Why Your Website Looks Like a Template (And How to Fix It)
If your site looks fine but feels kind of forgettable — this one's for you.
In this video, I'm breaking down the exact mistakes that make a website look like a template, and the simple fixes that make it feel custom and memorable. Think of it as your anti-bland checklist: small upgrades that add loads of personality so you can stand out without having to start all over again from scratch. I'm showing real examples and side-by-side comparisons the whole way through, so whether you're refreshing your own site or designing for clients, you'll come away with a set of rules you can apply on any platform to level up any meh website into one people actually adore.
Watch the full breakdown below, or keep reading for the highlights.
Prefer to watch? Catch the full video below, or keep reading.
1. Your fonts are doing absolutely nothing for you
If your site feels boring, it might genuinely just be your fonts. The good news: this is one of the quickest fixes there is, and the difference it makes is enormous.
The most common font trap is going all-in on one typeface with no visual variation. Pairing a serif with a sans-serif — one for headings, one for paragraph text — immediately adds visual interest. And if you're going to use a script font, use it the way Feminine Alchemy does: only on a decorative line that isn't critical copy. Their scripty "welcome sister" adds character without ever asking anyone to actually strain to read it. The heading and paragraph fonts they pair it with? Crystal clear.
The goal isn't just picking better fonts — it's using fonts boldly enough that they actually contribute to the vibe of your site. Silk Utica, a cocktail and dessert bar in New York, pulls this off beautifully. Their typography immediately reads as 1920s speakeasy, which is exactly the atmosphere they're after. That's not an accident. That's a font doing its job.
Yes, there are 12,000 fonts to choose from. Yes, it takes a bit of time to find your favourites. It is absolutely worth it.
2. Your stock photos are giving dental office
Stock photos are not the enemy. Bad stock photos are. Literally half of the photos on my own website are stock — so let's just put the stock photo shame to rest right now.
What makes the difference is the photos you choose, and whether they all feel like they belong together. The issue isn't one bad photo. It's three photos that look like they were shot by three different photographers in three different decades with three completely different moods. A black-and-white bleacher shot next to a cozy warm-lamp scene next to a woman on the beach — those don't belong together.
Your stock photos should look like they could have come from the same shoot. Same colour palette, same tone, same general mood. Mix up what's in the frame — close-up shots alongside wider shots — but keep the visual family consistent. On my own site, I've got a close-up of hands opening a champagne cork, an old retro vehicle, a cafe shot, a closer shot of some chairs, a woman's hand with a champagne glass. Different subjects, completely cohesive feel.
The video walks through a lot of before-and-after examples of this one. It's very obvious when you see it.
3. Nothing on the page is actually interesting to look at
Think of your website like designing a room. If there's no focal point — nothing to pull your eye in — it's just boring white IKEA furniture shoved against the walls. Your website needs moments. Visual breaks. Layout changes. Something that gives it life so people actually pay attention to what you're saying.
The bland version of this looks like: same section, same layout, repeated down the entire page. Image, text, image, text. All the way down. Nobody's eye is moving because there's nothing to catch it.
The fix is variation — and it doesn't have to be complicated. Changing up the background colour between sections, adding an image background instead of a plain colour, putting a colour block behind an image, using a different layout in each section. One of the best examples in the video has a video playing in the background of the hero section, then arrows in a background image in the next section, then a brand-colour rectangle sitting behind a photo. Then their review section has a little quotation mark icon. Their footer is practically a design moment on its own — contact details, Instagram feed, social links, all in a thoughtful layout that actually makes you read it. None of that requires a custom developer. It just requires thinking about each section individually instead of copy-pasting the same pattern down the page.
4. Everything is equally loud — so nothing stands out
If everything on your page is screaming for attention, nothing is. If everything is beige, everything may as well be invisible.
Every page needs one thing the eye is naturally drawn to. Even something as small as a bolded word or a pop of colour is enough to create a focal point and pull people towards the most important thing in that section.
The wall-of-text bio page is the worst offender here. Four giant paragraphs of almost word-for-word text, nothing differentiated, nothing standing out — most visitors take one look and think "never mind." Contrast that with Jazz Derbvis's about page, where she's varied the headings and paragraph text, changed the font colour on certain words, added underlines, and used colour to pull out the most important bits. It's the same amount of information. It's a completely different reading experience.
This is basically the TikTokification of websites — people now need constant hits of visual interest to keep moving through a page. That's just reality. Design for how people actually read, not how you wish they would.
5. Your copy sounds like everyone else's copy
If you're writing things like "we're passionate and we care about your success" — congratulations, you've just blended in with 99% of the internet.
The video shows some genuinely painful examples of this: a product listing that calls a chair "a piece of furniture designed with both form and function in mind. This piece will feel right at home in your space." Could you think of a less interesting way to describe a chair? Then there's an architecture firm whose copy is technically correct and completely impossible to read to the end. Nobody is finishing that paragraph.
And then there's Fred's Oral Prep — which is not what you think it is — whose about page opens by describing Fred as "an unashamedly 6-foot ginger that loves boats and who's made their life's work to see super yacht officers pass their oral exams the first time." That is immediately interesting. You know who Fred is within ten seconds.
Good copy adds personality without sacrificing clarity. Aisha (a past Square Secrets student and a website designer) pulls this off beautifully. She talks about "putting your different on display," describes her process as having "the most exquisite cake vibes" — she was a baker before becoming a designer — and says everything is designed so "all design leads to you running a successful, profitable AF business for years to come." That's not standard website designer copy. That's Aisha. And the people who are right for her will feel it immediately.
6. You're talking to everyone, which means you're connecting with no one
You know when you're on a first date and within 45 seconds you think, "My god, they're so boring. They have no opinions. They don't get jokes. They have the personality equivalent of beige paint. Their favourite hobby is watching TV. Zero hot takes on literally anything"?
That's what a generic website feels like to the people landing on it.
The video compares two past students of mine who are both website designers, but serving completely different people. Caitlyn builds websites exclusively for custom home builders — her font gives off old-school typewriter vibes, her images are all construction-adjacent, and her lead magnet is "10 things every home builder website needs." Nothing generic. Everything specific to one person. Freya Rose Tanner, on the other hand, works with what she describes as "courageous dreamers, embodied creators, those ready to own their power" — her whole site reads spiritual and expressive, from the imagery to the scripty font accents to the copy itself.
Neither approach is wrong. Both are right — because both are speaking directly and unmistakably to one specific person. The visitor lands and knows immediately whether this is for them or not. That's the goal. The ones who it's for feel seen. The ones who it's not for self-select out. That's fine. That's actually the point.
7. You're squishing your copy into a template instead of designing around it
Templates aren't the problem. Copy-pasting your words into a template and calling it a day is the problem.
A real website is built around your copy — not the other way around. When you take a template and just swap in your text without changing the layout, you end up with sections that don't fit the information you're actually trying to communicate. A giant hero image that makes no sense for your specific content. A layout designed for residential design photography being used to promote an online course. It just doesn't work, and it shows.
Start with your words. Then ask: how do I design a page to best represent this content? That's the difference between a site that feels built and a site that feels borrowed.
The hair clip brand in the video is such a good example of this. They have a scrolling movement at the bottom showing off their whole range — not because it was in a template, but because someone thought "we have lots of clips to show, what's the most visually interesting way to do that?" That kind of thinking produces websites that couldn't exist for anyone else.
8. You've still got the "Made with Squarespace" link in your footer
If your site still has the default "Made with Squarespace" footer link or the little default black cube favicon — it's basically wearing a sticker that says "Hi, I'm a template."
This one is an easy fix. Remove the Squarespace credit from your footer. Set a custom favicon. Both take about five minutes and make your site feel properly finished rather than still in draft mode.
9. Your background is still plain white and your styles are still on default
Default settings are not design. A plain white background across every section of your site is basically stuck in 2017.
Updating your fonts, your colours, your section backgrounds — even swapping the white for a soft neutral — makes an enormous difference to how modern and custom your site feels. Joy First World is a great example in the video: beige, orange, some red, photos, and a changing background on each section. Beautiful branding throughout, including for their freebies and their opt-in graphics. Their site is literally about colour, and they've made sure colour runs through every single section. Jazz's site is the same — every section has clearly been thought about individually. Nothing has been forgotten. There's no "I just slapped a giant paragraph of text on a white background and called it done."
At minimum, change the white background. It's making your site look dated and it costs you nothing to fix it.
None of these fixes require a full redesign or starting from scratch. Pick one, do it today. Then pick another. An hour of intentional upgrades can completely change the impression your site makes — and the clients it brings in.
If you want to keep going on this, I made another video that breaks down the outdated website design trends that are quietly making your site look behind the times. Watch it next — your future clients will thank you.
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