We all know a website is essential for your business; frankly, we don’t stop going on about it. If you don’t already have one or the one you have is out of date, creating a new one can feel a bit daunting. Thanks to our two new website services, AI Sitebuilder and “Do It For Me” Web Design, it no longer has to. Let’s find out how they work, and which one is right for you and your growing business.
How does an AI-powered DIY website builder work?
An AI-powered DIY website builder works by using artificial intelligence to automate most, if not all, of the website creation process. So, instead of building a site from scratch with code or a traditional drag-and-drop editor, you can create a tailored, professional website in as little as 10 minutes with just a few prompts.
Here's how one of these website builders usually works and some of the key features involved:
The Core Process
Smart Onboarding: You’ll usually start with a conversational interface, like a chatbot or a series of questions. The AI asks you about your business, the purpose of your website, your target audience, and your brand's personality. This information lets the AI understand your needs and generate a site tailored to you.
AI-Generated Brief: Based on your answers, the AI will create a "site brief" or a plan. This includes a sitemap, a suggested structure for your pages, and an idea of the overall look and feel. This is the blueprint that the AI will use to build your site.
Instant Site Generation: With this blueprint in hand, the AI gets to work. It uses a big library of design components, layouts, and content to generate a full, multi-page website. This includes:
Layout and Design: The AI will pick a layout that fits your industry and goals. It can sometimes also create different design concepts and style guides for you to choose from.
Content and Copy: It populates the site with AI-generated text, such as headlines, descriptions, and product information, all tailored to fit your business or industry.
Images and Visuals: The AI can pick relevant images from stock libraries or even generate new images based on your prompts.
Customisation and Refinement: While the AI creates a good functional starting point, it doesn’t mean you’re stuck with the results. You can easily customise the site to your tastes. This includes adjusting layouts, themes, fonts, and colours, editing the AI-generated text and images or adding your own. With some tools, you can even ask the AI to regenerate specific sections or adjust the tone of the content.
Main AI-Powered Features
AI Writing Assistant: Quickly generate headlines, product descriptions, blog posts, and other website copy. You can also use it to correct grammar, adjust the tone or translate existing written content.
AI Image Generation and Editing: Select stock photos or generate unique images, remove or replace backgrounds, and standardise your existing product images for a more cohesive look.
Automated SEO Optimisation: Generate optimised content, like meta titles, meta descriptions, and image alt-text, to help your site rank higher in search results.
Personalised Recommendations: Get guidance and suggestions on what pages and sections you’ll need to create to best serve your business goals.
Integration and Automation: Integrate with other tools to automate your business workflows. For example, the AI can trigger a personalised confirmation email and update your CRM when a customer makes a booking.
The main advantages of an AI-powered DIY website builder like AI Sitebuilder are speed, accessibility, and perhaps most importantly, affordability. These tools allow people with no coding or design skills to create a professional, functional website in a fraction of the time it would take with a traditional builder or by hiring a professional.
What is “Do It For Me” web design and how does it work?
Unlike DIY builders, where you and your AI co-pilot are responsible for the design and content, “Do It For Me” (DIFM) is a hands-off approach. This is a service where a professional or a team of experts handles the entire website creation process for you. It's ideal if you lack the time, technical, or design skills to build a professional-looking, high-performing website yourself.
How DIFM Web Design Works
The DIFM process is collaborative, but the professionals will do the bulk of the work. This takes the pressure off and lets you get on with running your business. Here's a breakdown of the typical steps to DIFM web design:
Initial Consultation: Everything usually starts with an onboarding form followed by a discovery call or a consultation. You’ll meet with a project manager or designer and discuss your business goals, target audience, brand identity, and vision for the website. This is your chance to share your ideas, any content you might already have, and any specific functionality you need.
Strategy and Planning: The DIFM team takes all the information you give them and develops a comprehensive plan, including:
Sitemap: This is a blueprint or plan of all the pages on your website and how they connect.
User Experience (UX) Design: This is all about how users will navigate and interact with the finished site to achieve their goals, like making a purchase or filling out a contact form.
Content Strategy: This will determine the type of content needed for each page and will sometimes include professional copywriting services or AI-generated content. Of course, you can also provide your own if you have it.
SEO Set up: This covers things like optimised page titles, metadata, and mobile-friendly structure to help you rank well on search engines right from the start. It's important to note that not every service offers this, and it can sometimes depend on which plan tier you’re on.
Design and Development: Once the strategy is in place, the web designers and developers get to work. This can involve using a popular platform like WordPress with a professional theme. They handle all the technical details, including visual design, development, and content implementation.
Review and Revisions: Once a draft of the website is ready, you’ll be given a chance to review it. This is your opportunity to provide feedback, and for the team to make revisions and ensure the outcome aligns with your vision.
Launch and Maintenance: After you’ve approved the site, the team will handle the technical launch, which includes setting up the hosting, connecting the domain name, and performing any final checks. Many DIFM services also offer ongoing maintenance plans, which can include things like:
Regular software updates and security patches.
Making content and design changes.
Ensuring the site remains online and functional.
The importance of regular updates and site maintenance can’t be underestimated. Themes and plugin updates can stop the site from breaking and keep things like payment gateways and booking integrations functioning smoothly. Security updates help you keep up with the ever-evolving cyber threats increasingly attacking small businesses. Included updates to content and design mean you don't have to stress about making every price, menu, catalogue or contact adjustment yourself. That means no need to learn all the ins and outs of using the content management system (CMS) editor, keeping your website growing and evolving with your business.
"Do It For Me" web design is a service-based solution that prioritises convenience, professional quality, and a tailored result.
"Do it for me" web design vs AI web builder - what's the difference?
The Creator
AI-Powered DIY: You’re the primary creator, with AI acting as a sophisticated assistant. The AI will handle the initial creation of the site, but you’ll be responsible for any customisation, content changes, and ongoing edits.
"Do It For Me": A team of human professionals (designers and developers) are the creators. You are the client, and your role is to give information and feedback, but the team handles all the technical and creative execution, as well as ongoing updates.
Time and Effort
AI-Powered DIY: The time commitment for initial setup is pretty low. You can get a functional website in as little as 10 minutes. The effort is minimal, as the AI handles the bulk of the work, but you might still need to invest time in refining the site. Once it has been built and launched, you’ll need to invest time in maintaining and updating your site. This goes beyond ensuring your content is updated to include making sure plugins, payment gateways and security are up to date. You’ll also need to regularly review your content and make sure you’re staying on brand as you grow.
"Do It For Me": Your time investment overall is much lower! It's mostly confined to initial consultations and a few strategic review sessions. The professionals handle the entire project from start to finish. This will usually take weeks or months to complete, depending on how complex your new site will be. With ongoing support and maintenance, you’ll spend less time worrying about updates and more time focusing on growth.
Cost
AI-Powered DIY: This is usually the most budget-friendly option. AI builders are often subscription-based services with tiered pricing, making them much more accessible to individuals and small businesses with a smaller budget.
"Do It For Me": This is an option for those with a bigger budget. You are paying for the expertise, time, and custom work of a professional team. The cost can span a wider range depending on the scope of the project.
Customisation and Control
AI-Powered DIY: Customisation is good (and getting better), but can sometimes be limited to what the AI's algorithms can generate or what the platform's editor allows. You have control over the content and many design elements, but you’re working within a predefined framework.
"Do It For Me": This option gives you the highest degree of customisation and control. Your team of professionals can build you unique, bespoke core pages, like a homepage, with specific features, complex functionality and a custom design that an AI-generated site can’t yet replicate. Depending on how you want to spend, your team of experts can expand this customisation and functionality site-wide.
Quality and Expertise
AI-Powered DIY: The quality is generally high, and sites look professional. The AI uses the data you provide to produce sites that are aesthetically pleasing and functional. However, it might lack the strategic depth in branding, advanced SEO, or user experience design that you’d get with a human expert.
"Do It For Me": The quality is typically higher due to the human expertise involved. A professional and experienced team brings strategic thinking, an understanding of your brand, and the ability to create a website that looks good and converts visitors into customers.
Essentially, the choice between the two comes down to a trade-off between the cost and speed of AI-powered DIY versus the quality and control of DIFM.
Which one is right for my business?
Deciding on the best way to create a website for your business requires a careful look at your budget, available time and ultimate business goals. The choice between an AI-powered DIY builder and a "Do It For Me" service comes down to how you answer a few key questions.
Is My Budget a Limiting Factor?
One of the most important considerations for any business is cost. An AI-powered DIY site builder is the perfect choice if you're working with a tight budget. These tools usually operate on a subscription model, making them an affordable option for startups, new entrepreneurs, or small businesses with limited funds. You're paying for a software tool, not for human labour.
On the other hand, if your website is a central part of your business strategy and you have the capital to invest in a high-end solution, a DIFM service is the way to go. You'll be paying for the expertise of a professional team, but this investment is often recouped through the performance of a high-quality, completely custom website.
How Much Time Do I Have to Invest?
Your time is a highly valuable resource, so you need to be honest about how much you can dedicate to building and maintaining a website. If you need a basic site up and running in a matter of hours or days, an AI-powered DIY builder is going to be the clear winner. The AI gets you to a functional starting point within minutes, and you only need to spend a little bit of time customising it. However, you will still need to manage the site yourself.
With a DIFM service, your time commitment is considerably reduced. You'll spend a few hours in initial meetings and during the review process, but the professional team takes on the majority of the work, freeing you up to focus on running your business.
What's the Purpose of My Website?
An AI-powered DIY builder is perfect for less complex sites—those that showcase your services, display contact information, and maybe have a blog or a small e-commerce offering.
If you need a high-end, custom solution with unique features, a bespoke design that perfectly matches your brand, or more complex functionality like a custom booking system or a members-only portal, a DIFM service is your best bet. The experts have the skills to build a site that not only looks great but also provides a strategic and highly functional user experience. The complexity of your business and the website's purpose should guide your decision.
By answering these questions, you'll find it easier to decide which approach best fits the current stage and goals of your business. Either way, choosing one and having a website is more important than getting stuck over the decision and being left without an online presence. The impact of having a website can be huge; not having a site could cost you up to 80% of your potential customers.
Luckily, whichever option you decide fits your business, Webcentral has you covered! Learn more about our AI Sitebuilder and DIFM Website Design service, including our different packages and transparent pricing, today. We also have an obligation-free consultation available for our DIFM option, giving you a chance to ask any questions you might have. And if you decide our AI-powered DIY option is the one for you after all, no worries, it really is free of any obligation!
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