These rules of content presentation can be positive (rather than negative):
It should be obvious that the purpose of the site is to clearly present content
Choose a name for the site, and titles and headers for the pages, that make it abundantly clear that the purpose of the site is to present content, and (as a general matter) what that content is.
The design of the site should serve the purpose of presenting content
Site design should be intended to facilitate navigation and frame the content— nothing more and nothing less.
Specific content items and subject areas should be easy to find
Provide multiple mechanisms for finding things: index pages, search boxes, site maps, subject areas, and so on.
Type should be legible
Be careful to choose a readable font, in a large enough size, and background and foreground color combinations that are easy on the eyes. It’s hard to go wrong with black type on a white background. The reverse—white on black—is hard on the eyes, and some combinations (for example, dark blue on lighter blue) are essentially unreadable.
Keep graphics simple
For example, avoid animations and other splashy images
