The look of a website is only second seat to a functional one. Most important in your pages is ease of use and ease of navigation.

The look of your site defines your corporate image in a glance. Just like you wouldn't setup office on the bad side of town or do business meetings behind a dumpster, your website shouldn't look like one. Most surfers will hit your page and make an immediate decision on whether or not to read. If the "book cover" doesn't look nice then the user won't bother "turning the page."

Your image is everything... and it applies here on the WWW.