By Gecko Studio · updated October 2026
Not long ago we received an enquiry about redesigning a corporate website. The client complained that, despite having traffic, visitors stayed less than a minute and conversions were nil. As soon as we opened the site we spotted several obvious design mistakes, and a closer analysis turned up other specific faults. We see these same mistakes repeatedly on the websites of other clients who ask us for help with similar problems.
The trouble is that, day after day, we meet websites with great potential that fail to grow because of them. Your site may be suffering from the same faults, so here is a short review of the mistakes we find and fix most often.
Confusing navigation
Have you ever landed on a site where you had no idea where to go or how to find what you wanted? Unintuitive navigation can frustrate users enormously. Complicated menus, unclear links and a messy structure are common problems that make browsing hard.
When visitors cannot quickly find what they are looking for, they usually leave. That raises the bounce rate and loses you potential customers. Put simply, if navigation is a maze, your users will not stay to explore it.
Design clear, accessible menus with descriptive section names. But it is not only about content; the visual side matters too. Make sure links change colour once clicked and that buttons stand out when the cursor hovers over them. If you have sliders or carousels, add visual cues such as arrows or dots so users know how to interact with them.
Poor responsiveness
A site that looks perfect on a desktop can turn into chaos on a phone. Poor responsiveness means the site does not adapt well to mobile devices and different screen sizes. Have you come across sites where the text is unreadable, the buttons are impossible to tap or the images look out of proportion? That is a clear sign of a non-responsive design.
It frustrates users and shortens the time they spend on the site, which ultimately hurts conversion rates. In a world where more than 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, not optimising for them is like closing the door on half your potential customers.
The answer is a responsive design that adapts to any device:
- Flexible layout: use fluid layouts that adjust automatically to the screen size.
- Responsive images: make sure images scale properly without losing quality or becoming distorted.
- Adaptive typography: use font sizes that stay readable on small screens.
- Testing on real devices: do not rely only on simulators; test on several real devices to make sure everything works. Our guide to responsive web design covers this in more depth.
Out-of-date content
Imagine arriving at a site and finding events that took place years ago or products that are no longer available. It is frustrating, and it can make visitors question how serious and relevant the company is.
Outdated information may sound like an obvious problem, but it is not always noticed. Many companies forget to remove old discounts and promotions, which can cause even more serious problems. If users find old or incorrect details, they may conclude the company is not active or committed to its online presence, and choose a competitor.
Slow loading
Few things are as frustrating as a site that takes forever to load. It is one of the biggest killers of user experience and can have disastrous consequences for your business online.
Slow loading leads to a high bounce rate, because users are not willing to wait long for a page. Studies show that 47% of users expect a page to load in two seconds or less, and 40% will abandon a site that takes more than three seconds. That hurts conversion rates and search rankings, since search engines penalise slow sites.
Some key strategies:
- Image compression: use suitable image formats and compression tools to cut file sizes without losing quality.
- Fewer HTTP requests: reduce the number of requests to the server by combining CSS and JavaScript files.
- A CDN (Content Delivery Network): CDNs distribute your content across servers around the world, which can reduce loading times.
- Browser caching: let files be stored in the visitor's browser so they do not have to be reloaded on every visit.
- Avoid too much video and multimedia: multimedia can be engaging, but overloading a page with videos slows it down significantly. Be selective about what you include.
An unattractive design
The look of your site is the first thing visitors see, and it shapes their first impression of your company.
An outdated or cluttered design can make a site look unprofessional and neglected. That includes too many different typefaces, inconsistent colours and a disorganised layout. Invest in a modern, professional design that reflects your company's identity. Some key recommendations:
Limit your typefaces
Avoid using lots of typefaces: apart from looking bad, they slow the site down. It is usually best to use two fonts, three at most: one for headings and one for body text. Typographic consistency creates a more polished, professional look.
Keep a consistent colour palette
Do not use a large number of different colours, as this can overwhelm visitors. Around three main colours is ideal. Your brand colour, usually taken from the logo, can be the main one, complemented by white and black or grey for text. If you need another background colour, choose a shade of the main colour to keep the whole site harmonious.
It is also crucial to consider colour contrast. Make sure there is enough contrast between background and text for easy reading; for example, avoid pale yellow text on a white background. Use contrast-checking tools to make sure your colours meet accessibility guidelines and give a good user experience.
A clean, organised layout
Make sure all elements are well organised and there is enough white space so the page does not feel overloaded. A clean layout makes navigation easier and improves the user experience.
Up-to-date visuals
Use modern, high-quality images and graphics that fit your brand identity. Dated images can make even a well-structured design look obsolete.
Supply your logo as an SVG
If you have a new logo, or one designed by a professional, supply it as an SVG rather than a PNG. SVG is a vector format that resizes without losing quality, so the logo looks good on every device and screen size. Sending screenshots of logos or PNG images can mean a loss of quality and an unprofessional look.
Unclear calls to action (CTAs)
Good web design is not just about looks, but also about function. Call-to-action buttons and links play a crucial role in guiding users towards the actions you want, whether that is subscribing, buying or getting in touch.
If users cannot easily see how to interact with your site, they will probably get frustrated and leave without doing anything.
Make sure your CTAs are visible, clear and appealing, using contrasting colours that make them stand out from the rest of the content. At Gecko Studio, for example, most CTAs have a green background and white text, which makes them clearly visible and consistent across the site.
Also keep a consistent design for all of them, even if the text varies. That consistency helps users sense that all the buttons do a similar job, even when the specific actions differ. And use clear, direct wording, such as "Buy now", "Subscribe" or "Contact us", so people understand immediately what is expected of them.
Ignoring SEO
The most obvious consequence of not implementing SEO is lower visibility in search engines, which means less traffic. Without SEO your site is less likely to appear on the first pages of results, and as most users do not go past the first page of Google, you lose a significant amount of potential traffic. Less traffic means fewer chances to convert and, ultimately, less revenue. SEO is not compulsory as part of web design, but it is necessary.
In what order should you fix these mistakes?
Knowing which mistakes a corporate website has is the easy part. The hard part is deciding the order to fix them in, because when everything is corrected at once it is impossible to tell what worked and what made things worse. An order that tends to work well starts with whatever is closest to the money:
- First, the action you want the visitor to take. Before polishing designs, check that the next step is clear on every main page: call, request a quote, book. If four different buttons carry the same weight, none of them wins.
- Then, mobile. On your own phone, using mobile data rather than wifi, check how your most-visited page looks and how long it takes to load. It is a five-minute test and often the most revealing.
- Next, the copy. Read your homepage as if you knew nothing about your company. If it is not clear what you do, for whom and where, the design will not fix it.
- Finally, the aesthetics. It is what people see most and what moves results least when the rest is not resolved.
Two habits avoid expensive mistakes. Change one thing at a time on whatever matters most, and note the date so you can compare. And ask a real customer what they found hard to find: five minutes of conversation tells you more than a week of internal guesswork.
Corporate websites are often built for the people who commission them, not for the people who visit them. Turning that perspective around fixes more faults than any checklist.
As you can see, many things need to be right for a website to be effective, attractive and functional: navigation, responsiveness, up-to-date content, loading speed, a good-looking design, clear CTAs and SEO. These are only some of the common mistakes we find, and there are many more that may be affecting your site's performance. If you recognise your site in this list, a website and SEO audit is a good place to start, or you can contact us and we will help your website reach its full potential.
