Does Your Website Look AI-Generated? A 4-Point Check

Most people can't explain why a website feels AI-made. They just feel it. In practice, it comes down to four signs: messaging, brand styles, layout and images.

None of these are effort problems. They're default problems. They're what you get when you don't give the AI tool anything of your own to work with.

Open your homepage in another tab and run each check below. Count how many your site fails, then use the fix for each one it fails.

Check 1: Could a competitor use your words?

AI copy sounds like a brand but describes no actual business. "Empowering your journey." "Seamless solutions." Three cards full of adjectives.

The test: Cover your logo and read your homepage. If a competitor could use the same words, it fails.

The fix: Before you prompt any AI tool, write one sentence with four parts:

• Your brand name
• What you offer
• Who you serve
• What the website should do (get bookings, collect enquiries, sell)

For example: "GoodDog.co: in-home dog training for first-time dog owners in Melbourne." Give the AI this one line, and the homepage copy it writes is about your business and your customers, not anyone's.

An AI tool only knows what you tell it. Leave gaps, and it fills them with the safest, most common words it has seen. Safe words are vague words. Each part of your sentence closes a gap:

• Brand name tells the AI who is speaking.
• What you offer stops it inventing services you don't sell.
• Who you serve sets the tone and the examples. "First-time dog owners" leads to very different words than "dog lovers".
• The goal decides what your buttons and calls to action say.

Before and after

• Generic: "Empowering pet parents to build stronger bonds."
• Specific: "In-home dog training for first-time dog owners in Melbourne."

The second one tells a visitor what you do, where, and whether it's for them, at a glance. The first could sit on a pet food site, a vet's site or a dog-walking app.

A common mistake

Writing the sentence for yourself instead of your customer. "Innovative canine behaviour solutions" might make sense to you, but your customer is searching for "a dog trainer who comes to my house". Use the words they would use.

Check 2: Are you still using the tool's fonts and colours?

The logo the AI tool made for you. The default heading and paragraph fonts. The platform's default colours, often that blue-to-purple gradient. Leave these as they are, and your site looks like every other site built on the same platform.

The test: Compare your fonts and colours to the tool's defaults. If nothing has changed, it fails.

The fix: Set your brand styles once, using one of three routes:

• Pick a preset. No strong design opinions? Start with a ready-made set of colours, a heading font and a body font. OhhWells has six to choose from.
• Start from something you love. Upload a screenshot of a design you like, from Pinterest, Instagram or a site you admire. OhhWells pulls out the colours and fonts, and you apply them in one click.
• Start from what you already have. Upload your logo and pick your brand colours straight from it. Upload your own font to replace the default.

Which route should you pick?

• Preset: you're just starting, have no logo yet, and want something that looks considered today.
• Screenshot: you know the feel you want but can't describe it. A screenshot is much quicker than explaining "a warm, earthy palette with a modern serif font".
• Logo and font: you already have brand assets, maybe from a designer. Your website should match your business cards, packaging and social posts.

Why setting it "once" matters

If you set your colours inside a prompt, the AI can forget them on the next page. Small differences creep in: a slightly different blue here, a new font there. Setting your brand styles once means every page pulls from the same place, and someone else, like a VA, can add pages without breaking your look.

Want the full story on why default styles give AI sites away? Read why AI websites all look the same.

Check 3: Does your layout match every other AI site?

Most AI-built sites follow the same structure, in the same order: a banner with a headline picture, three columns, image-and-text blocks, a testimonial row, an FAQ. Different businesses, same page.

The test: Put your homepage next to three other AI-built sites. If the structure matches, it fails.

The fix: You often know the layout you want but not what it's called. So don't describe it, show it.

• For standard sections, plain words work. Ask for a contact form, an FAQ, a Google Map or a pricing table.
• For anything more custom, upload a screenshot of a layout you like. OhhWells rebuilds it as a section on your site and adjusts it for mobile automatically.

Start with what the page needs to do

Before picking sections, ask what a visitor needs to see before they take the next step. For GoodDog.co, that might be who the trainer is, how in-home training works, what it costs and how to book. Each answer becomes a section, in the order a visitor would ask the questions.

Build a folder of layouts you like

Whenever a website makes you stop scrolling, take a screenshot. Keep them in one folder so you have examples ready to show the AI. You're borrowing the structure, not the content. Fill it with your own words, colours and photos, and it becomes yours.

Check it on a phone

Many visitors will see your site on a phone first. OhhWells adjusts sections for mobile automatically, but always preview your page on a phone before you publish.

Check 4: Are your images of your actual business?

People have become very good at spotting AI-generated images. Impossible lighting, people you could never meet, a workspace far tidier than yours. Obvious stock photos have the same problem.

The test: Look at every image on your site. If any of them isn't your actual business, space, team or product, it fails.

The fix: Use real photos of your business. This is the one sign an AI tool can't fix for you. A simple phone photo of the real thing builds more trust than a perfect image of something that isn't.

Images are often the first thing a visitor takes in. If that first image feels fake, they start doubting everything else on the page, including your prices, your reviews and your promises.

What to photograph

• You, so people know who they're dealing with
• Your space: your studio, shop, office or workspace
• Your work, in progress or finished
• Your product, from a few different angles
• Your customers, with their permission

Simple tips for better phone photos

• Shoot near a window in daylight, and avoid harsh overhead lights.
• Tidy the frame, but don't stage it so much that it looks fake.
• Take more photos than you need, in both landscape and portrait, so you have options for desktop and mobile.

No photos yet?

Leave images out rather than filling the gaps with fake ones. A clean section with strong words and your brand colours looks more honest than an AI-generated stand-in.

How did your site score?

• 0 fails: Your site reads as yours. Keep adding real photos as you take them.
• 1–2 fails: Fix those first. They're usually the first thing visitors notice.
• 3–4 fails: Start with Check 1. Your one-sentence brief makes every other fix easier.

AI tools have made it easier than ever to start a business, which means many new sites look alike. Visitors increasingly value the human touch. A website's real job is to build trust, and a site that looks rushed works against it.

The short version