Websites have proven to be invaluable resources, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many businesses barely surviving to meet their bottom line, many have resolved to take to online marketing and implement sales strategies through the website or e-commerce.
Website design has increasingly become a beacon of hope for business owners around the world. Many had literally felt its intangible visibility yet able access to larger audiences, target markets and getting back to business as usual.
It remains an excellent tool to reduce running costs because most services and operations are made through online meetings. Additionally, it offers great convenience as one can work from home.
With these great benefits and more, here are some mistakes you should avoid when building or optimizing your website according to the latest website design trends 2025 list to prevent bad website design.
Bad websites can be identified by several common characteristics that contribute to a poor user experience. These include poor website design, cluttered interfaces, inconsistent branding, and a lack of mobile-friendliness. Such issues can lead to high bounce rates and decreased conversions, ultimately harming a business’s online presence and reputation. Recognizing these traits is crucial for businesses aiming to improve their websites and attract more potential customers. By addressing these common pitfalls, you can ensure your website stands out for the right reasons and provides a seamless experience for users.
1. Non-Mobile Friendly Web Design
On average, 70% of all online searches in Malaysia are performed using smartphones, as mobile searches tend to last longer than desktop searches. Mobile responsive web design trends may be attributed to its portability and affordability to a larger percentage of the population in comparison to desktop devices.
A bad website with non-mobile-friendly web design will definitely hinder the efforts of potential clients to access your site information, consequently, leading to the loss of opportunity to tap into a potential market.
2. Slow Loading Page
Slow loading pages can be both frustrating and time-consuming to any person searching online, and thus create a negative customer experience. People desire to always have quick and effective search results. Slow loading pages can also negatively impact search engine rankings.
Slow loading pages inhibit consumers from quickly transiting between pages to sample all the needed information, content or images.
3. Poor Website Navigation
Website navigation enables you to guide your reader’s path. Professional web designers usually incorporate an array of features to enable ‘intuitive navigation design’. This form of navigation helps a visitor to access the needed website pages with ease and direct. A well-designed search bar is also crucial for efficient user navigation.
On the contrary, a poor design website navigation will lead to many potential users getting ‘stranded’ – clueless about getting to the products pages from the webpage they currently are on.
4. Cluttered Interface
A cluttered interface is a hallmark of bad websites and can be a significant deterrent for users. When a web page is overloaded with too many different fonts, too many images, and excessive text, it becomes overwhelming and difficult to navigate. This can frustrate users and lead to a high bounce rate. A well-designed website should feature a clear and concise layout, utilizing plenty of whitespace to guide the user’s attention effectively. By avoiding a cluttered interface, you can enhance user engagement and ensure visitors can easily find the information they need.
5. Inconsistent Design
Inconsistent design is another common issue that plagues bad websites. When a website lacks uniformity in branding, fonts, and colors, it can confuse users and diminish their trust in the site. A well-designed website should maintain a consistent design throughout, establishing a clear brand identity and visual hierarchy. This consistency helps build credibility and ensures a cohesive user experience. By addressing design inconsistencies, businesses can improve their online reputation and foster a sense of reliability among their audience.
6. No 404 page
Surprisingly these were not part of the web design trends until recently. A 404 page is popularly referred to as a ‘Not Found’ page. It could either caused by the content was moved to other pages, link changed or being deleted. Information on this 404 page is essential to redirect users back to the home page or even better, suggest what is the closest to what they are looking for. No proper 404 design or information will lead to potential customers exit.
Protip: A simple button to link back to the homepage will help in your SEO ranking.
7. Missing H1 tags-Especially on the Homepage Affecting Search Engine Rankings
An H1 tag or Heading tag is a title affixed to any piece of content. It’s the headline used to introduce the content as descriptive as possible. A poorly designed website often lacks clear H1 tags, which can negatively impact user experience and usability. This feature helps the users to determine the context of the section before reading it and it has positive effects on the level of your SEO ranking to rank higher than your competitors.
Missing H1 tags will inevitably decrease your ranking and lead to a ‘puzzled’ audience, who may not precisely be getting the best idea of what they are viewing.
8. Large Image File Sizes
Images are the face of any website. It increases the aesthetic value of the website, draws attention and fosters engagement with your customers. In turn, they attract more organic traffic to your site and increase your SEO rank.
However, inserting large image file sizes may limit the enjoyment of these benefits, despite challenging for the best quality. Some creative agency still tends to ignore this fact. Large images may take up lots of web space and slow down your website. For all our websites projects, our designers usually scan through this Photoshop resizer, to provide the best user experience. Websites with inconsistent design and random elements can end up being just a mess in terms of user experience.
9. Pop-Ups Distractions and Cluttered Interface
Unless you are really giving 90% off and closing down your store, then this may be a good idea – especially for an e-commerce website.
No people would want their browsing experience to be interrupted with a brands’ pop-up that tells them of a sale or an event coming up, especially if when pop-ups are irrelevant to them. It’s annoying!
10. No Visible CTAs
One of the most critical mistakes in bad websites is the absence of visible calls-to-action (CTAs). CTAs are essential for guiding users towards specific actions, such as filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter, or making a purchase. Without clear and visible CTAs, users may feel lost and unsure of what steps to take next, leading to lower conversions and decreased user engagement. A well-designed website should feature prominent CTAs with concise and compelling messages, ensuring users can easily navigate and complete desired actions. By incorporating effective CTAs, businesses can enhance user experience and drive better results.
11. Text in Images
Text in images may be a great idea to grab the attention of a new brand name among many famous brands. However, this works only during peak branding campaigns and may prove detrimental if overdone. Stuffing images with text and keywords may lead to a lower SEO rank as ‘stuffed’ images may be considered as SPAM. Google algorithms read the embedded metadata and interpret the same. It is important that all branding agency know how SEO works.
12. Infinite Scrolling
A website page can be disavowed from a search engine results because search engines, especially Google, do not scroll through pages that incorporate this feature. Using an infinite scrolling layout on your website leads to the continuity of slow loading of redundant contents.
Essentially, this means content only loads as you scroll. Good website designs should incorporate alternative features such as pagination which enable the webpages to be analyzed and indexed according to the Google bots ways.
13. All Content in 1 Page
Having all your contents squeezed into one page gives a congested look and affects the overall presentation of your website design. Yes, we know it is cheaper for business, but it does not benefit your users. A website developer should apply personal judgment and thought to avoid simply following trends in design choices.
Well laid out pages should provide information in ‘palatable’ portions. It should include the division of contents into subheadings and using backlinks to link other related webpages to the current one. These features will minimize the risk of putting everything on one page that may diminish customers’ interest due to the difficulty of finding what they desire ‘amidst’ all the clutter.
14. Templated Design
A well-designed website should cater to the exact needs of the company. It should be unique and tailor-made for that type of business. A premade template, however affordable, lacks these features.
Templates are designed to blanket the needs of a company. It lacks versatility and is replicative. A majority of free template designs fail to measure the changing SEO algorithm and prepare to get out of trends in no time. Such a shortcoming will adversely affect your ranking and company plans in the long run. This is a common issue seen in some of the worst websites, where poor design and user experience lead to outdated aesthetics and navigation difficulties.
Conclusion on Web Design Trends Malaysia
In 2025, the internet search and website landscape in Malaysia is bound to be more competitive due to the drastic increase in the number of ‘players’.
Search engines will be more inclined to introduce more stringent and robust algorithms to rank websites. The changes are bound to be fast-paced, continuous, and will have much effect on your website visibility. Instead of worrying about these intricate technicalities, leave it to the experts. Do consider hiring a reputable web design Malaysia company that will build and optimize your website to your exact needs and ensure a continuous high SEO ranking to serve these folks. Additionally, reviewing bad websites examples can provide valuable insights into common design flaws to avoid.
