Quick Answer
Most bad website examples fail in the same few ways. The usual ones are slow pages, layouts that break on phones, clutter, hard-to-read text, hidden contact details, and pop-ups that block the content. Each one makes a visitor work harder to become a customer. The fix is rarely a full redesign. It’s removing the elements that cost you leads.
Trust counts too: the Stanford Web Credibility Project guidelines tie it to signals like easy contact and a real address.
Ugly isn’t the problem. Plenty of plain websites make money every day, and plenty of beautiful ones lose visitors in seconds.
Bad website design is anything that gets in the way of what the visitor came to do. That’s the lens we use for every example below, and it’s the core of good web design too.
Why bad design costs leads
A website has one job for most small businesses: turn a visitor into a call, a form, or a sale. Every element on the page either helps that happen or makes it harder.
When something makes it harder, the visitor rarely complains. They hit the back button and try the next result. You don’t see the lead you lost, which is why bad elements can survive for years.
We call that friction: anything that makes acting harder. A slow page is friction. So is a phone number buried in the footer, or a pop-up that covers the page before anyone has read a word.
Bad design also costs trust. The Stanford Web Credibility Project guidelines draw on three years of research with thousands of participants. They link credibility to signals like a real address, easy contact, and a professional look. A visitor who doubts the site often doubts the business.
Key Takeaways
Avoiding a bad website comes down to:
- Judge by the task: A plain site that helps people act beats a pretty one that slows them down.
- Phones come first: Most problems show up on a small screen before they show up on a desktop.
- Remove before you add: Cutting clutter usually helps more than adding new features.
- Trust is a design job: Contact details, security, and current content tell visitors the business is real.
The 12 website elements to avoid
These examples come from well-known sites and from patterns we see on badly designed websites of every size. Each element includes an example or a common pattern, plus the fix.
Some of the famous sites get away with it. Your business probably can’t, because new visitors judge your site on the first screen.
1. Pages that load slowly
Speed is the first impression, and a design can’t help if the page is still loading. Google’s Core Web Vitals guidance says Largest Contentful Paint "should occur within 2.5 seconds" for a good experience. That metric measures how long the main content takes to appear.
Slow loading usually comes from oversized images, too many plugins, and cheap hosting. The fix starts with compressing images and removing plugins you don’t use. Better hosting and caching help most WordPress website performance problems after that.
A quick test is to open your site on a phone using mobile data. If you’re tapping your fingers before the main message appears, your visitors are too.
2. Layouts that break on phones
Text that runs off the screen, buttons too small to tap, and menus that won’t open are common on older sites. Visitors on phones leave fast when that happens.
Google uses the mobile version of a page for indexing, so a broken phone layout hurts rankings too. The fix is responsive design that adapts to the screen, tested on real phones. Good mobile website design also puts the phone number and main button within thumb reach.
Don’t rely on shrinking your desktop browser window to test this. Real phones handle fonts, menus, and forms differently, and that’s where most problems hide.
3. A cluttered homepage
Arngren, a Norwegian electronics retailer, is the classic example. Its homepage packs dozens of product photos, prices, and labels into one dense page, with little order.
Clutter makes every element on the page compete for attention, so nothing wins. Visitors scan for a few seconds, can’t find a starting point and leave.
Small business sites fall into the same trap in a quieter way. A homepage with six banners, three sliders, and a list of every service sends the same signal Arngren does.
The fix is a clear order: one main message, one main action, and a short path to the rest. If everything is important, nothing is.
4. A design that hasn’t changed in decades
The Berkshire Hathaway homepage is a plain list of links to letters, filings, and news releases. There’s almost no visual design, and the page includes a text line offering a free GEICO car insurance quote.
Berkshire can get away with it because shareholders already know where to find what they need. A small business can’t. An outdated design makes new visitors wonder if anyone still runs the company.
A plain site can work. A neglected one can’t.
5. Navigation that hides what you sell
RockAuto, an auto parts ecommerce site, makes visitors drill down by make, year, model, and part. Its loyal customers know the system. A newcomer has to learn it before they can buy anything.
That trade-off only works with a huge ecommerce catalog and repeat buyers. Poor navigation on a small site has no such excuse. Most service businesses need a simple menu: a handful of plain labels that match how customers describe what they want.
Labels like "Solutions" or "What we do" force a click to find out what’s inside. Plain words like "Roof repair" or "Tax preparation" tell visitors and search engines exactly what you offer.
6. Text that’s hard to read
Light gray text on white, words over busy photos, and tiny fonts all make visitors squint. It’s one of the easiest problems to miss on your own site. The W3C’s contrast standard in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text.
Text that’s hard to read is poor design, whatever else the page gets right. The fix is simple: dark text on a light background, body text large enough to read on a phone, and short paragraphs. Readable text helps every visitor, not just those with low vision.
7. Hidden contact details
A phone number buried in the footer or a contact page with only a form makes buyers work to reach you. The Stanford guidelines name clear contact information, including phone, address, and email, as a simple way to boost credibility.
Put your phone number in the header, make it tappable on phones, and list your address where it fits. For local businesses, this is one of the cheapest fixes on the list.
8. No clear next step
Some pages explain the business well and then stop. There’s no button, no form, and no suggestion of what to do next.
Every important page needs one main action, repeated where it makes sense. For most service businesses that’s a call or a consultation request. To design websites that convert, put that action near the top and again after each main section.
9. Pop-ups that block the page
A newsletter box that appears before the page loads is one of the most common annoyances online. Google’s guidance on intrusive interstitials and dialogs says they "may frustrate them and erode their trust in your website."
If you use a pop-up, delay it, make it easy to close, and keep it small on phones. Required notices, such as cookie consent, are a different case and are fine when they’re unobtrusive.
10. Missing security
A site without HTTPS shows a "Not secure" warning in the browser. Visitors see that warning next to your contact form, and many won’t fill it in.
The fix is an SSL certificate, which most hosts now include, and a check that every page loads over HTTPS. Old plugins and themes are a security risk too, which is why ignoring WordPress updates costs more than it saves.
11. Hidden text and keyword stuffing
Some older sites hide keywords in white text on a white background or repeat a city name dozens of times in the footer. It was a common trick years ago.
Today it’s a liability, and it often comes from an old agency or a plugin nobody remembers installing. Google’s spam policies describe hidden text as content placed "solely to manipulate search engines" and not easily seen by visitors. The fix is to remove it and write pages for people.
12. Outdated content and broken links
A homepage that announces an event from three years ago says the business has stopped paying attention. So does a team page full of people who’ve left, or a menu with links to error pages.
Set a reminder to review key pages every quarter. Start with the homepage, your main service pages, and the team page, because those are the pages new visitors check first. A website maintenance plan covers updates and backups, but content still needs an owner on your team.
What makes a website look unreliable
People searching for examples of unreliable websites usually want to know what to watch for. The same elements that hurt a business site also make visitors distrust it.
| Warning sign | Why visitors distrust it | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| No HTTPS or a "Not secure" warning | Data might not be protected | Install SSL and force HTTPS on every page |
| No address, phone, or named people | The business may not be real | Show contact details and a team page |
| Outdated dates and dead links | Nobody seems to maintain it | Review key pages every quarter |
| Spelling errors and broken layouts | Suggests carelessness | Proofread and test on phones |
| Aggressive pop-ups and ads | Feels like a trap | Delay pop-ups and keep ads off service pages |
| Claims with no source | Can’t be checked | Link to evidence for any statistic |
Good sites avoid all six. Visitors don’t run this checklist consciously. They feel it in a few seconds and decide whether to stay.
A quick self-check for your own site
You can spot most of these problems in 15 minutes with a phone and a fresh pair of eyes. Work through the steps in order, the way a first-time visitor would.
- Open your homepage on your phone using mobile data, not Wi-Fi. Note how long it takes before you can read the main message.
- Without scrolling, ask what the business does and what you should do next. Both answers should be obvious.
- Tap your phone number. It should start a call.
- Fill in your contact form and confirm the message arrives.
- Click through the main menu and five internal links. Note any errors or dead ends.
- Check the newest date on the homepage, news page, or blog.
- Look for a "Not secure" warning in the address bar on any page.
Now ask yourself: which of these steps would a first-time visitor fail on your site today? That’s the leak to fix first.
Most bad websites don’t need a redesign. They need someone to remove the three things getting in the way.
If you find more than a few problems, or the site is too hard to edit yourself, a rebuild may cost less than patching it.
Fix it or rebuild it
Once you know which elements are hurting your site, the next question is whether to patch them or start over. The answer depends on how deep the problems go.
Fix the site when the problems are limited to a few elements. Slow images, a buried phone number, a pushy pop-up, and a stale homepage can all be fixed in days. You keep the pages that already rank and the design customers recognize.
Rebuild when the problems sit in the foundation. Watch for a layout that breaks on phones or a theme nobody can update safely. A site you can’t edit without calling a developer belongs on the same list. Patching those usually costs more over time than replacing them.
There’s also a middle path. Some businesses fix the urgent leaks now and plan a redesign for later in the year. That keeps leads coming while the bigger project is scoped properly.
Whichever path you choose, measure before and after. Note your calls, form submissions, and page speed today, then check again a month after the changes. Real numbers from your own site beat any rule of thumb about good website design.
Bad website FAQs
What makes a website bad?
A website is bad when it gets in the way of what visitors came to do. Common causes are slow loading, layouts that break on phones, clutter, hard-to-read text, hidden contact details, intrusive pop-ups, and outdated content. Looks matter less than whether people can find what they need.
What are examples of unreliable websites?
Unreliable websites often lack HTTPS, hide who runs them, show outdated dates or broken links, and make claims with no sources. Aggressive ads and pop-ups add to the doubt. If a site gives no address, phone number, or named people, visitors have little reason to trust it.
Can a simple website still be good?
Yes. A simple website can work well if it loads fast, reads clearly on phones, and makes the next step obvious. Many plain sites outperform flashy ones because they remove friction. Simple isn’t the same as neglected, so keep content current and the site secure.
How do I know if my website needs a redesign?
Your website probably needs a redesign if it breaks on phones or is too hard to update. Slow loading after basic fixes, or pages that no longer match your services, point the same way. If only a few elements are wrong, fix those first and measure before rebuilding.
Getting help in Reno
If you take one thing from these examples, judge your website by how easily a visitor can act, not by how it looks.
White Peak is a web design and digital marketing agency in downtown Reno. We build and fix websites for businesses in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Truckee, and nationwide.
If your site has some of these problems, our web design in Reno team will sort out the fixes in a free consultation.
