A reference site is a useful starting point and a terrible specification, because you and the designer are almost certainly looking at different things in it. Naming the three specific elements you liked converts a fight into a brief.
The moment it happens
“Make it like that website” — why design mimicry causes fights becomes clear at the first review. You sent a link. They built something that resembles it. You look at the result and it’s wrong, and you can’t say why.
The reason is that you were pointing at one thing and they saw another. You meant the calm white space and the way prices were laid out. They read it as the colour scheme and the sliding banner. Both readings are reasonable from a bare link.
What you’re probably actually reacting to
When people say they like a website, they usually mean one of these — and rarely more than two:
- How quickly they understood what the business does. Often the real reason, and it’s about writing rather than design.
- The layout of one specific section — how prices, services or reviews were presented.
- That it felt uncluttered. Which is a decision to leave things out, not to add things.
- That it loaded fast on their phone.
- The photographs — which are of someone else’s business and can’t transfer.
- That it felt expensive, which usually comes down to spacing, consistent type, and good photography.
Notice how few of those are about colour or a specific visual style. Yet colour is what usually gets copied, because it’s the easiest thing to see.
How to brief a reference properly
Send the link with three named specifics. Two minutes of effort that saves two revision rounds:
I like this site for three things: the way the services are laid out with a price next to each, how little is on the home page, and that the phone number is visible without scrolling. I don’t like their colour scheme or the big sliding banner.
Four things this does. It tells the designer what to reproduce. It tells them what not to. It reveals that your actual interest is layout and clarity rather than style. And it gives you both something to check the result against, which converts “I don’t like it” into “this doesn’t do the second thing we agreed.”
Send three references, not one
One reference reads as an instruction to copy. Three references make the pattern visible.
If all three have prices on the home page and none has a sliding banner, the designer now knows what you value without you having to articulate it. This is the most reliable way to communicate taste when you don’t have the vocabulary for it — and it removes the copying problem, because three sources can’t be copied simultaneously.
Why copying imports mistakes
Beyond the ambiguity, there’s a substantive problem with cloning a site.
You inherit their structure for their business. Their service pages match their service mix. Their home page emphasises what matters to their customers. Neither is necessarily yours.
You inherit their mistakes without knowing which parts were mistakes. That sliding banner may be losing them enquiries. The hidden phone number may be a known problem they haven’t fixed. You can’t see which choices were deliberate and which were accidents.
Their photographs are the best thing about it, and you can’t have them. Frequently the real source of the “expensive” feeling is professional photography of their work. Copying the layout without the photographs produces something that looks like a worse version.
You end up looking like a follower in a market where a customer may see both sites.
There’s a separate piece on copying a direct competitor specifically, where an additional problem applies.
What to say when you don’t like a draft
The unhelpful version is “it doesn’t look nice” or “make it better.” That produces guessing, and guessing produces the revision loop.
The useful version names the element and the effect:
- “The phone number isn’t visible until I scroll on my phone.”
- “I can’t tell what we do from the first screen.”
- “The photographs look like stock images.”
- “The text is too small to read on my phone.”
- “There’s nothing here that tells someone the price.”
Each one is checkable and fixable. Notice that all five are about function rather than beauty — which is where most genuine problems live.
The one question that resolves design disputes
Before arguing about a design, agree what the site is for. One line: “This site exists so corporate clients who ask for a link can see we’re real and find our prices.”
Then every design question has a test: does this help that? A sliding banner doesn’t. A visible phone number does. Prices on the home page do.
Without that line, design review is a taste contest, and taste contests between a client and a designer have no natural end.
What to do this week
- Write one line stating what the site is for.
- Choose three reference sites, not one.
- Name three specific things you like and two you don’t.
- Give feedback as a numbered list per round, naming element and effect.
- Test each suggestion against the one-line purpose.
If you want it done the certain way
Send us three reference links and tell us what you liked in each — we’ll tell you which parts are layout, which are photography, and which would work against what your site is for. Fixed revision rounds, so the design phase has an end. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- Why copying a competitor’s site backfires
- Who wins when you and the designer disagree?
- “Same-to-same bana do” — the cloning trap
- “Unlimited revisions” — does anyone mean it?
FAQ
Can I ask a developer to copy a website I like?
You can point at it as a reference, but a bare link is ambiguous — you and the designer will notice different things in it. Name three specific elements you liked and two you didn’t, and send three references rather than one.
Why does my website draft not look like the reference I sent?
Because you were probably reacting to layout, clarity or photography, while the designer read the link as being about colour and visual style. Naming the specifics resolves it in one message.
What’s the best way to give website design feedback?
Name the element and the effect — “the phone number isn’t visible until I scroll on mobile” rather than “make it better” — as a single numbered list per round, tested against a one-line statement of what the site is for.
