Top 15 Most Common Web Design Mistakes to Avoid

Web design mistakes are common and everywhere; most websites you check on a daily basis most likely have one of the mistakes below.

Having web design mistakes here and there is not detrimental, but they can add up if you’re not paying attention. Considering that 94% of first impressions on a website are due to its design, it’s safe to say that reducing the number of mistakes is vital.

Below we added a list of the top 15 web design mistakes we’ve seen over the past few years that can severely affect your website if you’re not careful.

Are you trying to fix your website but don’t know where to start? Let us help.

Our Top 15 Web Design Mistakes of 2025

1. Not Caring About Mobile Responsiveness

Not caring about how your website looks and navigates on mobile devices is a great way to lose more than 50% of visitors to your website. With more than 50% of online traffic being from mobile devices alone, it’s easy to understand why it’s important.

You can fix web design mistakes like these by redesigning your website and making it a lot more mobile-friendly, but another option also exists.

If you don’t have a website yet or you’re planning to create a new website from scratch, having a mobile-first approach to it is fantastic. Most web design agencies use this approach. It helps ensure a website works well on mobile devices right when the page goes live.

A mobile-friendly website should be easy to navigate and read on any mobile device, from a small phone to a tablet.

If there is one web design mistake to not forget about on this list, it’s hands down this one.

2. Ignoring Website Load Speed

One of the most important factors of a website is how fast a page loads for visitors. Any website that takes over 3 seconds to load is instantly hit with a 32% higher bounce rate. While that might seem extreme, take a moment to think about it.

People don’t want to wait for a page to load; they want to waste as little time as possible when they’re checking websites. If they notice your website is taking a long time to load, then they’ll stop loading and look for another website with a similar product or service.

It doesn’t matter how amazing your website is and how great your products or services are; if your page takes too long to load, then it won’t matter at all.

3. Not Using Good Calls to Action (CTAs)

CTAs are an important part of any page and are meant to encourage visitors to perform something for a result. The result can be getting added to a newsletter or pretty much anything under the sun.

Using lackluster CTAs or none at all is a common web design mistake that both small and large businesses make.

CTAs should be direct and actionable with clear intent on what you want a visitor to do. Visitors should not have to guess what you’re trying to achieve with your CTAs but rather feel enticed to click on them.

The last thing you’d want is for a visitor to fear that your CTA is a scam or a virus.

4. Little to no SEO Strategies

Having zero SEO strategies is a great way to get zero organic traffic to your website.

Every website needs some sort of SEO strategy if it plans to grow at all and excel in digital marketing.

Without SEO, your website is practically invisible to most users surfing the web.

Making sure that your website adheres to practical SEO strategies is not a necessity; it’s an obligation.

Using proper keywords that relate to your industry and niche is a great start. Using your blog to add even more keywords to your website is a fantastic strategy too as long as you’re consistent.

There are a lot of SEO strategies you can use to improve the overall visibility of your website.

SEO is not something you can build in a day, though. You need to work on your SEO every single day if you want to see any sort of progress.

5. Excessive Use of Pop-Ups

While the use of pop-ups is recommended, throwing three or more pop-ups to a visitor in rapid succession is a good way to make them leave.

You don’t need multiple pop-ups to get a visitor’s attention; one is more than enough. If they’re interested, they’ll read and interact with it; if not, they’ll close it and keep checking your website.

Visitors don’t want to feel annoyed when they browse through a website, and constant pop-ups that interrupt their search for what they are looking for do exactly that.

A great use of your pop-up could be a quick email subscription in exchange for a coupon. This entices a visitor to give you their email while also giving them that little push to buy something and use said coupon.

6. Lack of Security

Keeping your website and your customers secure from online threats is important. The last thing you want is for your website to get hacked and for hackers to get access to your clients’ information. Not only will they never buy anything from you again, but they’ll make sure to tell their friends and family to steer clear of your website.

This is why investing in security measures is vital for any website that cares about its customers.

From SSL certificates to full-blown countermeasures against potential threats, there are a lot of things you can do to improve your website’s security.

SSL certification is a must; not only does it help with SEO rankings, but it lets a visitor’s browser open your website without a warning text. SSL certificates are what let a website use “HTTPS” over “HTTP”.

There are a lot more cybersecurity threats than we can count; fortunately, we created this article explaining the most important ones you should know about.

7. No Accessibility Whatsoever

Having no accessibility features is a common web design mistake that most brands overlook or pay no attention to.

In 2025, creating a website with accessibility features has never been easier. From pages that help provide accessibility assistance to full-blown plugins with instant accessibility improvements.

Another easy and often overlooked way to improve accessibility is by creating alt text for every image on your website. Alt text not only helps with accessibility, but also with SEO, so it’s worth doing regardless.

That being said, make sure to use alt text to actually explain the image itself instead of using it to stuff more keywords into every page. The main goal is to help people with disabilities; getting an SEO boost is secondary.

There is no excuse when it comes to not adding accessibility features to your website.

8. Lack of Content Hierarchy

Having some sort of content hierarchy on your website is vital if you want to direct people exactly where you want them to go.

Hierarchy is important for both UX and readability. There are a few things to consider for better content hierarchy:

• Are you using headings and subheadings properly to highlight what the content is about?

• Is there any use of bullet points so visitors can quickly read a list?

• Do you use any images to further explain the content you are talking about?

• Are your headings and subheadings short and to the point?

• Are you dividing your content into smaller paragraphs?

The goal of content hierarchy is to help visitors understand your content better. We don’t want to waste a potential customer’s time by making content that is hard to read and comprehend.

9. Bad Use of Colors

Using a bad combination of colors is one of the web design mistakes we see the most. Trying to use colors to grab people’s attention is great as long as it’s done well. Using colors that don’t match your brand will make your products and branding look out of place.

Excessive use of colors will also make your website look unprofessional. The number one rule when using colors on your website is to consider your brand identity and your brand colors first.

What’s the point of having a brand identity and color palette picked if you’re not going to use them?

A good rule of thumb when adding color to your website is to stick to four colors. Three that complement each other and one that can be used to highlight important parts, like CTAs.

10. Illegible Fonts

We get it, getting a unique font is a great way to stand out from the competition, but if the font makes it harder for your visitors to read your copy, then it’s doing more harm than good.

Picking a good font that aligns with your brand is just as important as picking your brand’s color palette.

Make sure to check your website on different mobile devices and see how your font looks on each. You want to make sure that the font size is easy to read but not so big that it takes a considerable amount of screen space.

Also, we don’t recommend using more than two different font styles. While having many fonts can work, it can get very confusing if done incorrectly.

11. Outdated Design

If your website looks like it’s from the Yahoo era, then it’s definitely time to consider updating its look. While the investment might seem big, the payoff is worth it considering how long it’s been since you updated your website’s design.

The biggest issue that an outdated design will bring is the lack of trust from visitors clicking on your website for the first time. Noticing how old your website seems to be, they will feel reluctant to believe anything that your brand tells them.

This is especially true if your content is also out of date. If they want to learn more about your product and notice the video is seven years old, they’ll most likely close your website and look for an alternative.

12. Too Much Content

This is one of the worst web design mistakes on this list. Too much content on your pages will drive away visitors interested in your products or services. When people open a website, they can feel overwhelmed by walls of text.

People want to be able to read through content quickly, and a wall of text stops them from doing that entirely.

Unless you want your bounce rate to skyrocket, make sure to do this for all your content:

• Separate long paragraphs into digestible chunks that can be scanned.

• Make use of headings to separate content sections.

• Use images to separate content and give the reader some breathing room.

Want to fix your website and make it the best it’s ever been? We can help.

13. No Search Function

Not having a search bar on your website in 2025 is a detrimental web design mistake you should fix ASAP.

Search bars are vital because they let visitors find exactly what they are looking for without having to find the page manually. It saves them time, and it benefits you since they are more likely to purchase the product.

Having a search bar is especially important if you have hundreds of different items in your online store.

People don’t want to browse for minutes just to find a single item; they want to find what they’re looking for as fast as possible.

14. Using Stock Images

Not investing in custom or paid images for your website is a design mistake. This choice may push some customers away from buying your products.

Take the side of the visitor for a second. Every day they go through multiple websites and use social media.. They look at hundreds of different images daily, and after some time, they notice that some images appear in different places.

They go and search for a product they want, only to notice that the stock image they saw somewhere is being used as a background image for a website.

It instantly makes it feel like the brand doesn’t care enough about the look of its website. This makes the visitor doubt the quality of the brand and its products if they don’t care about what images they’re using.

While this isn’t as common as something like a wall of text stopping a visitor from exploring the rest of your website, it can stop some visitors outright.

15. Not Utilizing Analytics

The last and by far one of the most influential web design mistakes you should avoid is not using analytics to see how your website is performing.

It’s hard to know if the changes you’ve made to your website are worthwhile if there are no analytics to back it up.

By consistently testing different strategies and using analytics to learn what’s working, you can find out what your website should have for your specific industry.

Get a Custom Web Design that Converts with Blacksmith

There are dozens of web design mistakes you can make if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be careful of. Not only that, fixing those mistakes takes a lot of time that you could be using to improve other aspects of your brand.

Worry not, with Blacksmith’s team of seasoned web designers and web developers, you will get a custom website that solves any issue your current one has.

Working with a professional web design agency, you’ll get a new website with modern strategies tailored to your industry.

Best of all? You’ll get consistent updates on how the website is doing, so you can ask for changes or suggestions before the website is done.

Still hesitant to take the plunge and get a new website? Let’s get on a call so we can talk about how important a good web design is in 2025.