Does the Look of a Blog Matter?

A few months ago I had performance issues with my blog. To reduce the performance issue, I quickly redesigned the template of my blog by creating a more simple, basic design. This new design, while not the best looking template, loads quickly and contains all the links I had on my previous template.

While my new template isn’t the best looking, it does serve its purpose. I have been wondering if I should be changing the template to something more professional looking but have decided against it for the time being. I have been wondering if the look of a blog really matters to the visitors?

Are Looks Everything?

Question

Everyone has their own unique set of tastes, and that also goes for the look of a blog. If you visit many blogs, hundreds or even thousands, you will see the many different tastes of what people like on a blog. Some like lots of images, others may like text. There are blogs with many items in the sidebars, while other blogs have few. Each blog tends to have its own look and feel.

Excluding the evils of a blog, such as background music and popup windows, when you visit a blog, do you stay because of the content or the look?

For me, I will visit a blog because of the content. I am not the greatest web page designer in the world, and I don’t expect everyone else to be. I could really care less for the look of a blog – unless it takes forever to load. If the content that I was searching for, or was interested in is easily displayed on the blog, I will stay and read what the author has written. If I really enjoyed the content, then I will probably visit the blog again.

There are many professional-looking blogs online -especially the larger, well-known blogs. They have a large following that are constantly visiting. There are also large blogs that have so much information on a single page, that I have trouble finding what I am looking for. Blogs such as those I will usually give up on after a few seconds and go and find another source for the information.

While a nice looking blog may provide the professional appearance, if the content isn’t available, it isn’t worth my time. I would rather go with a simple-looking blog that has the content I am looking for, than a better looking blog with little in the way of content.

Does the look of a blog matter to you?

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