Hey peoples!

I'm kinda new to all this forum business. But anyway....

Is it absolutely crucial that a business website be aesthetically pleasing. Does a good-looking site add to a professional image? Or aren't many people concerned with the look of the site?

In my experience, it pays better to consider the visual design of a website, but then again I've heard all kinds of things. I do marketing for a software business, and my boss doesn't consider a better look to be of immediate importance. He obviously wants more sight traffic (and I agree...I mean it'd be stupid to disagree) but does a good website design keep potential customers on the site? Or does it make no or little difference?

I'd tend to think that an ugly site would have me clicking "Back" at an incredibly fast speed! With people wanting network admin software, do they care if the site looks flashy or not?

Anyway, hope I've made sense. It'd be great if anyone could help me out, and futhermore continue to discuss this.

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.

I have to say this cliche - Haste is Waste - this one definitely applies word to word when it comes to building a website.

Many business owners are simply interested in getting in the cash, but *what it takes to get the cash* hardly interests them.

In the end they build sites in a hurry and end up with a bad looking site, which is a waste of their time and money because no one will visit or even stay around there.

If you want a quick feed back on how good or bad a site is submit it for review and feedback. I know 2 places where people review sites, one is hedir (it's not a good looking site), but they have a community of people which gives feedback. Also cre8asiteforums also has a section for site review.

I think it would be nice to have a section for "Site Review" here in this forum as we affiliates know what works and what doesn't and can give proper feedback to our fellow affiliates.