When I sit down with a business owner to talk about their website, I often find myself saying, “Let’s take a deep breath and look at the big picture first.” Because before a single line of code or a pixel of design is created, the website has to function as part of a larger ecosystem. It’s the digital storefront, yes, but it’s also a reflection of a brand’s values, priorities, and the way it listens to its customers. Over the years at Zach Sean Web Design, I’ve seen patterns emerge—mistakes that businesses, both large and small, stumble into time and time again. Most of them aren’t about lack of effort; they’re about missing perspective. Below are some of the most common website design mistakes to avoid if you want your site to not only look sharp but perform with purpose.
Imagine buying paint before deciding what room you’re decorating. That’s what designing a website without strategy feels like. Businesses often rush into the design phase excited to see something visual, but skip the crucial step of defining what success looks like. A website designed for brand awareness will look and behave differently from a website meant to drive e-commerce sales. Without this clarity, design choices end up arbitrary, often pleasing someone internally but confusing customers.
A restaurant owner in Nashville came to me after their “new website” led to a 40% drop in reservations. The site was sleek—beautiful photos, elegant typeface—but the designer had tucked the menu three clicks deep. The issue wasn’t aesthetic; it was strategic misalignment. Their diners didn’t care about the chef’s story until they saw what was being served. Once we understood the user’s intent and made the menu a focal point, bookings recovered within weeks.
Design rooted in strategy isn’t restrictive—it’s liberating. It gives creative decisions a framework to operate within, leading to smarter visual expression.
It’s the classic oversight that continues to plague sites even in 2025. According to StatCounter, mobile makes up roughly 60% of global web traffic. And yet, I still encounter brands with gorgeous desktop designs that break awkwardly on phones. Every visitor forced to pinch and zoom to read your content might as well be walking out of your store mid-conversation.
A Franklin-based boutique had invested heavily in a photography-driven homepage. On desktop, it was stunning. On mobile, however, images loaded slowly, and text overlapped the visuals. Their bounce rate from mobile users hovered near 80%. After optimizing their site in Webflow to use responsive images and simplified breakpoints, their mobile traffic retention doubled. The owner reported experiencing increased foot traffic that directly correlated with online engagement.
Think of your website like a house designed for guests. If most guests enter through the side door (mobile), why put all your design energy into the front door (desktop)?
The human brain craves clarity. When visitors arrive on a cluttered website, their attention is quickly hijacked by bright colors, pop-ups, and a maze of buttons. This happens when businesses confuse information with communication. You don’t need to say everything at once—you need to say the right thing at the right time.
A consultant I worked with had a website packed with text about her philosophy, history, and detailed service breakdowns. While her passion was authentic, most visitors only scrolled halfway through the first page. By trimming 60% of the copy, structuring key content into visual sections, and using testimonials more strategically, her session duration doubled, and lead form submissions increased by 35% within a month.
A Nielsen Norman Group study shows that users typically read only about 20% of the text on a web page. Too much information creates choice paralysis. A crisp information hierarchy acts as a filter, helping users find what they need quickly, and guiding their journey with intention.
Less content doesn’t mean less conviction; it means more focus. The best designs lead users with quiet confidence instead of shouting.
A website should be accessible to everyone, regardless of ability, device, or environment. An inaccessible site doesn’t just exclude users—it often violates legal compliance. Yet many small businesses overlook accessibility because it feels “technical” or overwhelming. The reality is that inclusive design benefits everyone, including search engines.
A Tennessee nonprofit that supports veterans reached out after several complaints from users who couldn’t navigate their donation page with screen readers. They were unknowingly alienating part of their audience. Once we integrated alt text, color contrast adjustments, and ARIA labels, donations increased 20%. Inclusion became their best-performing optimization.
Design for empathy, not just aesthetics. Accessibility is like adding a ramp to your front door—it welcomes more people without taking anything away from others.
A slow-loading website tells visitors one thing: “We didn’t value your time.” Google’s research indicates that as page load time increases from one second to five seconds, the probability of a user bouncing increases by 90%. Speed has become both an SEO factor and a trust signal. In my experience, performance issues are rarely caused by a single culprit—they’re usually death by a thousand micro-delays.
A Webflow designer client of mine had a portfolio loaded with uncompressed images, auto-playing background videos, and third-party analytics scripts firing on every page. On desktop, it was sluggish; on mobile, nearly unusable. We reduced scripts by 40%, implemented lazy loading, and exported images in modern formats like WebP. Page load time dropped from 6.2 seconds to under 2 seconds, resulting in noticeably improved engagement metrics.
Think of speed as the hospitality of your website—it’s how you greet your visitors. No one enjoys waiting at the front door.
Web design and SEO are two sides of the same coin. I’ve seen gorgeous websites struggle to attract visitors because basic SEO principles were ignored. It’s not about stuffing keywords anymore; it’s about meaningful structure and technical readiness. Search engines need clarity to understand your content, just like users do.
A construction company in Middle Tennessee had a strong reputation locally but was nearly invisible online. Their site lacked meta descriptions, proper heading hierarchy, and internal linking. After implementing structured metadata, writing localized content tailored to “Franklin TN construction services,” and cleaning up broken links, they saw a surge in qualified leads. Local clients later mentioned they “finally found them online.”
SEO isn’t a one-time task; it’s a posture. It’s like maintaining a garden—you tend, measure, and adjust to keep things thriving.
Your website should feel like an extension of your brand personality. Yet many businesses end up with a site that feels like multiple voices speaking at once. Fonts, colors, and messaging differ from page to page. This happens when there’s no unified brand guide or when multiple designers and copywriters work without shared direction. Consistency builds trust, and trust drives conversion.
A fitness studio I worked with had a website where every page had a different tone—some read like a tech product description, others like an inspirational diary. Their visual palette also varied between bright neon and muted tones. Together we created a unified messaging framework and designed color-coded sections that balanced energy with professionalism. Within three months, class bookings increased 45%, proving that visual identity wasn’t just “nice to have”—it was pivotal.
Branding is storytelling at scale. When every piece of your site speaks the same language, users feel a sense of familiarity that strengthens connection.
One of the biggest misconceptions I encounter is that a website is a static product. In reality, it’s an evolving system. Businesses change. Markets shift. Yet many sites go years without meaningful updates. Outdated plugins, broken links, and stagnating content silently erode credibility and ranking potential.
A local landscaping company had a five-year-old WordPress site. It worked fine—until it didn’t. The outdated theme conflicted with new plugin versions, causing random layout bugs. They hadn’t updated content since before the pandemic, missing entire service categories that had become more popular. After migrating them to a responsive Webflow build with maintainable CMS collections, they not only restored functionality but improved lead conversion by 60%.
A website is like a garden or a fitness plan—it needs attention, feedback, and occasional pruning to stay healthy. Thinking long-term will always outperform quick fixes.
Designing a website that truly works requires more than creativity—it requires empathy, strategy, and discipline. Each mistake we explored stems from forgetting one of those elements. When businesses rush the process or focus narrowly on appearances, they miss the deeper opportunity to create something that speaks clearly to their audience. Whether it’s ensuring mobile accessibility, maintaining consistent branding, or regularly refining SEO, every detail adds up to trust. And trust, at the end of the day, is what good design really sells.
At my desk here in Franklin, TN, I often reflect on the many conversations I’ve had with clients who arrive feeling frustrated and disoriented by their digital presence. What they really need isn’t just a new design—it’s a new way of thinking about how design communicates with people. By avoiding these common mistakes, you set your website up not just to look better, but to connect better. And that connection is what separates a temporary redesign from a transformative online presence.
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