So I've been wondering... About 90% of all web hosting sites I see out there all look the same. Sure, different colors and such, but they all have pictures of neon colored servers, flash headers, stock photos of people in suits looking meaningfully at a computer monitor, etc etc. You know the look - we can all spot a hosting site a mile away even if it's in another language. :p

Here's the question: Does it HELP to have a site that looks like 90% of the rest of the sites out there? Is it important to LOOK like the other hosting companies, or is different better? I ask partly because I'm a big Seth Godin fan. In his marketing book Purple Cow, he says that nobody will notice you unless you are DIFFERENT and STAND OUT from the crowd (a "purple cow" in a herd of brown cows). But, is Web Hosting one of those industries where you NEED to look like the brown cows so people will believe that you truly are a cow? (if that makes sense )

Thoughts?

You will get different answeres to those questions, I would say yes, it is important to stand out with a design, but that wont help much if you have a poor service, uptime and support etc... so sure it is important but its the most important thing.

I totally agree on the support issue. But that's more of an ongoing thing - the design of your site will have a lot more affect on new customers (unless of course you get a BAD reputation elsewhere for poor support, etc).

In that case, how do you convince people that you do, in fact, have good support?

You have to stand out from the crowd. No one will know about your support/services until they are signed up with you and in order to get their business you have come across as being professional and reliable.

My site doesn't have neon servers or lame flash header. Ok theres one stock photo of a person, but at least I photochoped it. I do just fine. Support and word of mouth are key in this business. Standing out will only get you noticied. if people sign up and start telling everyone you suck, it doesn't matter how much you stand out.

All hosting sites come across the same but they are all different!

LOL - that reminds me of a "Friends" episode where Rachel says "Oh, they're very different - only if different means the same." But I get your point

I believe that the hosting site really depends on their services, their prices, and as a few other have said, the uptime of the servers.

I also believe that looking like the "brown" cow, is also nice, because if your site looks too abstract, people may go against that, and go for the sercurity, and pick the host whose site looks like the rest.

I'm starting to believe that myself. People expect a HOSTING site, not something else. When you go into a book store, you expect to see shelves of books. If you walk in to one that has them piled in a heap on the floor - you'd do a 180 and walk right outta there

I think the key is to be a "purple cow" in some other way - awesome support, great pricing, features, whatever.

As long as you have no sound and limited flash you are ok by me!

It's 95% word of mouth for me. Once you get them as a customer, you need to be there for support 100%. That's where you'll get repeat customers and word of mouth customers. Support is key in this business.
Susan