When I look at a website for the first time, I don't start with the design.

I start with three unglamorous questions:

1. How fast does it load on a phone, on mobile data?
2. Can a stranger tell in five seconds what this business does and how to contact it?
3. If it collects names or emails, does it do so properly?

Design taste is debatable. These three aren't — they're pass/fail, and they decide whether the pretty parts ever get seen. Most sites I review fail at least one, and the owner is almost always surprised which one.