What would you prefer:
* A pretty website that has no content * An ugly website that has a lot of content
If you were building links, which kind of site would you prefer to link to? In a WebmasterWorld discussion, it seems that appearances may not matter. A "nice clean" look may be fine, though.
Some disagree and believe that aesthetically pleasing sites are likely to be linked more than other sites. Most people do not feel that this sentiment is appropriate -- the content is really the most important thing for link-building, according to many webmasters. Of course, it depends on the niche, but people want informative content. Think about Wikipedia, for example. Is it "pretty?" Nope -- it's clean and neat -- but it has a lot of content that many people are looking for.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.