Why your website feels cheap (and what fixes it)

"Our site feels cheap" is one of the most common briefs studios get. The underlying causes are usually a handful of repeating issues. Here's the list.

Issue 1: Inconsistent spacing

Cheap-feeling sites use spacing inconsistently. 24px here, 32px there, 36px on the next section. The eye can't tell what the system is.

Fix: use a strict spacing scale (4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128) and stick to it. Audit existing pages for off-scale values.

Issue 2: Too many type sizes

Five different heading sizes, four body sizes, two different small-print sizes. Each one slightly different from the others. The system feels improvised.

Fix: typographic scale with 4-6 sizes total. Use them strictly. If a design needs a size that isn't in the scale, the scale is wrong, not the design.

Issue 3: Stock photography

The fastest-acting tell. Generic smiling-people-in-an-office stock photos read as cheap immediately, regardless of how good the rest of the design is.

Fix: real photography (your team, your office, your work). If that's not possible, abstract or illustrated alternatives. The bar to look real has risen.

Issue 4: Mediocre body copy

The hero headline is fine. The body copy is generic — "We help businesses succeed with cutting-edge solutions". This is the kind of thing AI writes. It signals nothing.

Fix: rewrite the body copy to say specifics. Specifics are credibility. "We built Capital Selector's matching backend in 6 weeks" is more convincing than "we deliver innovative solutions".

Issue 5: Logo-strip clipart

A row of "as featured in" logos that nobody recognises, or worse, that look like clipart. Visual noise without credibility.

Fix: either real, recognised logos arranged with care, or no logo strip at all. Mediocre logo strips are worse than nothing.

Issue 6: Default form styling

The contact form uses the browser default styling. Drop shadow, rounded corners, generic input styling. The rest of the site is custom-designed; the form looks like it was assembled in 5 minutes.

Fix: form fields should match the rest of the design system. This is a 30-minute job that lifts perceived quality significantly.

Issue 7: Footer is a graveyard

Tiny grey text in a corner. Link list nobody clicks. Copyright line.

Fix: treat the footer as a design surface. Decent typography, real information, secondary navigation. Premium sites do this and budget sites don't.

Issue 8: Animation that doesn't earn its weight

Every section has a fade-in. Every button has a bounce. Every element is competing for attention.

Fix: animate fewer things, longer durations, more refined easing. Restraint reads as confidence. Maximalism reads as panic.

Issue 9: Colour drift

The brand has three primary colours. The site uses 11. Each section was designed independently and colour palettes accumulated.

Fix: audit colour use. Cut to 3-5 colours plus neutrals. Document the rules.

Issue 10: Stale content

The newest blog post is from 2023. The team page mentions someone who left. The "we're hiring" banner has been up for two years.

Fix: cull aggressively. A small, current site beats a sprawling, outdated one.

The cumulative effect

Each of these alone is minor. All ten together is what makes a site "feel cheap". Most premium-feeling sites haven't done one impressive thing; they've avoided all ten common mistakes.