The problem with AI websites

Please note: this article is written 100% by human hands, no LLM intervention.

Executive Summary

• Online influencers showing how to make “passive income” are causing distrust in the industry
• Without a proper technical setup, a website will not generate traffic
• A website developer should have a comprehensive plan to get your website found on Google; see the full list below.

Passive Income and the Influencer Industry

Every day, videos are made online about selling AI Websites to local businesses. Websites costing between $500 and $1,000 that are created in minutes with an LLM service, launched without proper configuration, and then left to rot online.

These businesses are told that a website will 10x their sales, drive more customers to their operation, and take them to the next level.

Imagine you hire a personal trainer to help you lose weight; you pay the deposit. Then they come over, put a padlock on your fridge and pantry, and walk away, never to be seen again.

Technically, yes, you would get down to your weight goal, but it’s not going to help you? You don’t know how to make healthy meals, proper form for lifting, or even any basic understanding other than starvation.

There would be no benefit.

A website without configuration, indexing, schema, seo, updates, accurate information, etc will give you no benefits.

To be clear, we do not have a problem with the website being built by LLM’s. It’s the lack of transparency, website support, and a half-baked attempt at launching a successful website.

Local Businesses

Deliver Digital primarily services local businesses in Springfield, Missouri, and surrounding cities. We chose this market to keep the economy local, support family-run stores, and it is easy to sit down with a business owner to figure out what they actually need.

After talking with hundreds of small business owners every month, less than half of them have the desire to scale their business; they just want to keep the doors open and their family employed.

Local Businesses, espically service based, become easy targets for these AI website builders. Knock on 100 doors, and at least one of those doors will open. Check out these statistics by UsChamber.Com

The Market

In our experience, there is a general lack of trust in door-to-door salesmen. This has been found in TV shows, Movies, and viral video clips like SNL parodying door-to-door salesmen selling vacuum cleaners, or callers talking about your car’s extended warranty.

This experience is heightened with the recent onset of vibecoders picking a random city and calling businesses to sell their website services.

Deliver Digital’s founder, Koleman Parsley, experiences this weekly while talking with Springfield Business owners who have purchased a $500 – $1,000 website via the phone, and have not had a single website visitor.

What to look out for?

As we mentioned, there is nothing inherently wrong with using an LLM to build a website; the problem lies in the technical aspects of the website. Find that list at the bottom of this article.

Is this individual putting unnecessary stress and pressure on this sale? Are they listening to your business needs, or are they selling you vague results?

What does the long-term care of your website look like? A proper developer should be able to answer that question with ease.

And finally, do you trust the individual on the other end of the phone? Do they have proof of websites they have done and reviews you can read, or is it someone who’s itching to make the next sale.

 

Summarized list for a successful website launch

• Sitemap.xml setup
• Robots.txt added
• Basic SEO (title, meta, alts) configured
• Website indexed on search engines
• Analytics setup to track data
• GDPR and CCPA compliance
• Optimized website speed
• Proper DNS configuration (www and non-www)
• SSL Certification
• Mobile configuration
• Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
• Ongoing and consistent maintenance, checks, and repairs