80: 5 Website Mistakes That Can Tank Conversion Rates (and how to fix them!)
Let's have an honest conversation about your website. I know you've put countless hours into making it look perfect. The colors are just right, the images are stunning, and every detail has been meticulously crafted. But something isn't quite adding up – your conversion rates don't match all that aesthetic effort you've poured in.
During a recent website strategy call, I was reviewing a client's gorgeous site. Beautiful design, perfect brand colors, clearly lots of thought went into it. But when I asked them what action they wanted visitors to take, they couldn't give me a clear answer. That's when I realized how common this challenge is for business owners.
Mistake #1: Copy That Confuses Instead of Converts
The first conversion killer I see constantly is unclear copy. Here's a real story: A virtual assistant's homepage headline read "Empowering Entrepreneurs Through Comprehensive Administrative Solutions." Sounds professional, right? But it wasn't converting. We changed it to "I handle your admin tasks so you can focus on what you do best: growing your business." Her inquiry rate doubled in the first month. The difference wasn't in the professionalism – it was in the clarity.
Mistake #2: Typography That Gets in the Way
Those fancy, decorative fonts might look amazing in your brand guide, but they're often impossible to read on a website. And in 2025, I'm seeing a new problematic trend – bold, gigantic sans-serif fonts that run off the page or hide behind other elements. When someone's trying to browse your products, the last thing they need is a rotating "SALE" sign blocking their view.
Mistake #3: Navigation That Needs a Decoder Ring
Imagine walking into a grocery store looking for tomatoes, only to find the produce section labeled "Earth's Bounty." That's exactly what happens when we get too creative with website navigation. Your visitors shouldn't have to decode your menu to find what they're looking for.
Mistake #4: The "Everything Restaurant" Syndrome
Picture a restaurant that serves orange chicken, omelets, cheeseburgers, and pasta all on the same menu. Would you trust any of those dishes to be good? That's what happens when we give website visitors too many choices. According to Hick's Law, the more choices you give people, the longer it takes them to make a decision. And in the digital world, a delayed decision usually means no decision at all.
Mistake #5: Set It and Regret It
Your website isn't a one-and-done project. As a data nerd, I'm constantly tracking what tutorials people watch, what words they search for, and how many freebie downloads convert to email signups. This information helps me make informed changes every month. Your website should evolve based on how your visitors interact with it.
Take Action: The 5-Second Test
Here's one action you can take right now: Open your website on a device you don't usually use (phone if you typically view it on desktop, or vice versa). Set a timer for five seconds, look at your homepage, and then close it. Now ask yourself: What do you do? Who do you help? And what's the main action someone should take?
If you can't answer all three questions after those five seconds, you've just identified your starting point for improvements. Remember, your website isn't just there to look pretty – it's there to convert visitors into customers. Give it clear direction, make it easy to understand, and watch those conversion rates climb.
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ep 80 NCC
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[00:00:00] You have a beautiful website. The colors are perfect, the images are stunning and high quality. You spent countless hours making sure that every detail is just right. But here's the thing, your conversion rates aren't matching up with all that effort that you've put in. Whether you're trying to sell products, book services, or grow your email list, something just isn't clicking with your visitors.
If that sounds familiar, then this is the episode for you. In this episode of Think Inside the Square, I'm sharing the five common website mistakes that could be secretly sabotaging your conversion rates. And more importantly, how to fix those mistakes. Now the best part? None of these require code skills or expensive programs.
Just a few strategic tweaks that can help transform how your visitors interact with your site. Welcome to Think Inside the Square, a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a website that you're proud of. I'm your host, Becca Harpain, Squarespace [00:01:00] expert and educator, and creator of InsideTheSquare.co
In this episode, we are diving into the world of website conversions, what's stopping them, and how to fix it. For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast
Now, before we dive into these five mistakes, I want to share something that happened to me recently.
I was reviewing a website for a client doing one of my website strategy calls. They this beautiful design. Gorgeous brand colors. Clearly, a lot of thought went into this. But when I asked them what action they wanted visitors to take, they couldn't give me a clear answer. And that's when I realized this was such a good topic for my podcast.
So many of us are focused on how our websites look that we forget about why we make them in the first place. The truth is, your website is not just a digital business card. It needs to be the hardest working team member because it's available 24/7 and it's there to convert visitors into subscribers, [00:02:00] leads, and customers.
But just like any team member, your website needs clear direction and the right tools to do its job effectively. So that's what we're going to cover in today's episode. I'm going to be sharing the five common mistakes that might be holding your website back from performing at its best. By the end of this episode, you will know exactly what to look for on your own website and how to fix it.
So let's kick this off by talking about your text, the actual language that you use on your homepage. When someone lands on your website, you've got about five seconds to grab their attention and let them know that they're in the right place. If your copy is complicated, you're not just losing their attention, you're losing conversions.
I see this mistake all the time when I'm doing website reviews. Business owners get so caught up in trying to sound professional or demonstrate their expertise that they throw in buzzwords and they forget the most important rule of website copy. Clarity is key. Let me give you a real example. A few months ago, I was [00:03:00] working with a client who offers virtual assistant services, and her original homepage headline read, Empowering Entrepreneurs Through Comprehensive Administrative Solutions.
Sounds super professional, right? It absolutely is. And it makes sense. But it wasn't converting. We changed it to, I handle your admin tasks so you can focus on what you do best, growing your business. The new headline is simple, it's clear, and her inquiry rate doubled in the first month. Now full disclosure, she had started doing some advertising too, but double is still a pretty cool stat to share, and I can't help but think that our copy change had something to do with that.
Because visitors could immediately understand what she does and how it helps them. So how do you fix unclear copy on your own website? Here are tips that I love to share with my clients. First, read your copy out loud. If you stumble over words or run out of breath before reaching the end of a sentence, it's too complicated.
Okay, now this next tip is gonna sound silly, but [00:04:00] stick with me here. Read it like a robot. Yes, like a robot. Take all the inflection out of your voice to see if those words still make an impact when you can't put your own emphasis on terms. I know it sounds silly, but I promise it makes a difference. When we write copy ourselves, we subconsciously put emphasis on the right words so that it makes sense to us.
If you read it out loud without emphasizing any specific term, you'll be able to identify if any parts of that statement are unclear. Now, I also want you to think about focusing on the benefits, not the features. When you talk about features, you put the spotlight on you. You need to shift that and put the spotlight on the person you're trying to convert to a client or an email subscriber.
Instead of just listing what you offer, explain how it helps them. For example, don't just say, I'll send you weekly tips and tricks for your vegetable garden. You could try this statement, Learn new ways to improve your garden every week. Do you see the [00:05:00] difference there? Let's do another one really quick.
Instead of hand poured soy candles with organic essential oils and all natural ingredients, you could try clean burning candles that are safe for your family to breathe. Or maybe fill your home with calming natural fragrances. Alright, let's move on to mistake number two. Those fancy, decorative fonts that look amazing?
I totally respect the beautiful typography, but so many trendy fonts are practically impossible to read. And in 2025, design trends seem to have shifted away from that to the opposite. Bold, gigantic sans serif fonts that run off the page or go behind things, or my least favorite, spin. Yeah, that is just as bad.
A little animation can go a long way. But when you use motion on text, even simplified sans serif text, it is way too distracting to get the point across. Someone is trying to see the fancy earrings listed on your storefront, but the word sale keeps rotating in front of it, and it's super annoying. [00:06:00] Now, these fonts might be beautiful in your brand guide, and look incredible when printed on your product packaging, or used in your social media posts.
But when you use them to convey important information on your website, they're causing real problems for your visitors. Every time someone has to squint, zoom in, or spend extra time waiting for that animation rotation to come back around just so they can decode your text, you are adding some serious friction to their user experience.
And friction is the enemy of conversions. So how do you fix this? First, stick to a maximum of three fonts on your site. I know, I know, your brand guide probably has four, maybe even five, but for your website, less is more. Pick one main font for headlines, one for body text, and if you have to, an emphasis font for a third.
Now the next tip is to save those decorative fonts, those emphasis fonts I just mentioned, save them for special occasions. Maybe a simple accent on the about page of your website or [00:07:00] where you have a client testimonial you can highlight something that they're saying using your accent font. Everything else should be in easy to read fonts.
Now my third tip is to test your font choices, size, and placement on multiple devices. What looks perfectly readable on your big desktop screen might be tiny and cramped on a mobile phone. And since most of your visitors are probably viewing your site on their phone, mobile readability should be one of your top priorities.
So here's a quick test you can do right now. Pull up your website on your phone and hold it at arm's length. Can you still read everything clearly? Are fonts going off the page? Is an animation getting in the way of something else? If that's the case, it's time to simplify your font. Now, speaking of things that should be easy to read, let's move on to mistake number three, confusing navigation.
Now, I've got to give you a real life example of this because it absolutely cracked me up. I was visiting some friends in Portland, Oregon, and I needed to go to this grocery store in their neighborhood to grab some tomatoes for [00:08:00] our dinner. Well, I walk into this grocery store, and I expected to immediately see a produce section or somewhere to go.
And I'm looking around, and the sign for the produce section? Earth's Bounty. It took me a hot second to realize, that's where the tomatoes are going to be. Now that, my friend, is a real life example of what's costing you conversions on your website. That's mistake number three, confusing navigation. But there is good news.
It's pretty easy to fix. So here's what I want you to do. First, stick to standard menu labels that people expect to see. I know that services isn't as exciting as transformational experiences. But guess what? It converts better because people instantly know what it means. So here's some of the tried and true labels.
Home, About, Services, Products, Store, Shop, Portfolio, Gallery, Contact. Next, I want you to organize your menu items in order of importance. Think about what most people come to your site looking for and put those items first. And then my [00:09:00] last tip here, and this is something that I see people struggle with all the time, is I want you to limit your main menu items to no more than five options.
If you need to have more pages than that, use drop down menus or move less important pages to the footer of your website. It doesn't all have to be there in the header. I want you to remember that every additional menu item makes it harder for visitors to find what they're actually looking for. And the smaller a screen gets, the more scrunched that menu is going to get, which will make it very difficult to clearly read what's there or even click on things.
Now let's move on to mistake number four. Too many choices. I want you to imagine that you're going to a restaurant for dinner, and you don't know what kind of restaurant it is, but as soon as you get there, you're handed a menu, and they have some orange chicken and green beans and it sounds great, but then they also have omelets?
And then they have cheeseburgers and fries, and then they have pasta, and now you're afraid to order anything because you're not sure what you want, and you're not sure a [00:10:00] place that offers so many things would be good at making any one thing. The more options you give someone, the harder it is for them to choose, at restaurants and on your website.
This is actually something called Hick's Law. Which basically means the more choices you give people, the longer it takes them to make a decision. And in the world of websites, a delayed decision usually means no decision at all. So how do we fix this? Here's what I tell my clients. First, I want you to identify one primary action that you want visitors to take on each individual page.
Just one. Now this doesn't mean that you can't have other options. It just means that you need to decide which one is most important. Is it joining your email list? Is it booking a call? Making a purchase? Pick one main goal per page. Once you have that goal in mind, I want you to make that primary action stand out visually.
If everything on your page is screaming for attention, nothing gets hurt. Your primary call to action should [00:11:00] be the most visually prominent element on the page. It should be the only thing in that color or the largest button of them all. Make it visually different than anything else in size, color, and or position.
Now the next step is to move your secondary actions to less prominent positions. They can still be there, but they shouldn't compete with the main goal. That might mean moving some things to your footer, or maybe saving them for other pages where they make more sense as the primary action for that page.
Now, if you can't decide what needs to be the main call to action, that actually leads us perfectly into mistake number five. Mistake number five is never testing anything on your website. Now, I am a total numbers nerd, and I love tracking data about actions taken on my website. What tutorials do people watch?
What words are they searching for? How many people who look at a freebie actually sign up for it? I think those numbers are fascinating, and every single month, I make changes to [00:12:00] my website content based on that data. I try new things to see if it clicks. And that is mistake number five, not being willing to try new things.
So we covered a lot in this episode. I'm going to give you a quick recap of all five mistakes. But again, mistake number five is not being willing to test things. You need to be willing to make changes on your website to see what resonates with your audience. Websites are not permanent. They can change at any time and I strongly recommend you try testing different approaches to see what works with your audience.
Alright, let's do this recap together. Mistake number one is having unclear copy that focuses on the features instead of the benefits. Remember the most important rule of website copy, clarity is key. Mistake number two is having hard to read fonts or distracting animations that create friction in the user experience.
Sprinkle in that creativity in a few low key spots on different pages, not the important parts of your website. [00:13:00] Mistake number three is having confusing navigation with creative labels instead of clear, standard menu items. Yeah, I know, it's boring, but being clear really does make a difference. Mistake number four is having too many competing calls to action.
What you can do to fix this mistake is have one clear primary call to action per page. And mistake number five is never testing anything new on your website. You have the ability to change your website at literally any time, and I want to strongly encourage you to do that. If you're seeing conversions drop off or there aren't as many people purchasing a product that you think should be, Try mixing things up.
Try changing the font style, the imagery, the headlines. You've got a lot of different options, even some suggestions from this specific podcast itself. Give it a try. Mistake number five is not being willing to try new things. Now, I've thrown a lot of information at you in this episode of Think Inside the Square, and you probably already have a to do list for your [00:14:00] website.
I don't want you to feel overwhelmed. Instead, I want you to take one action right now. You ready? Here it is. Open your website on a new device. Maybe your phone, if you usually look at it on your computer, or vice versa. What I want you to do is set a timer for five seconds, look at your homepage, and then close it.
Five seconds. And after those five seconds, and you close that homepage, ask yourself, What is it that you do? Who do you help? And what's the main action that someone should take? If you can't answer all three of those questions in that five seconds, that is where you need to start. Fix that first, and then work your way through the rest of your website.
Now remember, your website is not just a pretty digital business card. It is your hardest working team member. Give it clear directions, make it easy to understand, and watch those conversion rates climb. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Inside the Square. I truly hope you enjoyed it.
If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe [00:15:00] wherever you happen to be listening. Thank you so much for tuning in and most importantly, have fun with your website. Bye for now.
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Book a strategy call with me: insidethesquare.co/strategy
Article about Hick’s Law: interaction-design.org/literature/topics/hick-s-law
