Does a nice looking site help to rank?

[ryuken]

I'm wondering if a site that looks stunning, compared to a site that looks something from the 1990's... helps in any way, with regards to the Serps?

I'm guessing the obvious answer is no, since how can an algorithm decide on such matters, especially with "looks" being so subjective.

 

[Deleted member 877043]

You just may have answered your own question. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder and indeed very subjective.

Can’t remember the name of that PaaS LP builder, but the templates on that one still have a dated feel to them for probably very obvious reasons. Nothing that gets me thrilled, but then again l may not fall into the audience group they are after.

 

[dawid007]

If a website looks good for the visitor then he stays on your site longer. So it has an indirect impact on rankings. IMO

 

[regensteiner]

Possibly, yes, for the following reasons:

1. Better looking sites appear more trustworthy and are more likely to get links
2. Better looking sites will probably have a lower bounce rate

Both of the factors above are really only important once you are on the first page and have a lot of traffic. So I would not worry much about design. What really matters at the end of the day are conversions.

 

[ryuken]

You just may have answered your own question. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder and indeed very subjective.

Can’t remember the name of that PaaS LP builder, but the templates on that one still have a dated feel to them for probably very obvious reasons. Nothing that gets me thrilled, but then again l may not fall into the audience group they are after.

I see, but then in theory, that could mean a site with nothing but plain text could rank well. I.e. something that looks like notepad. That doesn't make much sense either.

 

[Dr. Profit]

Imagine you read two decent articles.

Now you want to link to one.

Site A looks like hell that hasn't been touched since the late '90s.

Site B has a nice theme with readable fonts and some attention to detail.

Which one you gonna give your backlink to?

... but I'd say it's a lower factor than plenty of things. Having a halfway decent theme takes all of a few seconds to setup though.

 

[mhtro]

HTML sites have a advantage over any type of site (google this).
Yes beatuful but FAST sites make the user trust the site more thus he will broswe more to the site and all the shit mentioned above.

 

[Deleted member 657006]

no it does not at all .

plain website are as powerful .

seo optimization on and off page counts .

you can build the best looking website in the world getting traffic another mater .

content is king and that dont need any flash crap .

 

[Thesgtluca]

Well, let me say just my two word.
For google algorithm it doesn't impact, they check the code/inbound links etc..
but for visitors who visit your website for the first time and they look at it with incredible stunned eyes they will stay more on your website and if you've a good design with a good content then they will be returning visitors, and that will impact much on google algorithm.

Hope I've answered your question.

 

[Lightproxies]

With a beautiful looking site you may find people staying on the website little longer but I don't think bounce rate affects your ranking too much( it has a very little or no impact on ranking). So a beautiful looking website may not be that helpful.

 

[Seoking77]

Site need to be user friendly

 

[Take Action]

It doesn't affect your site directly but the appearance has some effect in terms of rankings. If it has a quick loading time and user-friendly navigation, then it will attract visitors to stay on and read. As other pointed, the good looking site will get more links which will decide the ranking factor.

 

[ryuken]

Yep, valid points. Thanks for the answers guys.

 

[FunkyRanky]

Yes. Qaulity desing keep customers longer.

 

[Pro-Hustler]

People love appearance & content - Low bounce rate - Subscribe - Share - More Audience - Higher Rank.