Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Personally, I'm thinking that in most (informational) niches whether you have a flashy/professional looking design or just a basic, neat design wouldn't have much of an effect on link building success rates. However, if you sell cars or jewlrey you better have a great design.
What have your experiences been? Is it easier to get links if you go with a professional looking template (including the footer link to the designer) than if you build your own site (which looks good and neat, but not "great")? Or doesn't it matter a lot except for certain niches?
I don't agree that SEO supercedes content based upon my years in this area with a fairly large site, and the observation of the success/failure of other sites.
The Internet was founded as a research tool and therefore content will always remain king.
Having said that, an unattractive or really dated design is a hindrance to links. This is particularly true when the links might come from large sites, media sites, etc. These sites will want to link to resources of high quality, and if the design screams "amateur" it will be less appealing.
From my point of wiew it's those sites that are selling "a look" (design of different products) that say the design is most important. I don't say it's not, but I think it's important what the site is alle about and knowing your customers. People searching for "design" is looking for a good design. People searching for technical information want technical information. People searching for price want ....
If people finds what they are looking for they will link to your site anyway, I think.
Personally, I'm thinking that in most (informational) niches whether you have a flashy/professional looking design or just a basic, neat design wouldn't have much of an effect on link building success rates.
just felt like mentioning it, because the point that the design has to be usable/people wont link out to butt-ugly sites kept on coming up...and I never wondered about that. Of course the design should look neat and be usable.
EDIT: umm..I just hope that didnt sound arrogant or something! just wanted to say I was already considering that
[edited by: Makaveli2007 at 9:42 am (utc) on Oct. 21, 2008]
It could just have been chance but the fact is that people take you more seriously if you look the part. That's why a magazine like Adbusters which says some pretty extreme things still has a following - their design rocks. As opposed to a black and white distorted pamphlet handed out in the street by the local anarchist division.
But, and it's a big but, with our cool new design... our revenue fell! People didn't want to click on the ads any more as the content was so much easier to read. The irony of it.
"It could just have been chance but the fact is that people take you more seriously if you look the part."
I hope this doesn't sound overly negative (dont mean to), but if I read your post, then the navigation (usability) could have had to do a lot with it. I think (almost) everyone agrees that usability is really important and if you say it didnt look good & the navigation was confusing and then you got a new design (including good navigation I assume), then it's impossible to tell whether the look of the design (I mean the fact that it looked more professional) had something to do with it or whether it was mostly the confusing navigation. I'm not saying it only was the usability/navigation problem, but it could have been.
The reality is that it depends on the niche you're in. Are you following fashion, media, or any other glam topic? Then, obviously. On the other side of the equation, if you're selling information, or programming services, then who cares!
You've gotta know your audience.
Back to the OP's original question re: importance of great design (an ambiguous term, my observation) for getting links... I don't think "great" design matters if you have content they want to link. Without content all a website is ... bandwidth with no purpose.
No, I was asking in the link building forum, because I was wondering if it has an effect particularly on link building (true that link builders are often SEOs, but you get the idea).
"The reality is that it depends on the niche you're in. Are you following fashion, media, or any other glam topic? Then, obviously."
This is something I already said in the beginning (probbaly more than once), but I probably wouldnt read every single post in such a long thread either before chipping in hehe ;)
Knowing that, I'd say it's not extremely significant, unless you're trying to sell a product. That seems to be your assessment of what the current field is looking like, and the consensus here, too.
I'd guess you're probably best off looking like an academic. That means plenty of padding, neutral colors, a clear table of contents / sitemap up front, and that sort of thing. If you haven't started the site already, I'd say having a .org might help too (a lot of people will be less likely to perceive you as just-another-markter).
Take a look around your niche; what do the players with the highest PR do for design? Use yahoo's site explorer to see who's linking to them. I know "standing out" is a common marketing ideal, but sometimes it's more important to fit in with the crowd of people you want links from, at least in terms of design themes.
I agree about fitting in with the people I want links from rather than standing out, which is why Im going with a low-budget, self-made (but very neat+usable) design instead of using a fancy template (which might be better in other fields, because Im not a great designer hehe).
I'm big on sticking out, too (think its esp. important when getting links), but you can stick out in the right way or the wrong way, I guess
[edited by: martinibuster at 6:25 pm (utc) on Feb. 8, 2009]
[edit reason] Remvoed link. [/edit]
Content, usability and authority are considerations for the latter.
