7 AI image mistakes that make a landing page look cheap, and the fix for each

Visitors rarely say "this image is AI-made". They say the page feels off, and they leave. These seven mistakes cause most of that feeling. Each has a simple fix.

1. Gibberish text inside the image

Labels, signboards, keyboards and screens come back covered in invented lettering. Fix: ask for blank labels and blank screens, add "no text, no logos", and add real text in your design tool.

2. A different style in every section

A glossy 3D hero, flat icons and a watercolour blog header make a page look collected from stock. Fix: choose one look per project, approve one reference image, and repeat the same style and palette words in every prompt.

3. No space for the headline

The subject is in the middle and the copy has nowhere to go. Fix: state the empty area by side and fraction: "the left half is plain and even".

4. Invented interfaces in mockups

A generated phone screen full of fake charts is easy to spot and misrepresents the product. Fix: generate devices with blank screens, front-on or top-down, and paste in the real screenshot.

5. Cropping one image for every format

A wide hero cropped to a story loses either its subject or its text space. Fix: regenerate for each shape, describing where the subject sits in that frame.

6. Hands, pairs and counts

Six fingers, earrings that do not match, four jars when you asked for three. Fix: write "exactly three", ask for "five natural fingers", then zoom in and count before anything is published.

7. Presenting a generated product as the real one

An AI-made bottle or dish on a listing shows the customer something they will not receive. Fix: use generated product frames for teasers, moodboards and backgrounds, and show the real item wherever a customer is deciding to buy.

A two-minute check that catches most of it

• View at full size, corner to corner.
• Read every surface.
• Count everything countable.
• Check shadows fall one way.
• Test the real headline on top.

There is an eighth, quieter mistake: using a living artist's name or a known brand's look as a shortcut. It borrows someone else's identity and exposes your client. Describe the line, the palette and the light you want instead.

And keep a simple record of which tool and plan produced each published image. Commercial-use rights depend on the tool's own terms, and clients do ask.

The Pixvault Playbook turns these fixes into a five-step method with a checklist for each step.