Web Design Mistakes You Need To Avoid
Kansas City Web Design: 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid & How to Build a High-Performing Website That Converts
In today’s hyper-competitive digital landscape, your website is often the first impression your Kansas City customers get of your business—and that impression can determine whether they stay, browse, and buy… or click away forever.
Kansas City is packed with fast-growing small businesses, local service providers, restaurants, contractors, medical practices, boutiques, and startups. With thousands of brands competing for attention online, your website must be more than “pretty.” It needs to be strategic, SEO-optimized, conversion-driven, mobile-friendly, and built around how real KC customers behave online.
Unfortunately, many businesses unknowingly make critical web design mistakes that hold back their visibility, traffic, and conversions. Whether you’re launching a new site or giving your current one a long-overdue refresh, avoiding these common pitfalls is essential if you want to dominate Google rankings and generate real leads.
This guide breaks down the top 10 Kansas City web design mistakes—and how to avoid them—so your business can launch a website that actually grows revenue.
Why Kansas City Businesses Need Better Web Design Than Ever Before
Kansas City customers expect speed, clarity, and seamless navigation. They want to feel confident they’ve found the right business the moment the homepage loads. Google expects this too—and rewards businesses that invest in strong design and SEO.
A high-performing Kansas City website should:
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Load in under 3 seconds
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Feature organized, readable content
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Be mobile-responsive
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Use strong local SEO signals
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Guide users into clear call-to-action funnels
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Match your brand identity
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Build trust instantly
When your web design misses the mark, users bounce—Google notices—and your search rankings plunge.
Let’s break down the biggest mistakes Kansas City businesses make and how to avoid them.
1. Poorly Organized Content: The Silent Conversion Killer
Great design means more than attractive colors and graphics—it means clarity. When your content is cluttered, outdated, or arranged without hierarchy, users feel overwhelmed.
Kansas City customers want answers fast. If they can’t find your services, pricing, location, or booking options within a few seconds, they leave and go straight to a competitor.
How to Fix It
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Use clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points
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Break up long paragraphs
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Keep each page focused on one primary topic
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Place important content “above the fold”
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Remove outdated or irrelevant information
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Write with user intent in mind (“How do I book?” “What does it cost?” “Do they service my area?”)
Google also rewards structured content, helping you rank higher in Kansas City search results.
2. No Search Box: Forcing Users to Work Harder
Many websites—especially small business sites—forget the simplest element of all: a search bar.
When users can’t quickly find what they want, they get frustrated and abandon the site.
A search box:
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Improves user experience
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Decreases bounce rate
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Helps users locate deeper content
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Encourages browsing
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Improves conversion flow
For larger sites, blogs, or product catalogs, it’s absolutely essential.
3. Excessive Creativity That Hurts Usability
Creativity is great—but not when it destroys usability.
Some Kansas City businesses go “too custom” and end up with:
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Hidden navigation menus
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Low-contrast colors that are hard to read
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Overly stylized fonts
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Distracting animations
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Layouts that feel confusing instead of intuitive
Good design balances creativity with functionality. Users should feel impressed—but never lost.
The Fix
Work with an experienced Kansas City web design agency that understands both design and user behavior. A designer should express your brand personality while still ensuring:
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Easy navigation
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Consistent layouts
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Clean UI
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Clear calls to action
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Fast load times
If creativity gets in the way of conversions, it’s not good design.
4. Poor Readability: The Fastest Way to Lose Visitors
No matter how beautiful your website is, visitors cannot engage if they can’t read your content easily.
Common readability issues include:
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Tiny text
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Excessively fancy fonts
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Low color contrast
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Long paragraphs with no spacing
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Poor mobile formatting
When readability drops, so does credibility.
How to Fix It
Choose:
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Legible typefaces
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Comfortable font sizes (16–18px minimum)
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Plenty of spacing
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High-contrast color palettes
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Short, scannable sections
Accessibility also matters. Google rewards websites that meet modern accessibility standards—including color contrast, alt text, and readable type.
5. Poor SEO Optimization: A Beautiful Site No One Sees
This is one of the most damaging mistakes Kansas City businesses make.
Without SEO, your website won’t rank. Without ranking, customers can’t find you.
SEO has two major parts:
On-Page SEO
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Strong keywords
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Optimized headings
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Schema markup
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Fast load speed
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Internal linking
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Clean URLs
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Helpful, unique content
Off-Page SEO
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Local citations
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Backlinks
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Social signals
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Google Business Profile optimization
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Brand mentions
A website without SEO is like building a store in the desert—no one knows it exists.
6. Not Having a Clear Call to Action (CTA)
Your website must guide visitors toward the action you want them to take:
Without clear CTAs, users feel unsure—and hesitation kills conversions.
Best Practices
Every page should have:
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One main CTA
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Buttons that stand out visually
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CTA placement at the top and bottom of pages
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Action-oriented text like “Book Now” or “Schedule a Free Consultation”
When users know exactly what to do next, conversions skyrocket.
7. Not Creating a Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Design
Over 70% of Kansas City customers browse websites on mobile devices.
If your site isn’t responsive:
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Text may be too small
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Buttons may be hard to click
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Layouts may break
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Images may not scale properly
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Pages may load slowly
Google also ranks mobile-friendly websites higher.
If your site isn’t mobile-optimized, you’re losing traffic daily.
8. Using Flash or Outdated Technology
Flash is outdated, insecure, and unsupported by modern browsers. Some older Kansas City websites still rely on it for animation or navigation—creating huge performance and security issues.
Instead, use modern alternatives:
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HTML5
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CSS3 animations
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JavaScript
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Lightweight interactive elements
Your website should be functional on all devices and platforms.
9. Not Using Alt Text for Images
Alt text is essential for:
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Accessibility
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Image indexing
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Helping search engines understand your content
It allows Google to “read” your images, improving your rankings, especially in Kansas City local search results.
Every image should have descriptive, keyword-friendly alt text.
10. Not Creating Unique, High-Quality Content
Duplicate content is one of the fastest ways to destroy your SEO.
Google rewards websites with:
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Original content
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Helpful information
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Local keywords (e.g., “Kansas City web design,” “web designer in KC,” “Kansas City SEO services”)
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Detailed service explanations
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FAQs
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Location-specific landing pages
If you copy content from competitors or reuse content across pages, your rankings will suffer.
Why Kansas City Businesses Trust OHS Publishing for Professional Web Design
When it comes to Kansas City web design, you don’t just need a website—you need a marketing machine built to rank, convert, and grow your business.
OHS Publishing offers:
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Custom WordPress web design
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SEO-optimized site structure
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Local Kansas City SEO
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Fast load times
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Conversion-driven layouts
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Mobile-responsive design
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On-brand graphics and styling
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Google-ready content
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User journey mapping
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Ongoing website care and support
Our Kansas City web designers combine creativity, strategy, and technical expertise to build websites that are modern, accessible, and designed to generate leads.
Your website shouldn’t just look great—it should work hard for your business every single day.
Final Thoughts: Build a Website That Elevates Your Kansas City Business
In a competitive local market like Kansas City, you can’t afford web design mistakes. Every part of your website—from the content layout to the call-to-action buttons—plays a role in whether visitors stay, trust you, and convert.
To stay ahead, your website must be:
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Clean
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Modern
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Fast
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SEO-optimized
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Mobile-friendly
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User-centered
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Conversion-focused
At OHS Publishing, we understand exactly what Kansas City customers expect and how Google ranks local websites. We design with both in mind—so your business gets more traffic, more leads, and more revenue.
If you want a powerful, engaging, high-converting Kansas City website, we’re here to build it.
