When I meet with a new client for the first time, the conversation rarely starts with talking about buttons or fonts. More often, it starts with a problem.
"People land on our site, but nothing happens."
"We paid $5,000 for a site and it's hard to update."
"It feels outdated, but I don't know why."
In these conversations, I’ve come to realize something: most website issues aren’t just problems with code or colors. They’re deeper signals. A misaligned brand voice. A foggy offer. A business owner who’s been burned before and is now rightfully cautious.
That’s why I want to dig into something important. Mistakes in web design that I see over and over again—not just from DIY-ers, but from professionally built sites too. My goal here isn’t to add to the noise, but to help you see your website with a clearer lens. To unpack why certain missteps happen (because they do, and we’ve all made them) and how you can course-correct thoughtfully, without bulldozing your entire online presence and starting over.
So whether you’re using Webflow, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or something totally custom, these are common design misalignments I’ve seen—and more importantly, how to avoid them.
This might be the number one mindset trap I see across businesses. Naturally, when investing time and money, you want your site to look good to you. But this well-meaning instinct often leads to decisions driven by personal preference rather than strategy rooted in empathy.
As business owners, we spend so much time nurturing our offers, refining our craft, and developing brand aesthetics that we start to see the site as an extension of ourselves. But what you think looks “professional” might feel cold to your audience. What you describe as "clean and minimal" might come off as vague.
I once worked with a boutique law firm that wanted deep navy gradients and gold serif fonts across the board. Their internal team thought it matched their premium service tier. But during our user testing, potential clients described it as “intimidating and old fashioned." The fix? We kept some of their rich blue brand tones, but replaced ornate fonts with modern, readable ones and added space for client testimonials upfront.
Every year, mobile traffic increases—currently more than 58% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices. And yet, I still encounter sites where the mobile experience feels like an afterthought. Images fall off screen, buttons are too close together, and if you're on an iPhone Mini? Good luck navigating that menu.
Mobile usability directly impacts your conversion rates and SEO. Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means your mobile experience forms the baseline of how they index and rank your site. If your mobile site is messy, your desktop site doesn’t save you.
A local bakery in Franklin, TN, had two versions of their site: desktop and mobile. Their mobile menu was so condensed that the “Order Online” button—which they emphasized as crucial—was buried three levels deep under a dropdown. Webflow made adjusting this easy, but no one had flagged it. When we brought it front and center in the mobile nav, their order volume increased 16% in two weeks.
Think of your website like a building. You want hallways that make sense, doors labeled clearly, and no one feeling like they’ve accidentally wandered into a closet when they just wanted the checkout counter.
One common mistake is trying to cram everything into the top nav, thinking more options will help the user “see more.” But decision fatigue is real. If someone has to process 9 links at once from a dropdown menu, they’re more likely to bounce.
I worked with a yoga studio running both in-person and online classes. Their original site had links like: “Studio,” “Retail,” “Memberships,” “Blog,” “Events,” “Live,” “Classes,” and “Shop All.” They thought it showcased everything they had to offer, but actual users didn’t know where to start.
We grouped similar items under clean labels—physical and digital offerings split into two simple buckets. Engagement improved immediately, particularly on mobile, where dropdown/tier navigation is tougher to scan at a glance.
We all love a beautiful site. But aesthetics without intention become vanity. Trend-chasing—like floating elements, parallax everything, or headline fonts that look better on Behance than in real life—can alienate your core users if it doesn’t serve key messaging.
The purpose of design is communication. Looks matter, yes, but in support of clarity, trust, and usability.
I often compare this to house staging. You might fall in love with a mid-century home that looks beautiful in photos. But if the kitchen island cuts into all your walking paths or the storage is buried behind aesthetic art walls, function gets sacrificed for form.
A client of mine with an ecom skincare brand had an extremely well-designed hero section. Clean lines, elegant animations. But users didn’t realize it was above a product store. Adding clear product callouts reduced bounce rate by 22% within a week.
You’ve probably heard this before, but I can’t overstate it: unclear or missing CTAs massively reduce the ROI of your site. It’s not enough to say “Learn More” or “Contact.” Those vague verbs often disappear into the noise.
Strong CTAs understand where the user is in their decision journey and gently guide the next step. Think of it less like sales pressure and more like being a helpful concierge.
Instead of “Schedule,” try “Book Your Free 15-min Strategy Call” or “See If We’re A Fit.” That small tweak transforms an ambiguous click into a confident one.
One of my consulting clients—a therapist pivoting into the executive coaching space—buried their CTA at the bottom of the homepage and used soft language like “If you’re interested, feel free to reach out.” We ran tests replacing that with a defined section halfway down: “Start your clarity session: No pressure, just insight.” Their consult rate tripled over 30 days.
I see beautifully built sites with copy that reads like a college essay or corporate brochure. The language is packed with buzzwords, over-explains basic points, or uses second-person vaguely (“We are committed to solutions that make a difference”). But effective copy isn’t filler—it’s identical in importance to your visual design.
Your website has less than 15 seconds to hook someone, often fewer. That means clarity eats clever for breakfast. You are not here to impress them with lexicon. You are here to make them feel that you “get them.”
A Nashville-based tech startup I partnered with had this as their first headline: “Empowering Visionary Disruption in the AI-Driven Data Ecosystem.” After a rewrite (and yes, a frank conversation), we landed on: “We help mid-size teams build smarter with AI—without writing code.” The new version aligned instantly with the people they wanted to reach.
You can have the sleekest design in town, but if your site takes 5+ seconds to load, your bounce rate will hurt you. According to HubSpot, every additional second of load time can reduce conversions by up to 20%.
It’s not just user experience—page speed is a direct Google ranking factor for mobile-first indexing.
A real estate client’s site (built previously on WordPress with Elementor) was running painfully slow. We moved them to Webflow, optimized images, and used Cloudflare for DNS and CDN. Their mobile load time went from 7 seconds to under 2 seconds. Within a month, search rankings improved significantly for local listings.
Last but not least—and maybe the thread that connects all of this—your website isn’t a digital brochure. It’s a relationship-building tool. It should reflect not just what you do, but how it feels to work with you.
I call this the “friend test.” If someone lands on your site, do they feel seen? Do they know what your vibe is? Do they trust you a little more than they did 60 seconds ago?
Let your About page tell a real story. Share behind-the-scenes snapshots. Use photography that feels personal, not stocky. Build continuity across your platforms (your Instagram shouldn't feel like you’re an entirely different person than your website implies).
And don’t be afraid to plot surprising moments into your site—a FAQ that reveals personality, a confirmation page that shares a laugh. Those are the details that make your brand sticky.
Building a website is part strategy, part psychology, and part therapy. Trust me, I’ve walked many clients through the identity crises that come with rebrands or digital pivots. But underneath it all, I always come back to a few north stars: clarity, empathy, consistency, and intentionality.
When you avoid these common design pitfalls—misaligned navigation, poor mobile performance, weak CTAs, self-serving design choices—you open the door to connection. You help people not just “visit” your site, but remember it. And more importantly, take action on it.
So whether you're about to redesign or you're simply auditing what you already have, look at your site not through the eyes of an owner—but through the eyes of someone who’s looking for help. When you meet them there, good things happen.
Copyright © Zach Sean Web Design
