Here is a list of possible reasons why your website stinks.
You forgot to Plan
Out of the many reasons for not planning out your web design, all of them lead to a stinking website. Plan, Plan and plan some more unless you want your to end up in a mess. Save yourself time and money, come up with a plan and do it right the first time.
You Forgot to Budget
No matter how large your budget is, if you don’t designate a portion of your budget to more than just web design your website is as good as a ghost town. Your website needs visitors, why else have a website if you don’t plan on anyone visiting it. But too often people just build a site, and wait for eager visitors to seek them out. The problem, the visitors have no way of finding them. Put a portion of your budget into branding and design, a portion into content and development, a portion into SEO and a portion into Internet advertising.
Your Website Is Not Compliant
Many forget that the same web design code can look different, not only in different browsers, but in different versions of browsers as well. And when I say different, I mean a bunch of web design mess. A web design that is not cross browser compliant, is a web design that is repelling a large portion of your target audience.
No Apparent Purpose Of The Site
One of the things that made Google the most used search engine is because they knew why people were went to their site, and they gave it to them. The equation, give people value + make it easy for them = online success. Too many sites on the web have too much clutter on their website. Make your layout clean, your navigation intuitive and your content valuable.
Nothing Of Value
When it comes to pleasing web site visitors and search engines, there is one thing in common: content. But the value of your content is what makes your visitors stick around. The best way to get a visitor to stick around is to give them what they want. To do this, you must know who your customers are and what they want. Fail to know your customer, and it just becomes that much harder to provide value to them.
You Make Your Targeted Traffic Impatient
Your website is slow or it has an splash page (intro) to get to the actual content. Whatever it may be that is making your potential clients wait, it is not acceptable. Give them a first rate service, and please them with quick content and you’ll see them come back for more.
You Forgot to Put Design into Web Design
Form follows function, and if your website is for your business the function of your website is to make more money. If you focussed on how good your design looks, over a design that persuades your visitors to make a profitable action your running a risk. Your web design should tell a story about your company. But first you need to create a story that influences your audiences to do what you want them to, and then you need to tell that story through your web design.