How much graphics and appearance of site matters in sales?

A lot.

A bad design can through people away of your site very, very fast, even before they have a chance to check the content.

A good design, however, will make your site appealing, eye grabbing and trustworthy.

Design can highly affect your conversions.

thanks
any more suggestions?

I agree that graphics do matter with conversion but it is important that the graphics do not slow down loading of your site otherwise you could lose potential clients.

How much it matters varies from offer to offer.

What matters more is the sales copy or sales videos and headlines themselves.

In fact, in some cases, graphics will kill conversion rates.

"Fancy" or "nice looking" graphics alone are not the answer...

Testing for your self is the answer.

Split test it your self.

One of my ugliest sites has been converting at higher than 7% for 4 years strait and for some affiliates higher than 10%

Fancy graphics on that site would kill it... what closes the deal is the story that the visitor identifies with, the sales copy, and the irresistible offer.

I guess that it's impossible to rate it since you cannot evaluate your graphics in some countable terms. Yes, it must be professional but (IMO) it must also be a little confident since most of the modern business styles are pretty soulless. Yes, they're eyecandies but they do not touch the soul of those who's supposed to be their target auditory.

Most important aspect is, in my opinion, the CLEANLINESS of your page.

No clutter. Easy to read. Easy to look. Something to grab the attention.

Graphics typically enhance this, but with anything else can also negate it if done wrong.

The graphics you use and the overall appearance of the site matter a great deal.

Although it is fine to use graphics on your site, make sure they are fresh and relevant to the main communication of your website. I cannot tell you how many websites I have looked at that offer a web affiliate program but uses stock photos that I have seen hundreds of times before. If you are going to use graphics on your website, do not use images that are obviously generic (a beautiful, grinning woman with a handful of money) or stock photos that have been around forever.

Avoid huge graphics and logos at the top of the page. When visitors land on your website the first thing they should be reading is your marketing message to them. Don't require your visitors to scroll down the page to find what it is being offered. Make sure your visitors can find what they want quickly and seamlessly. Include two forms of navigation so visitors can easily find what they are looking for.

Use a simple, concise writing style. You don't have long to capture the attention of your visitor. Your paragraphs should be focused and fairly short. Always write in a style that your public can relate to. Leave abbreviations and industry related jargon out of it.

Make sure the benefits of your product are prominent. For example, a good percentage affiliate programs drone on forever about how much money you can make quickly, how easy the system is to use, how it's "guaranteed" to work, etc., and never get to the point of how the product actually is of benefit to anyone. Your web affiliate program might have great features but it is important that you tie those features in such that they create an obvious benefit for your visitor.

Keep it professional looking. Your website is the face of your business and your visitors' first impression is going to translate into how they feel about whatever you offering. Don't clutter the website, keep text fairly uniform throughout and don't use huge text with multiple !!!!! to try and convince someone to buy from you.

This is a case where the current conventional 'wisdom' is often wrong.

In fact, graphics can help or hurt a site. ...It all depends.

The worst thing graphics can do is OVERSHADOW the salescopy. If the graphics 'fight' with the copy, you lose sales.

There are sites all over the internet that have been tested and convert better 'ugly' than 'pretty'.... I know, as I have a few.
______
Bruce

It depends...

Generally, I think that it's accepted that good professional presentation is beneficial, but graphics and layout are not the controlling factor.

A good product on a crap site will win over a poor product on the best presented site.

Graphics enhance the aesthetics of the site, they are not the ultimate selling tool.

We have seen some absolutely woeful sites that have pulled megabucks because of product and promotion alone. Even poor (and at times, offensive) copy did not put people off because the product was very good.

There are three elements that assist a product.

The product itself

The sales copy

The graphics and presentation

While (graphical) presentation assists, remember that people are coming to the site to read about a product, not to admire the quality of the presentation or the skills of the site developer.

Graphics can make navigating a site easier and stress important aspects of the sales copy.

Sales copy can make or break a product. Poor copy that waffles on loses the interest of the reader.

A poor product will also give you little benefit. You are staking your reputation on the product.

Customers come to your site for a reason. That is to learn about your product and purchase if they see value and it suits their needs. If you can make the experience easier for them using graphics, all the better, but the graphics are not going to determine whether your customer buys or not.

Alex

Well, I've heard different stories over the years about how "ugly sells." There are different theories for this. Some have to do with the idea that slick and professional is associated with expensive and... because of Madison Avenue and Hollywood ... full of crap, basically.

But there are different kinds of ugly, of course. I image some ugly sites sell where others don't (and not for some random reason). Of course content and trust play into it, but if you consider design only, you might find that a certain kind of ugly doesn't sell where another kind does.

Found this site. Not a lot of hard data there, but interesting to take a look at ... um ... even though it's ugly ... See, even this site "sold" in its own way. I'm paying up with a link: Ugly sells

A bad design will hurt you. The best thing to do is stick to the basics, original designs go a long way. Once you start sending traffic you will see that an original clean cut site will profit you greatly.

Designing of graphics is very important. Unless you do banner advertising. Sometimes through split tests the ugliest banner will win. The best answer is to test your graphics and see which one wins.

Graphics matter, if you use them. Strong headlines and offers close sales. I've seen plenty of sales pages with no graphics whatsoever sell millions a year because they had a strong headline and letter. In other words, worry more about your offer than the graphics.

In my opinion, graphics account at most for 20% of conversions and more like 10%. Text and the power of words account for the rest.

Bernard

Words + Graphics = WIN WIN !!

You need a balance combination of both of them for highest conversion rate.

Lots of opinions -- here's some factual data followed by a lot of years of personal experience.

Stanford University published a report on web credibility. The results showed that the average consumer judges by design before content.

For example, nearly half of all consumers assessed the credibility of sites based on the design. Over 25% of consumers also looked at the "information design" (ie; layout/design of your content) as a measure of credibility.

After the study, Stanford psychologist, B.J. Fogg, said;

In the Stanford Study, credibility related comments about design occurred with more frequency with websites dedicated to finance, search engines, travel and e-commerce sites -- and less frequently when assessing health, news and nonprofit.

The key -- is industry.

I've been in design & web marketing for 14 years. My personal experience is that he's right on the money with regard to industry.

-- People don't care about design on health sites, they care if the writer is a doctor or has credibiltity by profession.

-- People do care about design in ecommerce sites. That's why so many have conversion rates under 2%

-- Internet marketing sites -- totally different ballgame. I can tell you what converts there, too. (That's a whole post in itself)

Bottom line -- design really, really matters.

Yes, there are ugly sites that convert. I can tell you what it takes for an ugly site to convert, too - and it's not kickass copy. Copy will get 14% of visitors to read an ugly site. Almost half are out of there before your copy has a chance. The average consumer decides if a site is credible in less than 8 seconds. (Yes - that's a tested consumer study -- and that's another whole post in itself, too. Too much information! lol)

If you're interested in more info, I have a summary of the Stanford Credibility Report & chart of the results here:
http://lindacaroll.com/website-design/good-website-design-really-matters

Or you can read the wikipedia overview at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Web_Credibility_Project

Having a graphic that is visually stimulating helps to grab their attention. Having good information is always useful, but without a graphic peoples minds have a harder time getting the message in. Plus if you have a good graphic the mind remembers it and all associated content easier and you are more likely to have repeat customers.

It matters a lot. I was before on a wordpress based ecommerce solution and i had a very simple theme, but sales very few.
Now i am on an opencart theme with a cool theme, and the visitor stays now up to 30 mins in my shop.

Images & Photographs
One thing I haven't seen in the posts above is the use of images.
If you use an image, it must tell a clear story by it self. If it doesn't, don't use it.
As soon as a prospect has to think about what your image means or says, he gets confused and is more likely to leave.
Another thing is to always have a caption with your image. On average twice as many prospects will read captions as read the whole copy.

Professional looking and to the point graphics will obviously increase the sale. But there is point of putting all unnecessary pictures in a webpage as it will increase the loading time and the buyer exit.

Forget about Pretty Website vs. Ugly Duckling and start thinking in terms of purpose, user experience and target audience.

You're going to get a lot of contradictory answers to your question and all of them are right and wrong.

A news site, a blog and a squeeze page are all websites but each of them has a specific purpose. What works for one website may not work for another.

That why vague blanket questions never work or provide satisfactory answers.

What is the purpose of your site?

If you're simply gathering adsense clicks, a bare bones website is fine but if you're trying to impress me with the professionalism of your company, using the default wordpress twentyten theme isn't going to cut it. If your running a photoshop or web design tutorial website, it better look damn good.

So, once you know what the purpose of your website is, you can begin to carve out it's visual appearance to fit that purpose.

Now, what about the user experience?

If it's a massive news site, your navigation needs to be easy to find and easy to follow. If it's a squeeze page, that Belcher button needs to be in my face and calling my name.

Too much clutter and the user experience can be ruined and not enough bells n' whisltes can leave your site looking like it's CSS naked day and unprofessional. Even if you want an unprofessional looking website... well, anybody can splatter paint but their is only one Jackson Pollock. Looking unprofessional doesn't mean it wasn't designed by a professional.

Target audience?

What is your target audience expecting from your website? Senior citizens probably want a simple layout and big text. Teens are jaded and if your not providing MTV 3.0 your site is lame. Internet marketers have a fetish for big red text, even better if it's using the impact font with italics.

Oh yeah, the graphics on your website need to compliment all of the above.

Just some stuff to think about instead of trying to force the same generic formula into every website.

Graphics play an important role on popular websites. The basic reason for this is our natural desire to use more of our senses. Beyond the very important aspect of involving the senses of your visitors, graphics play a big role in critical part of home business success, credibility. Consumers want to know they are dealing with a legitimate business. The graphics on your site can be the difference in rather or not you are able to present that all important professional image. You know what I'm talking about. You see an ad and decide this might be interesting so you decide to check it out.

It varies, depending on your niche. Some niches, graphics don't really matter. While in other niches, your sites must meet a certain level of quality or they won't convert no matter what you do in your copy.

Hi:

Shireen here :-)

Professional & good looking graphics will increase the perceive value of your product.

Of course will lead to more sales.

if your site in the only contact you will have with a consumer (ie you don't have a brick and mortar store) then your site speaks for everything about you.

if you have a poor looking site then you will need to put more emphasis on referrals and notable client reviews.

No site should be "busy," but every site should be pretty.

Content comes first, graphics compliment content.

I'm looking at all these answers here about how graphics and design make a big difference and they do...Gary Halbert spoke about this at one time and said graphics and pictures and "professional" looking sites were crap and LOWERED your sales.

He stated that all you want on your website is the sales copy in very readable font. That's it. Now I do think it depends on what angle you are taking to try and sell things. If it's a merchant site well then of course your graphics and what not are going to be more important than not. But the point is simplicity. Keeping it simple for your customer to make one of two decisions - to either buy your product or leave. That's really what it all comes down to.

Check his site out at The Gary Halbert Letter and you will see what he is talking about. I believe the simpler the better.

If you're a web-based business with no immediate local presence, your website's overall appearance is extremely important. This is the one opportunity for your clients to learn about your services and company.

If the website is cluttered and does not look professional, chances are they'll take their business else where.

I think a lot of people (NOT all the people) who are saying that graphics do not matter are using this as an excuse not to do anything to their current site.

Just because you have a high-converting web page is not a good excuse not to try to improve the look and feel.

Like saying "Girls all love me the way I am, so I don't have to dress nice or take a bath."

That being said...our company designs websites full time. We do it from scratch and don't use templates. In almost every case conversions improve dramatically with fresh, well-planned, and matching (a design that matches the niche and does not overpower the message).

We also do Adwords landing pages and have experienced the same thing. Again, it depends on the product and the niche, but why would you not want to put your best foot forward.

Unless you have a highly promoted offer, where a list is driven to your site...it does not matter how good your content is if they leave before they read it because they form a negative opinion of your site within the first 5 seconds based on the look and feel.

Just my opinion.

I've read similar studies like Linda and others cite, and while I find them interesting, I don't find them persuasive.

The one cited on Wiki only asked people to judge their perception of the 'credibility' of the sites. It asked them what elements cause them to feel a site is credible. That's it.

...and it was reported in 2002, probably conducted in 2001, so a decade ago. I'd say overall 'site looks' have changed anyway, so an updated study might be more relevant.

But even so, to me there's a flaw in this argument, and it's a huge one:

All these nice research opinions, btw, offered by test subjects who knew they were being observed, don't add up to a nickel about whether they will ACTUALLY BUY from the sites. How long do we have to be in marketing to learn, people do not do what they 'say' they will do?

At one time I worked for a large ad agency which had a consumer research division. They did nothing but run labs and interview consumers. Brand preferences, taste testing, previewing commercials, etc.

It would be nice to report that extensive consumer research/opinion sampling like this led to accurate, predictable behavior on the part of consumers....but it didn't.

Despite all this research, the rate of new product failures was just as high, and people seemed to say one thing, and when they were all by themselves, spending their own money, often do something very different! The people in these types of studies are giving opinions, under watchful eyes, ...I'm much more persuaded by customer's actual spending.

I think good design/graphics can help some sites, for sure. But, lately, I see more and more sites which appear 'over-designed', and trying to compensate for weak or poorly targeted copy.

EDIT: I just got an email about this test Maria Gudelis ran:
http://www.maria-gudelis.com/feature...l#comment-6328
check out the top video on the page.
_____
Bruce

Well, mostly they matter because you spend time and money on them.

I agree with all the above comments if you want to make business type money nake it look like a business not something a third grader threw together in 5 minutes.

Graphics for your website is like a music score for a movie. It should not be dominant over the message. That does not mean the graphics should be boring. It means, that a well designed site will embrace the message, the colors and graphics elements will move the user fluently to the parts of the site you want them to be moved to.

One of the typical requests people have for their webdesigners is to make the logo bigger, as they think that the bigger the logo, the more memorable the brand.
In commercial websites, people tend to "throw" things at the user - huge graphics "click here"; blinking text, dozens of red arrows pointing to the subscribe form etc, - thinking it will entice user to click there. To me, that is just plain wrong approach.

The call to action need to be obvious, but should not "punch me in the face". If the website is designed as one seamless piece where everything flows towards the call to action, than this to me shows a true professional approach. The other approach (to me) screams "scam".

It depends on niches, of course, but graphics DO matter...

I made my own research during 5 years with some peers and partners, in around 23 niches.


The results were obvious to us:


Design MATTERS.

Colours MATTERS.

Design Elements position MATTERS.


Especially on the product itself (not just the site layout), like book covers, dvd covers, software covers, etc...

Especially on first impact and buy impulse generators.

Sometimes (more than we are able to accept) even more than copy.


In the Services market, layout and position of elements (visual vs written words) REALLY MATTERS. It can be the difference between credibility or abandonment.

Example?

Same or similar services:

Poor (outdated) Design: Keyword Discovery - Advanced keyword research tool and search term suggestion tool

Good Design: SEO Software. Simplified. | SEOmoz



I think you can notice the (huge) difference...


: )

having a good design is important but kep in mind that you should try and keep things SIMPLE.

The best example is by looking at google. Their main page is nice and SIMPLE. You should too.

I think the graphics if they are relevant to the product, as well as the ad copy, should answer the questions the potential buyer has, so it's absolutely crucial to go hand in hand with the ad copy