AI can build websites?
It can indeed, with varying degrees of success, but with a suitable prompt you can generate a website out of thin air. Seems too good to be true doesn’t it, but what are you actually getting?
The content
Let’s start with the biggest and most obvious one, if you’re generating content from a prompt you’re going to receive what basically amounts to a dilution of pre-existing content that the AI model has found, researched and regurgitated. At first glance, it appears a miracle has been performed right? No need to spend hours writing thousands of words of carefully crafted content, what a timesaver!
Yes and no
Dig a bit deeper into what has actually been written for you, pay particular attention to:
Tone of voice: is it suitable for your business? Does it match your ethos?
Professionalism: you (hopefully!) consider yourself to be something of an expert in your field, does this come across from reading the content that has been produced?
Repetition: AI loves to reword, repeat and revisit the same material. Seen those faceless YouTube videos with an AI script? A 30 minute video that could have been covered in 3 minutes.
Generic: one thing you certainly cannot realistically expect is for AI to write specific, unique and stand-out content
Imagery
Spend any time on Facebook at the moment and you’ll have seen the Ai generated promotional posters, they stand out a mile for all the wrong reasons. Painting by numbers, but all of a sudden this is an advertisement for your business. Ask yourself if this represents you putting your “best foot forward” online, does this imagery represent your brand?
Stock photography is an interesting area, as by definition it has always been somewhat generic – it’s there to fill the void when you need imagery but might not have something specific, or maybe it’s just for background purposes. AI generated stock photography is very much here, and it’s actually not the worst thing in the world. Need an image of a happy pensioner in a care home but would prefer they were smiling a bit more? AI has your back. As a digital agency we see a lot of stock photography, and we’re pretty good at spotting what’s real and what’s generated, but we feel that AI generated stock can add actual value without negatively impacting your brand.
Logos
Just don’t do it, please. The best way to ensure your business blends in with the competition is to have a generic logo. AI logos are one up from putting your business name on a template, and if you need a logo for your business but can’t afford a professional – it can get you started. But if you’re serious about building a brand then spending time with a professional is money well spent.
The website
So you’ve generated your content, the graphics, your logo, time to see what sort of a job AI can do of your website?
This is where you’ll see the biggest variation in quality. In our experience you’ll receive one of the following types of site:
The static website: it’s been done as an all-in-one, flat html files with flat content. This is the most common style of output as it’s the easiest to achieve and requires the least computational muscle. You get what essentially amounts to a multi-page poster with your business details on it. Some of these you’ll host yourself on a suitable plan, others come with hosting already bundled into the deal. The biggest downside here is that you’re missing the tools, ability and workflow with which to maintain the site, add / edit content or do anything other than view it as it was created. The lack of a CMS is something you’ll be sure to revisit unfortunately.
Pseudo-dynamic: it’s built on a modern framework, such as React, that’s a good start! However you’re tied into a AI website platform and using prompts to try and maintain it. You may also get a degree of direct editing ability thrown in, but what you’ve essentially done here is created the sort of site with a prompt that a visual website builder (such as Wix etc) would create. You never own the website and monthly cost will eclipse the cost of having a site built at some point. But at least it’s not totally static this time?
Full dynamic site with CMS: an ambitious one! This time the AI tool is creating you a content management system so you’re able to maintain the site going forwards and edit the content. Scratch beneath the surface however and all might not be so rosy. The normal pitfalls are:
Functionality problems, inherent bugs with the build that might not be obvious from the outset.
One-off content management systems that no professional will want to touch.
Security issues that could allow your site to be compromised at any time. Normally there’s no updates or plans for security fixes.
In conclusion
Should you consider an AI website?
Let’s break this down into different use cases, as the answer is not a one-size fits all:
Professional established company: we would not recommend, an established and respected professional company deserves a brand and website presence that best represents them online
Small businesses: We can understand how this might be a more tempting prospect, the promise of saving some money and time. However we firmly believe it’s a choice that costs more in the long run (when you need to do it properly) and can easily hamper your efforts by becoming just another number, alongside the competition. In summary, if you’re serious about your business, get serious about your website.
Start-up, one-man band, hobby, side-hustle: It’s the difference between having a website and not having one, you can’t afford or justify onboarding an agency to build you something great. This starts to make a lot more sense. A website, even if it’s a temporary one is better than no website at all in most cases.
Alternatives?
You’ve decided you want to do it yourself for cost reasons, or you’re just dipping your toe in, but maybe you don’t want to “let Jesus take the wheel” and spin up a generic AI website. What else can you do?
If you do nothing else, write your own content and make sure what you publish is actually accurately written about your company, preferably by you or something that has authority to do so. Your own content on a template or visual page builder service may well be a good start for your business.
So avoid AI completely?
Not at all! AI can be a great tool for productivity, it’s just a matter of picking the right use case and keeping your “hands on the wheel” when it comes to the important bits.
Ask ChatGPT to summarise a topic for you or help you with some research?
Use AI for brainstorming when you’re stuck writing some content.
Get a content review of something you’ve written, it might pick up on some grammatical problems or give you some more ideas.
The landscape of AI is constantly changing, and what holds true now might well be different in 6 months. The main takeaway at the moment though is ensure your brand, website and content stands out, is unique and represents your business properly.