Content vs Appearance

[RichardM]

I decided last week to re-design one of the first sites I ever built. It's purely an informational site about pest control. I wrote it when I worked for a pest control company tending a UNIX system many years ago, back when the Web was still pretty new and I was pretty new to the Web. It was mainly a learning experience that I eventually decided to monetize with Adsense and CJ when it actually started getting hits.

But being built when the Web was new, it was plain (some would say ugly) by today's standards. Black letters, white background, some colored highlights here and there. The content was updated occasionally, but not often (I mean, a cockroach is a cockroach is a cockroach; they don't change much). But it consistently made enough money to make it worthwhile to keep it online.

Last week, during a spell of boredom, I decided to redesign it to be prettier and more colorful. I didn't think it would affect revenue much, but I had a couple of days with nothing to do, so I decided to play with it.

Since the new design, my unique visitors have gone up a little, but only at a rate that would be expected based upon the seasonal nature of the site (it peaks around July and hits bottom around December). But the pages per visitor have increased by 75 percent, and the time spent by visitor has about doubled. But more interestingly, my total Adsense impressions have tripled, and my CTR has quadrupled. What a nice surprise when I logged into Adsense.

I always figured that on informational sites that I owned myself, the quality of the information would carry the site, so I never worried about the design quite as much as I would on, for example, a storefront site designed for a client. Apparently, I was wrong. The same content carried over to a new design on a purely information site quadrupled my revenue. :dancing:

I guess I'll be redesigning some more sites.

Richard

[Sean]

That's great

umm..appearance of a website does affect the first-look atleast. ;) By the way, you have mentioned a website with a pesticide content. Perhaps, if you are looking to deal with this business. We have few major clients who can help you out.

[RichardM]

Thanks, Samantha. PM to you.

Richard