What`s up with Ugly Websites?
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You have an online competitor that is doing better than you despite the fact that your website is gorgeous and his is, frankly, ugly. What is he doing that you're not? How is he doing better than you despite being uglier? It sounds counterintuitive, but he might be doing better
because he's uglier.
Most webmasters strive to have one of the best-looking sites on the Internet. Or if not the best-looking site, they want a site that will make people stop and smile, that’s easy on the eyes and looks professionally designed. A company’s website is the digital projection of the business; if you do all your business online from your website, in the minds of most of your customers it is your business, in the same way that a physical store is a particular business to the customers of a brick-and-mortar firm.
But an online business can have a very different model for making money than a traditional retailer. Take a look at all of the companies that offer free services online. Their money is coming not from selling an actual product or service, but from people visiting their websites and either viewing or clicking on their ads. It stands to reason, then, that an online retailer’s website would be designed differently from the website of someone who is giving something away and making money from the ads, right? Or, to put it more explicitly: do the same design decisions work for both online retailers and “free” websites?
Now some of you are going to say “good design is good design.” And I won’t disagree with that. If you’re trying to project a polished, professional image, you’re going to do the same kinds of things (modified perhaps by the field your business is in). But – and this is an interesting “but” – are you sure that you want to project that image all the time? Specifically, are you sure that a professional image might not in fact be hurting your potential income from click-through advertising?
That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Why would someone deliberately design their website to look ugly, or crude, or downright rudimentary? And how could that possibly be an advantage for anyone? Well, I thought it was crazy, too – until I read an article by Mark Daoust, and checked out some forum threads written by SEOs discussing the article. It seems that, at least in some cases, an ugly duckling of a website can be a real swan when it comes to income from pay-per-click ads.
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