Web Design Mistakes: 21 Ways I Spot Your DIY Website
As a website professional, I spend a lot of time cringing at web design mistakes made on other sites!
While I’m always appreciative of good design and marketing choices, my eye is drawn to common website mistakes too.
Sometimes, it’s because a site is dated and neglected: maybe it looked good and worked well 10 years ago, but it’s not effective today.
However, more often, I see easy-to-avoid website mistakes that are there because:
You built your website yourself and didn’t know any better, or
You hired someone who was in a hurry, or wasn’t truly a professional.
Website mistakes using real sites as examples
Usually, when I teach good website design, for example as a speaker to writing groups, I use screenshots of how to do it well.
For this article, I researched real life web design mistakes from authors, writers, speakers, and consultants. And then I made a video of the examples I found.
I admit, I paused before publishing: is it fair to call people out for a less than stellar website?
I decided, yes, it is OK for me to point out your web blunders. After all, your website is how you’ve chosen to present yourself to the world. By its very nature, it’s a public marketing tool, and one that you should be proud of.
However, for the time being, I’ve made the video training available to my email subscribers only. It’s free to access: you just need to sign up.
Access the video training
These 21 website design mistakes with real examples of sites getting it wrong are shown in my new, free video training:
And for easy reference, I’ve summarized the blunders you’ll see in that video here:
21 Web Design Mistakes that I see on DIY websites
You’ve registered your domain name and made your web page public, but there’s nothing there except WordPress placeholder text.
Your branding and colors are inconsistent, messy, or cheapen your message.
Your website is drowning in clutter.
The page layout is old, for example with sidebars on your home page.
It looks horrible on a mobile screen.
Your font is overly decorative, making the text hard or impossible to read.
Images are far too close to your text. (Modern design uses empty space to help guide the visitor’s eye.)
Your pages lack action buttons. Either you haven’t decided what the visitor should do next, or you’ve buried those links in a text paragraph. This is probably the most common website mistake I see!
Your images don't link anywhere useful. For example, if you want someone to buy your book: link the book cover image to a retailer.
Your navigation is confusing: either your menu is in an unusual location, or you’ve put far too many choices in your menu structure.
You haven’t added a custom favicon to replace the default icon supplied by the tool you’re using.
External links open in the same window. This means visitors will click away and never come back.
You’re starting off by saying "Welcome to my website". This is dated an unimaginative!
You haven’t used meaningful page urls, instead accepting the default offered by the tool you build the site with. This harms your SEO and looks unprofessional.
Your social media links are dead or outdated.
Your newsletter is not enticing. Either you’re not clear that visitors are signing up for your email list, or you’re making the needless blunder of saying join my newsletter.
You don’t have a privacy policy and/or you’re not linking to it from your website footer.
You have an extensive website with many pages and a media kit, but no email list.
Related: Does an author still need an email list?Dates give you away. For example, your copyright year is old and/or news and events are clearly not current.
Your pop-up is immediate, and doesn’t give the visitor even a small opportunity to get to know you first.
You forgot to remove the “made by” or “powered by” free advertising in your footer.
Want to see the video with actual examples?
I made a free video training to show you examples of all these mistakes on real websites. You can access it here.
How to avoid these web design mistakes
My top resources for avoiding these common website mistakes:
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