This post is a bit of a work in progress.
Well, it’s finally happened. We’re blogging about AI.
Here at Sterner Stuff, we occasionally look over the kinds of keywords sending traffic to our site to gauge what folks are looking for. And I’m sure it won’t surprise you that “Can AI build me a website?” is a search on the rise.
So let’s set out to answer that question: Can AI build me a website?
AI Website Builders
Most folks are probably not going to use ChatGPT to generate raw HTML code to make their website. They’re going to use a service specifically designed to build a website. We’ve seen a few pop onto the market. Platforms like Replit and 10Web. And of course, the classic hosted sitebuilders are adding site generators right within their platforms. Services like Wix, Squarespace, Framer and more.
What You Get
We jumped into Framer to give things a quick spin. To get started, we prompted it for a wireframe for a site for a company like ours.
a web design company in Eugene, Oregon specializing in WordPress hosting and customization, Laravel applications, and eCommerce for legacy mom-and-pop retail stores.
We got something like this:
Which, yes, certainly covered what Sterner Stuff offers as basic services. You could simply add some pictures and a logo to this wireframe and go live, and you would have a professional looking website.
What the AI Builder Can’t Do
But what happens next is what makes AI website builders simply inferior to working with an agency to build a website.
The above certainly looks clean, and I’m sure if it got traffic, it would turn some of that traffic into contact form inquiries and maybe even clients.
But as someone keeping tabs on a web agency website, that website will almost certainly not rank for anything the person building it wants to rank for.
My immediate thought was to ask the builder “Will this site rank well in search engines?”, and that’s a very basic question that a lot of folks would never bother to ask. It’s also a question asked in the context of someone with a particular strategy in mind for finding new business.
It gave a vague non-answer about general search engine strategy:
I can’t directly evaluate SEO performance, but the current structure supports strong search rankings: it has clear navigation, focused service descriptions, and logical calls to action. To improve SEO further, consider refining the copy to include location-based keywords, adding project case studies, and using the Page Canvas Editor for meta descriptions and alt text. I don’t have further strong suggestions at this point, but customizing section text and adding blog content can help boost ranking and visibility.
This answer doesn’t include the cold, hard truth that someone in my shoes opening an agency today would need to hear. Things like:
- Trying to organically rank in a nationwide context is going to be really hard
- Trying to organically rank locally is going to be really hard, because you have lots of established local competition
- Depending on your clientele, it may be unlikely that people searching for your agency will be looking for technology-specific terms like “WordPress” or “Laravel”
That’s not to say that an AI builder given guidance couldn’t build a website and write content for that website that would rank well in search engines. But my very first question after generating a site is a question that folks who don’t work in this industry probably won’t think to ask.
AI builders, like many tools before them, need someone who knows exactly what they want them to do. It needs someone who can get around research tools quickly to give it contextual knowledge. It won’t truly consult with you. It’s much too preoccupied with giving you a “good” answer and getting a “job well done!”
Will AI Website Builders Get Better?
Probably. And they will continue to learn about trends in the industry and build websites that match the feel of the current zeitgeist, because that’s what they do. They create work derivative of other work out there.
Should I Use an AI Builder?
If you simply need a website that is an online business card for a business that gets a lot of visibility in a market with high need (say, the trades), this would be sufficient. But so were the tools that came before it, for a lot less energy.
Once you’re in a competitive space or trying to grow your business with your website as a centerpiece of that strategy, the current iteration of these builders will be dependent on you having insight into the industry and knowing what to ask it for the results you want.
And you could learn all that. You could teach yourself to build and market a high-converting website by interacting with tools like Framer and ChatGPT. But is that really what you intended to spend your time doing? Was the point to teach yourself a new skill?
Or was the point to do what you do best—run your business—and have someone who’s already an expert help you with marketing a website?
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