Это выглядит круто.

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• Это — this / it
• выглядит — looks / appears
• круто — cool

So the sentence literally works like This looks cool or It looks cool.

Here это is being used as a pronoun, not as an adjective before a noun.

Compare:

• Это выглядит круто. — This/It looks cool.
• Этот фильм выглядит круто. — This movie looks cool.
• Эта машина выглядит круто. — This car looks cool.

In your sentence, there is no noun after это, so it simply means this or it.

Yes, in this sentence выглядит matches English looks in the sense of seems by appearance.

So:

• Это выглядит круто = It looks cool in terms of appearance or impression.

This verb is used when talking about how something appears visually or generally seems:

• Он выглядит уставшим. — He looks tired.
• Дом выглядит новым. — The house looks new.

It is not the same as literally to watch or to look at something. For that, Russian uses смотреть:

• Я смотрю на дом. — I am looking at the house.

So:

• выглядеть = to look / appear
• смотреть = to look at / watch

Выглядит is the 3rd person singular present-tense form of выглядеть.

That means it is used with:

• он — he
• она — she
• оно — it
• это — this/it
• singular nouns

Examples:

• Он выглядит отлично. — He looks great.
• Она выглядит молодо. — She looks young.
• Это выглядит странно. — This looks strange.

Because here Russian uses the adverb/predicative form круто, not the adjective крутой.

Compare:

• Это выглядит круто. — It looks cool.
• Это крутая идея. — This is a cool idea.

In Это выглядит круто, the word after выглядит describes how it looks, so Russian normally uses a form like круто, хорошо, странно, красиво.

This is very common after verbs like выглядеть:

• выглядит хорошо — looks good
• выглядит странно — looks strange
• выглядит красиво — looks beautiful

Yes, круто is informal and conversational. It often means:

• cool
• awesome
• great

It is very common in everyday speech.

Depending on context, you could also say:

• Это выглядит классно. — also informal, This looks awesome/cool.
• Это выглядит здорово. — This looks great.
• Это выглядит хорошо. — more neutral, This looks good.

So круто is natural, but it sounds casual rather than formal.

Sometimes yes, but it depends on context.

• Это выглядит круто. — clear and complete: This/It looks cool.
• Выглядит круто. — Looks cool.

Omitting это is possible in conversation if it is already obvious what you are talking about. Russian often drops things that are clear from context.

But for a standalone sentence, Это выглядит круто sounds more complete.

The most neutral order is:

• Это выглядит круто.

Russian word order is flexible, but changes in order can shift emphasis.

For example:

• Это выглядит круто. — neutral
• Круто это выглядит. — more emphasis on cool
• Выглядит это круто. — possible, but more marked and context-dependent

As a learner, the standard version Это выглядит круто is the safest one to use.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• Это — roughly EH-tuh
• выглядит — roughly VY-glya-deet
• круто — roughly KROO-tuh

A fuller approximation:

EH-tuh VY-glya-deet KROO-tuh

A few helpful notes:

• ы in вы- is a Russian vowel that does not exist exactly in English.
• The stress is:
  • Э́то
  • вы́глядит
  • кру́то

Yes. In many situations, это can correspond to either this or it in English.

Which one sounds more natural in translation depends on context:

• If you are pointing something out: This looks cool.
• If the thing is already known: It looks cool.

Russian often uses это in places where English might choose either one.

Yes. A few common alternatives are:

• Это смотрится круто. — This looks cool.
• Это выглядит классно. — This looks awesome/cool.
• Это выглядит здорово. — This looks great.
• Это очень круто выглядит. — This looks really cool.

A small nuance:

• выглядит is the most direct equivalent of looks
• смотрится can sound slightly more like comes across visually or looks good in presentation/design

Both can be natural depending on context.