Website Design Trends
In the early days of the web, you did not need to pay much attention to how your website looked. Now, you need to have it looking nice for people to visit. This has to do with screenshot being used by directories and later adoption by search engines. It is important that your website has the right look to attract people when they see your website listed in the directory or search engine.
Designing Your Look
Spend some time checking out your competitors before you launch your website and see how the websites in your niche look. You want to have the right look, but you do not want to look cookie cutter. Do not steal someone’s design from their website. Get ideas, be unique, and fit in with what other successful websites are doing.
Building Your Look
If you feel that you can design a website yourself you can do that. The easiest way is to get designs that are pre-made and ready to be used. You can then modify them to make them look how you want. It is best if your website does not look exactly like 50 others in your niche. People may think that they have already been there and not visit. Worse they might get you confused with a website that they do not like and never visit you.
Pre-Designed Templates
If you can not design and build your own template for your website, that is no problem. There are many websites that offer designs and even sites that will modify a design to your needs. One thing you want to be careful about using is free templates that are Creative Commons Copyright. Some people will design a template and sell links in that template and license it as Creative Commons. Then you are stuck with those links on your website. You should avoid templates that have paid links in them. You are helping someone else get links and get promoted from your efforts. The more links on a page the less juice each link will carry, and you want to pass the most PR to your pages. It is best to buy a design than get with paid links in it.
Hiring a Designer
If you can not design and build your own template you can get it built for a small price by visiting webmaster forums. There are lots of people just starting out who will do it on the cheap in forums. Many designers complain about the cheap prices hurting their business. You just have to be careful that you get someone who is skillful. There are also sites for freelances. At these websites, you can post an offer and get bids from people.
CMS Templates
There are many CMSs out there to choose from and you can find companies that offer pre-made designs. Using pre-made designs with a CMS is a great time saver. Keeps you from learning all CMS stuff and lets you focus on your content and spending time promoting your content. GPL licensed templates are great starters for your website or just as they are. But best to try and make it a little different from every other site using that design.
Your Look and Traffic
Yes, how your website looks will influence how much traffic you get. If it has the right look, people will visit it. If people find your look interesting, they may tweet it to people or place a link to it on their Blog providing you with more backlinks and traffic. When it comes to stores selling a thing, like Amazon, ugly sites do better than beautiful sites. People just want to get in, find what they want and buy it. Sites selling products or services need to look professional.