Website Do & Don't

Stop Making These Basic Website Mistakes (What to Do Instead)

There are a lot of websites out there that look great on the surface—bold colors, slick animations, flashy fonts—but underneath it all, they’re missing the point. A good website doesn’t just look the part. It works. It loads fast. It works on any screen. It helps users do what they came to do, without confusion or delay.

The truth is, most of the mistakes that hold a site back are basic. Not technical. Not advanced. Basic. And that’s what makes them even worse—because they’re easy to avoid if you’re paying attention.

One of the biggest problems is speed. If your site takes more than three seconds to load, people bounce. Search engines notice that too, and your rankings drop. Large images that aren’t compressed, bloated CSS or JavaScript files, and cheap hosting are usually to blame. Clean that up. Use proper file formats like WebP, reduce what you don’t need, and stop stacking plugins on top of plugins to solve problems that a few lines of clean code could fix.

Then there’s mobile. If your site isn’t responsive, it’s not relevant. Over half your traffic is coming from phones—maybe more. And if the text is too small, the layout breaks, or buttons are impossible to tap, you’ve lost that visitor. Google penalizes it. Users abandon it. It’s not optional anymore. Your site has to work everywhere.

Navigation is another one. Keep it simple. Menus should be clear, short, and intuitive. No one wants to click through five layers just to find your contact page. The more people have to think, the more likely they are to leave.

There’s also a lot of noise around SEO, but at its core, the basics still matter. Use clean, readable URLs. Fill out your meta titles and descriptions properly. Don’t try to stuff keywords into every line of text—just be intentional. Write content that answers real questions and speaks like a human, not a marketing robot.

And let’s not forget the little things. SSL should be on by default. Broken links should be fixed as soon as they’re found. A favicon should be in place. The color contrast should be legible for every visitor. These aren’t extras. They’re expected.

Good web design isn’t about how flashy you can get. It’s about clarity, function, and experience. When the basics are nailed down, everything else gets better—from rankings to conversions to how people feel when they land on your site.

If your site’s not doing the simple things right, none of the fancy stuff will matter.