WordPress Thinking Creates Bad Websites

Posted by: Corey Smith on March 11, 2026 at 08:32 am

I built my first website in 1996. You should have seen it. It was so not good. It was glorious in its mediocrity, though even that might be significantly generous.

Toward the end of 2004, I installed my first WordPress website. At the time, WordPress promoted the “Famous 5-Minute Install,” and that promise was not far off. It was simple, fast, and refreshingly practical before years of themes, builders, plugins, and add-ons turned a solid blogging platform into a “be all things to all people” ecosystem.

I lived in WordPress for a number of years. Then, in 2007, I started my first agency, Tribute Media. I needed something that felt more enterprise class for clients, so I standardized on Drupal and spent years building serious business websites in that environment.

Over time, I discovered a persistent problem in web design. It was not really a platform problem. It was a thinking problem. The tools kept getting easier, but strategy did not automatically get better.

Bad Website Decisions Did Not Start With WordPress

Early in my web development days, Adobe Flash was the standard for website animation. Most commonly, a company would want a hero banner built in Flash so the first thing visitors saw would move, spin, fade, slide, or do something “cool.” I hated Flash so very much.

It was complicated. It slowed websites down. It rarely worked the way clients imagined it would work. It also had the classic agency problem: clients wanted the expensive, animated experience, but their wallets were rarely as fat as their wants.

Flash’s days were clearly numbered by 2010, and I could not have been happier about it. Steve Jobs published an open letter criticizing Flash for performance, battery, security, and mobile limitations. With the iPhone and iPad leading the charge, the web had to move toward approaches that worked better across devices.

HTML5, CSS transitions, and JavaScript animation libraries eventually gave designers and developers better ways to create motion without relying on plugins like Flash. That was a good thing. But the underlying problem did not disappear. It just moved into newer tools.

What I Mean by WordPress Thinking

“WordPress thinking” is the mindset that happens when a website tool makes something easy enough that people stop asking whether it should be done. It is not really about WordPress as a CMS. It is about confusing capability with strategy.

WordPress helped popularize this mindset because its themes, plugins, and page builders made website features easier to assemble. Tools like Divi and Elementor made it simple to add animations, sliders, hover effects, parallax sections, popups, icons, accordions, and complex layouts. That can be useful when the choices are intentional. It can be destructive when the choices are decorative.

Total ADHD side note: ask your designer to make something “pop.” He’ll love you for it.

The problem is not that WordPress exists. The problem is that WordPress made it easy for non-strategic website decisions to look like progress. A business can add more motion, more sections, more plugins, more widgets, and more visual noise without ever improving the user experience, message, search visibility, or conversion path.

WordPress Thinking Can Happen on Any Platform

I call it WordPress thinking because WordPress paved the way for easy, non-strategic websites at massive scale. But the same behavior can happen on HubSpot, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Drupal, or a custom-coded site. The platform is not the villain.

I make this same point in my WordPress vs HubSpot comparison. WordPress emphasizes openness and flexibility, while HubSpot emphasizes integration and managed infrastructure. Those are different platform philosophies, but neither one replaces strategy.

A HubSpot site can still be cluttered. A WordPress site can still be clean and strategic. A custom site can still be slow. A simple site can still fail if the message is weak. Bad website thinking follows people from platform to platform.

That is why the question should never be, “Which platform lets me add the most stuff?” The better question is, “Which platform helps me build the right thing and maintain it well?” If you are actively comparing the two, the WordPress vs HubSpot comparison quiz can help you think through that decision in a more structured way.

The Hidden Overhead of Easy Website Builders

Divi and Elementor are known as page builders in WordPress. They can make layout work easier, especially for people who do not write code. They can also add hidden overhead that makes a simple page heavier than it needs to be.

That overhead may include extra markup, unused styles, icon libraries, JavaScript files, animation scripts, and layout wrappers. Individually, each item may not look dramatic. Together, they can slow the site, complicate updates, and make performance harder to control.

Your visitors do not care that your page builder made the layout easy. They care whether the page loads, makes sense, answers their question, and helps them take the next step. If the experience is slow or visually chaotic, the tool that made the page easy to build may also be making the page harder to use.

This is one reason I regularly push back on decorative website features. Animation, movement, and visual polish can support a strategy, but they cannot create one. When the tool leads and the strategy follows, your marketing suffers.

Animation Should Serve the User, Not the Designer

Web animation is not inherently bad. Used well, it can guide attention, provide feedback, clarify interaction, and make a digital experience feel more polished. Used poorly, it creates distraction, slows the page, increases cognitive load, and makes users work harder than necessary.

That is the part many businesses miss. Animation should help the visitor understand what matters. If every section moves, every button pulses, every block fades in, and every scroll triggers a new effect, nothing feels important. Everything is competing for attention.

I have seen sites where the animation looked impressive in a design review but felt exhausting in real use. The first impression might have been, “That looks cool.” The second impression was, “Where am I supposed to look?” That is not a design win.

The best animation is usually subtle, purposeful, and short. It should support hierarchy, feedback, or orientation. It should not exist because a builder made it easy to add.

What the Data and UX Research Keep Reinforcing

Performance and user experience research keep pointing in the same direction: slow, distracting, overloaded pages create friction. Google’s performance guidance has long emphasized that speed affects user experience, and PageSpeed Insights continues to help identify issues that can affect loading, interactivity, and visual stability. The practical lesson is not that every page needs a perfect score. The lesson is that every unnecessary feature has a cost.

Animations can improve engagement when they are intentional. They can also reduce comprehension when they distract from the task. Nielsen Norman Group’s animation guidance consistently frames motion as something that should support usability, not simply decorate the interface. That matches what I have seen in client work for years.

The most useful comparison is not animation versus no animation. It is purposeful animation versus haphazard animation. No animation is often better than random animation because a static page at least lets the visitor focus. Random motion makes the visitor sort through competing signals before deciding what matters.

Animation Approach	Likely User Impact	Strategic Question
No animation	Clear, stable, predictable experience	Does the page communicate well without added motion?
Haphazard animation	Distraction, slower performance, unclear focus	Was this added because it helps or because it was easy?
Strategic animation	Improved feedback, hierarchy, and guided attention	Does the motion make the user’s next step easier?

That distinction matters because most bad animation is not obviously bad to the person who added it. It feels creative. It feels modern. It feels like the site has more energy. But if it slows the page, distracts from the message, or makes the conversion path harder to follow, it is not helping.

How to Move From WordPress Thinking to Intentional Design

Moving beyond WordPress thinking means putting strategy back in charge of the tool. Start with the user’s goal, the business objective, and the message the page needs to communicate. Then decide which design elements support that purpose.

If an animation helps the user understand what changed, where to look, or what to do next, it may belong. If it exists only to make the page feel more designed, it probably does not. The same rule applies to plugins, popups, sliders, videos, icon sets, page sections, and interactive modules.

I would start with a simple audit. Look at your most important website pages and ask what each moving element is doing for the user. If you cannot explain its purpose, remove it or test the page without it. A cleaner page often performs better because the visitor can understand it faster.

This is also where website performance metrics are helpful. They do not tell the whole story, but they can expose the cost of decisions that felt harmless in the builder. When a “simple” effect adds weight, layout shift, or blocking time, the score can help you see what the eye misses.

The Real Problem Is Not the Platform

WordPress thinking is not a WordPress problem. It is a strategy problem. WordPress simply made the pattern easier to see because it gave so many people access to powerful tools without requiring the same level of planning, discipline, or technical understanding.

The same issue shows up with AI, too. Just because a tool can create something quickly does not mean the output is strategically useful. Easy creation is not the same as good thinking.

A better website starts with clearer decisions. What does the visitor need? What does the business need? What should the page make obvious? What should be removed because it creates distraction, drag, or confusion?

That is the shift. Do not build the website around what the platform makes easy. Build it around what the business and user actually need.

Frequently Asked Questions About Wordpress Thinking

WordPress thinking is easy to misunderstand because it sounds like an attack on WordPress. It is not. It is a way to describe what happens when easy website tools encourage decisions that are not grounded in strategy, performance, usability, or conversion.

Is WordPress bad for business websites?

No, WordPress is not bad for business websites. A well-built WordPress site can be fast, strategic, flexible, and effective. The problem starts when WordPress tools are used to add features without a clear reason, a performance plan, or a marketing strategy.

What is WordPress thinking?

WordPress thinking is the habit of making website decisions because a tool makes them easy, not because they serve the user or the business. It often shows up as unnecessary plugins, excessive animation, bloated page builders, decorative sections, and unclear messaging. The term points to a mindset, not a flaw in WordPress itself.

Can HubSpot websites have the same problem?

Yes, HubSpot websites can have the same problem. HubSpot has drag-and-drop tools, modules, scripts, forms, animations, and integrations that can be overused just like WordPress plugins and builders. The platform may be different, but the need for strategy is the same.

Should I avoid animation on my website?

You do not need to avoid animation entirely. You should avoid animation that does not serve a purpose. Motion should guide attention, provide feedback, clarify interaction, or support the message. If it only exists because it looks interesting, it may be hurting more than helping.

How do I know if a website feature is worth keeping?

Ask whether the feature helps the visitor understand, trust, navigate, or act. Then look at performance, usability, analytics, and conversion behavior. If a feature adds weight or distraction without helping the user or business goal, it is probably not worth keeping.

Some Additional Resources

WordPress thinking is one part of a larger website strategy conversation. The platform matters, but it is only one piece of the decision. These resources may help you think more clearly about platform selection, strategy, performance, and intentional website planning.

About Corey Smith

I’ve been in marketing for 35 years—yep, started at 15 on my dad’s printing press. From building Tribute Media from scratch to its 2023 acquisition by Hawke Media, I’ve learned one thing: focus wins. Now, with Smithworks relaunched in 2025, I’m helping SMBs grow smarter through fractional CMO support, killer websites, and HubSpot consulting. No fluff, just results. With 39 HubSpot certifications and a knack for strategy, I’m your guide to cutting chaos and boosting revenue.

Ready to simplify and succeed? Let’s make it happen—because your business deserves practical, no-nonsense wins. Find me on LinkedIn.