How to make your website not look AI-generated.
You don't need to rebuild it. You need to make the decisions the tool made for you, starting with the headline and something real to show.
Most advice out there says the same thing: drop the purple, replace Inter, lose the three cards. Fair enough, but in that order it barely moves the needle. Recoloring a site that says nothing still leaves you with a site that says nothing.
These are the eight fixes I make in audits, ordered by how much difference they make. You can do them by hand or with the same AI that built the site; the prompts guide shows how to ask for each one.
1. A headline that says what you do
The headline is the first thing people read and the first thing that gives you away. "The all-in-one platform to grow your business" could belong to anyone. "Appointment booking for barbershops, with WhatsApp reminders" can only be yours.
Say what the visitor gets and who it's for. One line underneath, no more. If someone reads both and still can't tell what you sell, nothing further down the page will save it.
2. Something real at the top
A screenshot of your product, a photo of you or your space, something you made. Anything that couldn't appear on another site. Swap out generic illustrations, blurry color blobs and stock photos of people smiling at laptops.
If you have nothing to show yet, well-written text on its own beats an image nobody chose.
3. A chosen typeface and a broken scale
Pick a typeface with character for headlines (or one family for everything, used well) and retire whatever came with the template. Then break the scale: make the hero headline much bigger than it "should" be and tighten the line height.
In the sites we measured, the biggest difference between generated and designed was that every size and margin sat exactly on Tailwind's scale. A couple of values of your own already change how it feels.
4. A color decision, not a palette
Remove gradients that don't mean anything. Pick one color of your own and use it sparingly, or skip the accent entirely: white, black and good photos can be enough. What doesn't work is the stock accent (the green, orange or blue at 500) repeated on every icon.
5. Kill the three cards
The three-icon-card section is slop's signature. You can almost always replace it with something more useful: a list of what you do with one sentence each, a concrete example, a before and after.
Vary the shape of your sections. If every one is a centered heading with something under it, the page reads like a template even when each part is fine.
6. Delete everything made up
Testimonials nobody gave, "10,000+ customers" with no source, countdown timers that restart on every visit, "100% secure checkout" badges drawn with icons. Besides looking fake, some of these can get you in legal trouble depending on where you sell.
One real testimonial with a full name is worth more than ten invented ones. If you don't have any yet, leave the section out.
7. Less decorative motion
Cards that lift on hover without being clickable, everything fading in on scroll, bouncing arrows. Keep motion for things that respond to what the visitor did, and respect anyone who has "reduce motion" turned on.
8. Clean up the builder's fingerprints
- Use your own domain, not the builder's.
- Write the
<title>and description for every page; don't leave the hyphenated project name. - Replace the favicon with yours.
- Remove the "Made with…" badge if your plan allows it.
- Check for leftover sample copy, links to "#" and half-built sections.
The Lovable, v0 and Bolt guide lists the fingerprints each one leaves.
Measure before and after
Run your site through the Slop Score before you start and when you're done. It shows which tells went away and which remain. If you'd rather have a person look at it, the audit gets you a video walkthrough of your site and the ten fixes that matter most, each with its prompt.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make my website not look AI-generated?
Make the decisions the tool made for you, in this order: a headline that says what you do, something real at the top, a chosen typeface, a color of your own, sections that aren't three cards, nothing made up, less decorative motion and no builder fingerprints.
Do I have to rebuild my site from scratch?
Rarely. Most sites improve a lot by changing the headline, the type, the card section and the testimonials. Rebuilding makes sense when the whole structure is a template that doesn't explain what you do.
Can I fix it with the same AI that built it?
Yes, if you give it specific instructions instead of asking it to make things "more modern". Tell it which typeface to use, what to remove and what to show, with references. The prompts guide has examples you can copy.
Which change makes the biggest difference?
The headline and the hero image. They're the first thing people see and the most repeated part of generated sites. Changing colors without changing those does very little.