The SBI "cookie cutter" site

Im not sure if its funny, ironic, or if Im just cynical. On the one hand, people know that "content is king". As long as your content is great your visitors wont really care what your site looks like. Apparently. But on the other hand, take a look at a thread on the SBI forums, about the new HTML layout for the ezine. thread is here Check out the comments...all saying variations on exactly the same thing.

"The new issue, in HTML is far easier to read"
"Much easier to read and navigate; a real winner"
"clean, easy to read, easy to navigate"
"Of course the content is the same high quality as always but the readability is improved."
"It is so simple but is much nicer to read."

So here are all these people saying that "PRESENTATION" is important to them. That they are much more likely to enjoy their experience reading this, rather than a long, plain, and frankly difficult to read newsletter.

Yet these are the same people who will clamor that "content is king" and how a website looks doesnt matter....as long as the content is good.

Well, the content of the newsletter hasnt changed, has it? Same good content as it always had. Just put into a nicer, and better format. So someone please tell me, why should a website be any different?

Its not. Its true, the content is the important thing. No doubt about that. But how it is presented is dismissed as being of no REAL importance by some people.

Yet here are those same people saying how important presentation is to them. The content of the newsletter is exactly the same, just the presentation has been improved. And now people say they are far more likely to read and enjoy it, rather than getting bored wading through a long plain text email.

Yep, Ive heard it before. "I've Got a BB site and it does really well.Good traffic, well ranked in the SEs" So what? Your site is dong well in spite of how it looks, not because of it. think of how much better it could do.

Look at it this way

Suppose your site has 300 visitors per day. That site is the public face of who and what you are, online. Would you go and address a seminar of 300 people everyday, as an expert in your field, dressed in old shabby clothes and without brushing your hair? I doubt it. But thats basically what you are doing with a plain boring, and difficult to navigate website. You present yourself in a poor light, and have to work that much harder to make a good impression. Because whether you like it or not, people are basically shallow, and judge by appearances.

This is something that I would have liked to post on the forums. However, that would achieve very little. I'm not trying to argue the point with anyone, and people will believe what they want to believe. I really don't like to see two separate camps...one that says how your site looks is important, and the other saying it doesn't matter.

So the bottom line is this: Content is obviously the most important thing about your website. But the presentation of that content is also important. The response in the newsletter thread shows that. But I guess you already know that, as you have the best website template around! ;-) And many of you have seen your visitor numbers, page views,and/or Adsense earnings increase as a direct result of that.

The SBI 3 columnn template

Some people would say Im biased, that it's in my interests for people to believe the look of a website is important. You could say that of course. After all, I have sold rather a lot of 3 column templates. But I have always been pushing for SBI to develop one themselves, and I'm partly responsible for that happening. And if selling my own template was my sole motivation for promoting a good looking site, then I wouldnt have spent 100's of hours helping to get the SBI 3 column to where it is today.

It's been great to see how many people have finally made the decision to change to an updated look! All these new designs coming out in the iDeign3 contest is going to motivate even more to make the change. Sometimes it's not the truth that matters, it's what people perceive as the truth that counts.

And the public perception is that SBI sites are boring. Hopefully, these new designs will go some way to changing that perception.




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