Does a site need to be fancy?

LarryM · Oct 10, 2019

I kind of like the minimalistic look I got when I switched themes to generatepress before I really customized. What do you guys think of a simple site kind of like this one? I am running a microniche. Will it run people off or will they appreciate a clean fast site with no popups or banners?

jl125 · Oct 10, 2019

I personally like clean simple aesthetic. I think your content should be the focus.

Roger Marquez · Oct 10, 2019

Popups and banners are in fact unpopular but is a necesity. You need to find a balance but i believe you can make the use of both without risking been too much intrusive.

But in general no, It wouldn´t hurt.

A website doesn´t have to be fancy in order to gain traffic and generate money. Instead, focus more on UX and fulfilling your user´s search intent in the best possible way. Make sure to build your content to make it as reader-friendly as possible, use a conversational-fun style of writing, add as many graphic elements as you can to the body to make it more appealing to the average reader like custom images and infographics.

Nut-Nights · Oct 10, 2019

Dont be that lazy, Simple is good, but not that simple.

JonathanGwrites · Oct 10, 2019

Nope. In fact, having too many elements that hinders loading speeds and the user experience could even effect you SEO (due to bounce rates). Although, I would at least add a nice logo to what you have so far.

bartosimpsonio · Oct 10, 2019

I like minimalistic sites.

But the younger generation really likes bells and whistles.

I find those gaming towers full of colorful lights ridiculous but the younger ones really like them. I'm from the era of cream colored PC towers, the ones that go yellow when old.

jl125 · Oct 10, 2019

bartosimpsonio said:
I like minimalistic sites.

But the younger generation really likes bells and whistles.

I find those gaming towers full of colorful lights ridiculous but the younger ones really like them. I'm from the era of cream colored PC towers, the ones that go yellow when old.

That is true, but I think it's different for websites. A lot of people hate when there's dozens of different unrelated UI elements that are distracting. I think there should be just one focus area.

LarryM · Oct 10, 2019

Hey dont insult my h500i and its pretty lights

BrandingCat · Oct 10, 2019

It is a big difference between simple and minimalist.

LarryM · Oct 10, 2019

Ok listening to what you guys have to say I think I need to probably keep basic email harvesting but maybe tucked away. I might try to find a good accent color to sprinkle in too (its been years since my graphic design courses). What kind of essentials does a niche site really need? The site builder I commissioned the site from originally had a plugin to do affiliate pros and cons charts. That might need to stay. I want to keep load times as fast as possible. Its something I have struggled with on my shopify site. I have that site down to an 8 second fully loaded and 1.5 second contentful paint but I still see people bouncing before load. I want to minimize that as much as possible on this site.

Just for reference on a post with no pictures my gmetrix time is 2.3 seconds full load and 1.8 to first paint 1.1 ttfb and 300kb. I know I need better hosting but those numbers just make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. When I add pictures like on my homepage time goes up substantially but I still have 30% fewer requests with this theme than the old one I was using.

Rains · Oct 10, 2019

i also like simple and minimalist design, the most important is the revenue from ads rather than design

for me simple means high CTR

SEO Rank Plus · Oct 10, 2019

I like clean simple look and that's what customers likes too

Proxy Gurus · Oct 10, 2019

Yes, its good to have a site which is simple and easy to navigate, but don't make it that plain white page like somebody has created a website for his school project.

blackbeans · Oct 16, 2019

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what YOU prefer but what YOUR TARGET READERS prefer

This is why I suggest you find your top competitors and figure out what they are doing

What themes are they using?

How are they positioning their content?

How can you beat them at their own game?

The danger? If you come up with something so new and so unconventional, your target audience might be caught unprepared and might not warm up to your brand

awesomewebsites · Oct 16, 2019

I like simple sites as well and think that they can give better conversion than fancy sites.

jainy · Oct 16, 2019

yes it will more attractive

Psh · Oct 16, 2019

blackbeans said:
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what YOU prefer but what YOUR TARGET READERS prefer

This ^

It can change wildly depending on the niche and so on. Give split testing a go.

flprocess · Oct 16, 2019

blackbeans said:
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what YOU prefer but what YOUR TARGET READERS prefer

This is why I suggest you find your top competitors and figure out what they are doing

Exactly! many of my customers tend to think what they should have the design they think is nice, the colors they think is attractive. but truth is its up for the target audience. normally I would prefer to consult with a person who is a target audience, for example if it is a site intended for woman I consult with females friends about design. if its for men, the same. if its for general public i consult with both and spy on competitors.

In any way I always say to my clients it's not up for them to decide what is best (as much as I can, you cant convince everybody all the time).

don't be lazy, ask people, make polls among friends, partners and other workers, share the design with as much people and gather enough opinions before going live. a clean "simple" design doesn't fit any niche, so does colorful heavy one. Good luck!

Colonel Raven · Oct 18, 2019

For site to rank it doesn't need to be fancy but needs to be correctly structured

Alok1688 · Oct 18, 2019

Having a minimalistic look website is fine. I am not a fan of fancy websites but if a fancy website serves purposes like
- better user interface
- better structure to let a new visitor know about what else he/she can find in this website,
- A better way to collect new subscribers (which I strongly recommend specially for a website who sell stuff/services)

Things like these do look fancy to many but they are just an advanced version of being solving important purposes. You don't need to have a site full of colors but features and options that solves purposes and serves a better user interface to its visitors.

Does a site need to be fancy?

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