Is it Important to Have a Professional looking Website to be Successful Online?
Let’s try to figure it out, if having a professional looking website is important to be successful online?
To find an answer to this question we first need to discuss both advantages and disadvantages if they are of having a professional website and then discuss the same for unprofessional website.
Once we make it clear, I will share both my personal and other marketers’ experience with you, because real experience is going to say the last word on that issue.
Now, let’s try to figure it out if having a professional website is important or not to your online success.
First of all, I would like to point out that to have something looking good is always better than having something looking ugly. I suppose anyone can agree with that statement.
We are going to discuss a website issue from different perspectives. What comes first to my mind, when talking about websites, is the information that people search on the web and find it on different websites. While information is the main drive for internet folks, having a good looking website should not be disregarded.
If you need specific information on the web and you find it, you don’t pay much attention to a website design. Of course, reading information from a well-structured website, that has a professional design, is easier and much better than reading from an ugly site.
But even if a website doesn’t look professional while providing useful information, the design issue becomes not so critical because if you look for a solution to your problem and find it then the task is accomplished. So, we come to understand here the importance of the content for any website.
It is the content that makes a website an authority in any specific filed or completely useless bunch of pages if it can’t provide any content. If you have a great content on your website and people find your site stuff helpful then you are successful and can make sales accordingly.
Building trust
Having useful content on your website and being helpful is the first step to building trust with your readers/visitors and become an authority in your niche. If your readers trust you, they will buy from you. If your website has a good professional design then it can only add value to your overall credibility.
So we come to understand another major aspect in regards to a website. If you have a good-looking professional website, and a great content, then your credibility will increase, and the sales accordingly.
All internet marketers agree on that. But there are websites that have a great professional design but poor content and they fail to make any sales.
This is what we must always keep in mind. As for disadvantages of professional looking website I don’t think they are.
The only thing you must pay attention to, when building a website, is create it a user-friendly and easy to navigate. That will be enough to have it done properly.
Unprofessional website
What about having unprofessional looking website? This issue needs a bit more investigation. As I said above, the content is the key to your website success. If you have a great content but your website looks unprofessional you still can make sales, i.e. be successful.
Most internet marketers are of the opinion that you can make sales even if your website has an ugly design. It is the opinion that comes from all successful Internet marketers that I know. And yes, I agree with them on this issue.
The conversion rate of your website
But one thing I want to stress here and it is the conversion rate of any website. The conversion rate is very critical to your online success. If your visitors do not convert into buyers then the conversion rate of your website is low. That website should be analyzed seriously to find reasons for a low conversion rate.
We need to understand it, because the conversion rate of a website that has a great content, and professional design, is always much higher than one which has a great content but ugly design. It is the nature of any human to prefer good-looking things over the bad and ugly ones.
The internet is highly competitive zone and if you are going to compete with other websites it is very important to pay attention to both major and minor issues.
A few minor issues that are left out, can finally reduce the conversion rate of your website. Remember that as the web evolves and competition gets tighter we need to pay attention to all issues related to a website, i.e. design, content, easy navigation and user-friendly experience because it is the complex of all those things that makes your website successful.
Some issues to keep in mind
Another important issue that I would like to note here in regards to a website, is the poor grammar, which can cause serious problems. I understand that nothing is perfect but I recommend you to give your material to someone for proof reading before publishing it on your website. It is another major issue that many people do not pay attention to.
Most internet marketers agree that if your website grammar is poor you still can make sales but it is always better to proofread your content to increase the conversion rate of your website, i.e. to save yourself from losing your visitors.
Another major issue many people overlook is the font that they choose for their websites. When you publish your content try to make fonts not too small and not too big.
It must be easy readable and try to split the text into small paragraphs and add some good quality images. Without images your website will look boring and again you can lose some of your visitors.
Finally, I can recommend you that if you are just starting your online business you’d better choose a free good looking template for your website and focus on creating quality content first.
Once you get some good rankings for your website on major search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo you can change your template to something more professional. I can recommend you a great free tool to build your first website below, or read the article.
Don’t get disappointed if your first site doesn’t look as good as you would like it to be. My first site was plain, boring and ugly too. I had to work slowly to build my site and believe me it is not as difficult as you might be thinking. But even if you have a great website it is not enough to be successful online.
You need to learn the basics of Internet marketing from the right place. Please read my review of the WA and if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
About the Author: Adam
My name is Adam. I'm the founder of Your Income Advisor. My goal is to help others succeed online, by exposing scams and reviewing top rated products. I can help you start your own business online 
Great article and good advice about how the professional website should look. From my marketing experience the website should look attractive and professional, but it should not be too complicated or overwhelming. Simplicity and great content is much more important than some very flashy images and complicated design. I agree with you that the Wealthy Affiliate is the best place to start.
Some people disagree with me and they think having a professional looking website is not important. I think they are wrong. It’s very important. Of course, content is the # 1 method to attract people and keep their attention. But website look is super important too. Your sales depend directly on your credibility and your website looks in the eyes of people.
I have used this site a Lot, Im pretty sure it’s the one that lead me to wealthy affiliate to begin with. You always have very useful, informative, interesting content that i can legitimately use. I think you are right about having professional website for your success. I never trust sites that have unprofessional design. The “Building Trust” paragraph Kinda confused me due to the wording you might want to rewrite it! Keep uo the great job, I’m sure i will be using your site again!
Good to know that found WA through my site and I hope you will be able to achieve success in your online efforts. Yes, having a professional looking website is very important for your online presence. How can you trust a site whose owner can’t invest $50 for buying a professional template for their website? I would never trust such a site and will never buy anything from such a site. And this is very normal. BTW, since you are inside WA, Jay who holds weekly webinars sometimes holds a webinar called “Hot seat, get your site reviewed by the expert”. I think you can try it and see what kind of recommendations he can give you.