Walmart is putting little stores out of business, that's a topic for an economics forum, not a PPC advertising forum at Webmaster World. :-)
Sorry, little off topic!
[/Edit]
As for why Walmart is putting little stores out of business, that's a topic for an economics forum, not a PPC advertising forum at Webmaster World.
I think the issue of what makes people want to buy from one source and not another is very relevant to Webmaster World in general. A lot of the webmasters are selling products or services.
On the other hand, maybe it belongs under a different forum, since Adsense is not about selling stuff directly, but just getting people to click on the links.
But it was an interesting discussion comparing the philsophies of the two types of sites--Adsenses sites vs. sites directly selling something.
Most large companies have well designed websites, so if you want to seem like a large company, make your website look like one.
Of course, this only applies to those who are selling products. When it comes to recommending products (aka, adsense) consumers don't want to hear from the big companies, they want to hear recommendations from people like them. A recommendation that a new soft drink tastes great means a lot more coming from a friend then from an display inside the supermarket.
For this reason, the uglier homepage style websites have higher clickthrough rates. People feel like they are getting a recommendation from a real person, not a company thats just looking to profit.
So my recommendation is if you are selling products, make it look professional. If you are using adsense, make it look like a homepage (aka 'ugly')
When it comes to recommending products (aka, adsense) consumers don't want to hear from the big companies, they want to hear recommendations from people like them.
Recommending that someone click the Adsense ad violates the terms of service.
I don't think that the average web surfer thinks that much about the meaning of the ads. They'll click on it if it looks interesting.
If a web page looks really ugly, the Adsense ad may be the most interesting thing on the page to look at. Thus the higher CTR.
BUT, how to you get people to link to your site if it's so ugly?
As far as links go, people will link to you if you have good content, even if your site is 'ugly'.
Ugly doesn't necessarily mean bad design, it just means simple and straightforward, without lots of flashy graphics/animations, etc.
