Why a website alone is not enough
AI can now build a very good website in minutes. It handles the strategy, the sections, the design and the content. You have an idea, and AI builds a whole world around it.
The first reaction is always wow. AI did all of this, and so quickly.
For a non-tech person who has always begged a family member or a close friend to build a website, this is a game changer. Your cousin's weekends are finally safe. That person is now thrilled, because they can finally retire as the family's unpaid web developer.
You ask AI to deploy the site, and it does. For the first few days, or even weeks, you are happy. You have a website to show people, and your company has an identity on the internet.
But you did not build a website just to have one. You built it to get customers. You wanted prospects to see what your company is working on, and to bring in new leads.
As the days pass, the excitement fades. You realise the time you spent on the site was wasted. No leads come in, and hardly anyone visits.
It does not have to be like that. Many posts online promise 5, 7 or 9 magic prompts that will build you a website. Most of them are clickbait, and they will not get you anything meaningful.
Instead, this is a basic guide to making your website work, and why each step matters. It assumes you already have a basic website and are happy with its structure.
The basic checks
Do these before you share the site with anyone.
- Check for broken links. Make sure no link is broken. Every call-to-action button should work, and your site should look and say the same thing on every page.
- Optimise for SEO, GEO and AEO. Ask AI to act like an expert in search and optimise the site for SEO (search engines), GEO (AI tools that generate answers) and AEO (answer engines). These are long-term ways to bring in more visitors.
- Fix old URLs if you are migrating. If you are moving from an older site, ask AI to check Google Search Console for old URLs and map them to the new ones. Ask it to update the sitemap and fix broken links. You can also ask Google to index the site faster, so it shows up in search sooner.
- Run a QA check. Ask AI to act as an expert QA analyst. It should check every page and every block of code, and fix any issues it finds.
- Check your PageSpeed score. Test the site on PageSpeed Insights, and ask AI to fix every issue it lists. A slow site loses visitors.
- Set up a UAT version. Build a test copy of the site that Google does not index. Test it there before you deploy to the live site.
- Test on many browsers and devices. I once found that my navigation menu was hidden on mobile, even though the QA run said everything was fixed. Check on several browsers and phones yourself.
Advanced suggestions
These take a little more setup, but they are worth it once the basics are done.
- Use Git. Keep your code in a Git repository, with separate branches for UAT and LIVE.
- Set up CI/CD. Make the site deploy on its own whenever new code is pushed to a branch.
- Check your DNS records. AI can help you confirm there are no conflicting DNS records.
- Never miss a form. Most sites have a form. Make sure every submission is saved, by email or in a database, and set up a notification for each new entry. When a form is filled, you should know right away and reply within 24 hours. Otherwise, all that work was for nothing.
- Add analytics. Connect Google Analytics, or any other analytics tool, across the whole site. Track where people drop off and which sections or pages they spend the most time on. This tells you what to improve.
What good looks like
This website was built with AI, and its PageSpeed score is above 95 on mobile and on desktop. That is where you want to be.
But a good website is not the end of the work. Check it, measure it, and fix what you find. That is how it starts bringing you leads.