How to Make a Good Website: A Step-by-Step Checklist
Last updated 2026-07-01 · By CheapCheck (KTLYST Labs)
Most founder-built sites are not bad because the founder lacks taste. They are cheap because a template shipped with defaults that were never adjusted: the stock font, the placeholder photo, the even-but-arbitrary spacing. The good news is that every one of those is a discrete, fixable decision. Work through the checklist below in order, top to bottom, because each step depends on the one before it.
The checklist
1. Establish one clear focal point above the fold
Decide the single thing a first-time visitor should see and understand in the first few seconds: usually a plain headline saying what you do and for whom. Give it the largest type on the page and let everything else defer to it. A page with no focal point reads as amateur because the eye has nowhere to land.
2. Build a deliberate type system (one display, one body)
Pick one display typeface for headings and one readable body typeface, and use consistent sizes and weights. Default browser fonts and mismatched typefaces are the fastest tell of a cheap site. Set a comfortable body size (16 to 19px) and a line length of roughly 60 to 75 characters.
3. Add generous, consistent whitespace
Give elements room to breathe with consistent spacing between sections and around text. Cramped, uneven spacing signals a template that was never adjusted. Whitespace is not wasted space; it is what makes a layout feel intentional and premium.
4. Restrain your color palette
Use one primary color, one accent, and a small set of neutrals for text and backgrounds. Ensure text meets the WCAG contrast minimum (4.5:1 for body copy) so it stays readable. Rainbow palettes and gradient-filled text are classic cheap tells; restraint reads as confidence.
5. Use real, specific imagery (or none)
Replace generic stock photos and clip art with real product screenshots, real photos, or clean illustration. If you have nothing authentic, use none and let type and layout carry the page. Obvious stock imagery undermines trust faster than an empty section.
6. Make it fast and readable on a phone
Most visitors arrive on mobile. Check that type is legible without zooming, tap targets are large enough (Fitts's law: bigger, closer targets are faster and easier to hit), and the page loads quickly. A slow or awkward mobile experience erases the design work above it.
7. Cut choices and friction on your calls to action
Fewer options mean faster decisions (Hicks's law: decision time grows with the number of choices). Lead with one primary action, make its button obvious, and remove competing links near it. A clear next step is part of looking professional.
Why order matters
Hierarchy comes first because it determines what every later decision serves. There is no point perfecting a color palette if the eye still has nowhere to land. Visitors form an aesthetic impression of a page in roughly 50 milliseconds (Lindgaard and colleagues, 2006), and that snap judgment is dominated by structure and contrast, not by the words. Fix the big structural tells first and the smaller ones matter less.
How do I know when it is actually good?
Show the page to someone for five seconds, hide it, and ask what you do and what they should do next. If they can answer both, your hierarchy and call to action are working. If you want a second opinion that names the specific tells and ranks them by impact, paste your URL into CheapCheck for an instant critique.
Related
Turn the checklist into a punch list
Paste your URL and CheapCheck ranks exactly which of these steps your site is failing, with the specific fix for each. Free instant check, $29 one-time for the full report.
Run the free check