Amateur vs professional website design: mistakes that cost customers

Most homemade-looking websites were not built carelessly. They grew one well-meant addition at a time: a new font for a festival offer, a clip art icon someone liked, another banner because the boss wanted it above the fold. The result is a page that quietly tells visitors the business is small, rushed or out of date. This article walks through the most common amateur website design mistakes and gives a practical fix for each, so you can clean up what you have instead of starting from zero.

Why homemade design costs you enquiries

A buyer comparing three suppliers usually cannot judge the quality of your actual work from a search result. What they can judge is how your site looks next to the other two. When yours feels patched together, they assume your service might be too, even if that is unfair.

These faults rarely cause an obvious error. Nobody emails to say your fonts clash. They simply leave, which is why the damage is easy to miss.

Style mistakes: when nothing on the page matches

Mistake 1: Too many fonts

Script fonts for headings, a bold display face for offers, a default system font in the body and something different again in the footer. Four or five typefaces on one page look chaotic.

The fix: choose one font family for headings and one for body text, or use a single family in different weights. Apply them everywhere, including buttons, forms and the menu.

Mistake 2: A rainbow of colours

Red buttons on one page, green on another, blue links, orange headings and a purple banner from an old campaign. When every element fights for attention, nothing stands out.

The fix: define a small palette: one main brand colour, one accent for buttons and calls to action, and a set of neutral greys for text and backgrounds. Write down the exact hex codes and reuse them. Check that text colours meet at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio against their background, which is the WCAG AA level for normal text.

Mistake 3: Buttons that all look different

Rounded, square, outlined, shadowed, gradient-filled. Mixed button styles make visitors unsure what is clickable and which action matters most.

The fix: create one primary button style and one secondary style, then replace every button on the site with one of the two.

Graphics mistakes: clip art, stretched logos and effects

Mistake 4: Clip art and cartoon icons

Glossy 3D icons, cartoon figures and old clip art immediately date a site. They also tend to come from different sources, so no two share a style.

The fix: use one consistent icon set in a single style, either all outline or all filled, and only where an icon genuinely helps someone understand a label. Where you need pictures, use real photographs of your products, premises or team.

Mistake 5: Stretched, pixelated or watermarked images

A logo squashed to fit the header, a blurry banner blown up from a WhatsApp forward, or a stock photo still carrying a watermark. Each one looks careless, and the watermark may also mean the image is not licensed for your use.

The fix: ask your designer for the original logo file in SVG or a large PNG. Replace low-resolution photos with properly sized versions, and only use images you own or have a valid licence for.

Mistake 6: Animations, auto-playing media and flashing text

Scrolling marquee text, blinking "NEW" badges, background music and sliders that change every two seconds feel like websites from another era. They also distract from your message and slow the page.

The fix: remove auto-playing sound entirely. Replace a fast carousel with one strong static banner, and keep motion subtle, such as a gentle hover effect on buttons.

Layout mistakes: crowded pages and walls of text

Mistake 7: Filling every gap

Owners sometimes worry that empty space is wasted space. So the sidebar gets a calendar, a visitor counter, three offers and a weather widget. Crowded layouts are tiring, and visitors cannot find the one thing they came for.

The fix: give each page a single main goal, like getting a call or a quote request. Remove anything that does not support that goal, and let generous space separate the sections that remain.

Mistake 8: Long, unbroken paragraphs

A service page written as one 400-word block is hard to read, especially on a phone.

The fix: break text into short paragraphs, add descriptive subheadings, and turn lists of features into bullet points.

Mistake 9: A layout that breaks on phones

Text too small to read, buttons squeezed together, or a page that scrolls sideways. On mobile these problems look especially amateur.

The fix: test every key page on a real phone. Make body text comfortably readable without zooming, and give tap targets roughly 48 pixels of height with space between them. Chrome DevTools device mode is handy for a first pass, but always confirm on an actual handset.

A quick audit to catch these faults on your own site

Set aside an hour and go through your site with this list. Mark each item done or needs fixing:

• No more than two font families across the whole site
• A written colour palette with exact codes, and no stray colours
• Only one primary and one secondary button style
• No clip art, mixed icon styles or watermarked images
• The logo is sharp and in its correct proportions
• No auto-playing audio, blinking text or fast-rotating sliders
• Each page has one clear goal and room to breathe
• Paragraphs are short and broken up with subheadings
• Every key page works properly on a real phone

Fix the style and graphics items first, since they are often quick wins. Layout changes may take longer, particularly if the underlying template is the problem.

Fixing it yourself or rebuilding properly

If your audit finds a handful of issues, a few focused edits can make a surprising difference. If nearly every line needs fixing, patching may just add another layer of inconsistency. In that case a rebuild on a clean, consistent design system is usually faster in the long run.

Our team can review your current site and suggest which path makes sense; see how we approach business website development, or look at our website packages and pricing before deciding.

Frequently asked questions

Is it bad to use free website templates?

Not necessarily. Many free templates are well designed. Problems start when owners mix in extra fonts, colours and plugins that the template was never meant to hold. Sticking closely to the template’s own styles avoids most of that.

How many fonts should a business website use?

Two is a sensible maximum for most sites: one for headings and one for body text. A single well-chosen family used in a few weights can work just as well and loads faster.

Are sliders on the home page a design mistake?

Not always, but they are often overused. Many visitors never wait for later slides, so the key message belongs on the first one or in a static banner instead.

Can I fix an amateur-looking website without changing the content?

Partly. Standardising fonts, colours, buttons and images improves appearance a lot without rewriting anything. However, walls of text and cluttered pages usually need some content editing too.