Shiny Websites

35% of UK SMEs now use AI tools, compared to 25% last year. As more and more small companies use AI tools, there will be a growing competitive disadvantage for companies that don’t use AI. These companies could be losing several hours per week as competitorsuse AI to keep up with business demands.

Competitive edge is built when businesses are the first to use new tools. The barrier for AI tools is actually low, and so is the cost and required technical savvy to use them. There are AI tools to help you write content, answer regularly asked questions, and maintain order and efficiency for data management.

The hardest part is determining which tools are valuable. Fortunately, the majority of AI tools on the market today don’t provide enough value for small businesses. These tools are often impressive for demos, but in actual use provide very little value. A high number of these tools are designed to help automate a business task that isn’t all that difficult to begin with.

As mentioned before, this is not a complete list of AI tools, but there’s a lot of tools for small businesses that provide enough value to help grow your business rather than just build some flashy UI.

For Writing and Content

The UK sees a lot of use for general AI assistants, ChatGPT and Claude, when it comes to writing practices. Both can perform the more traditional tasks of drafting or summarising writing when given longer documents. While the output is not completely ready to show to the world, it is infinitely better than an empty page. Writing with AI has the added benefit of saving a lot of time.

In terms of the complexity of the written instructions, Claude tends to handle these more accurately. ChatGPT has an edge on integrations and community support. For most use cases, either program is a good choice. Since both of their free tiers are available, it is worth the time to test both before subscribing to the paid versions.

Canva’s additions to their software are also useful to businesses in the same way. Though Canva now offers tools to assist users in designing flyers, social media posts, presentation slides, background removal, marketing materials, and more, the program is quite easy to learn and relies heavily on a suggestion based algorithm.

For Meetings and Admin

Otter.ai miraculously transcribes, analyses, and summarises video calls. Users of the free version can use Otter for approximately 5 hours a week before defaulting to the paid version. For most users this is more than sufficient time to sample and get a feel for the correlation of time saved from the many working hrs spent taking meeting notes.

NotionAI can be a complementary service for Notion users. NotionAI is useful for drafting text, summarising, and answering queries regarding documents, notes and project files. Implementing the AI feature for Notion is probably ill advised unless Notion is being used extensively within the organisation.

For Automation

Zapier automates transferring data between different programs and apps. Zapier handles automating tasks once the task trigger (or example event) is defined. The free tiers allow up to 100 automations to be utilised, making Zapier a strong option for users looking to implement basic automation. Paid plans start at around £16.

Most small businesses would find Zapier the more user-friendly option, when compared to Make (formerly Integromat), a similar product that caters to automating more complex task flows.

Automating basic tasks, such as notifying yourself of new leads, is simple and nearly free with Zapier.

What to Actually Do First

The biggest issue is signing up for many tools in order to use them all poorly. It’s smarter to choose one tool that efficiently solves a problem related to writing, note taking, or repetitive tasks, and use it daily for a full month before adding new tools.

For most small businesses, starting with an AI writing and communication assistant is a good investment, and most businesses will see a return on their investment in less than a month. ChatGPT and Claude, with proper instructions, can save more time in one month than most tools used improperly. It’s worth mentioning that the instructions given have a large impact the quality of the response generated. Open-ended instructions, or vague instructions, can result open ended responses and useless information. On the other hand, instructions constructed with relevance and order can result in helpful responses.

Finally, Microsoft 365 Copilot is another tool worth considering if your business mainly uses Microsoft tools. It’s integrated inWord, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, so it accesses the tools most people use. The price, £25 per user per month, will likely not work for very small businesses, but for larger businesses it can be justified quickly.

The Tools to Be Sceptical About

Not all AI tools that charge a fee are actually worth their cost. Most writing tools built on top of ChatGPT charge a high monthly cost for features that are easily accessible through the core ChatGPT API at a substantially lower cost. It is also highly advised to do some research to determine if a paid tool is different and actually worth the cost.

AI image generation tools are impressive. In most cases, for small businesses, the images are either not quite right or not cost effective because of all the extra prompts and edits that are required. Most of the time, the built-in tools in Canva work much better and are easier to use.

A long list of supposedly essential AI tools is grown every week, and most of them are actually unnecessary. A better method is to start with a solution that works for one to two specific problems and build from there rather than trying to completely replace everything.

Three services come up most frequently when a small business thinks about their website: WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix. Each has their fans, and each has their situations where they trump the other services. In the honest opinion, the answer really depends on what the business wants their website to accomplish and how much autonomy they want over what happens afterward.

Now, here’s a look at each service explained in a way that makes it easy to understand.

WordPress

WordPress is responsible for about 43% of all running websites, and that makes sense. It has an impressive ecosystem and intuitive framework that are the product of over 20 years of work. For most developers, it’s easy to work with.

For a small business, WordPress is a great option to use as a foundation for your site. Whether your site grows from 5 pages to 20, or beyond, you can scale WordPress to large levels without losing your rich content. What makes WordPress great is that you own your site. It is not dependent on a third-party hub that may change unreliable terms in the future.

The reason some people may not like WordPress is the maintenance. To keep the site secure, you have to update it. Because of the nature of WordPress, if you leave updates for too long, security become a big issue. A big part of the maintenance is done by the developers, but with practice, members of your team can do it.

Ranking on search engines is easy with WordPress, and a lot of that has to do with plugins. Great content is much more visible since the code behind the platform is clean.

Squarespace

Squarespace is quite simple to figure out. Their templates are well designed and have a ton of customisation options. This means there is very little you need to do regarding mitigating problems and configuration.

Squarespace is typical for businesses who want to have a reliable site in the shortest amount of time. They use it most for digital flyers instead of functional websites. This is because Squarespace has limitations for customisation and plug-in usage when compared to other web development sites.

While Squarespace is great for sites quickly, as your needs grow, so does Squarespace’s limitations. Most people find more developmental possibilities on plug-in enabled sites. Also, Squarespace is built on Squarespace’s infrastructure. This means, in the event that something happens to the Squarespace platform or pricing changes, moving your site becomes more challenging than usual.

The pricing, for most people, is predictable, and this is why most businesses like it. Plans will cost you anywhere from £13 to £35, but you can find all the plans e-commerce related at the upper end.

Wix

Wix has the least hassle for building the fastest site of the three. The drag-and-drop site building technology removes most of the barriers of building a site for non-techie users. It is really easy to use.

Wix is really best suited to small business and individuals wanting to build an online presence and who do not want to hire someone to build it for them. Wix’s SEO performance is the worst of the three. This is likely due to old coding and site architecture. While it is improved somewhat, this coding is still likely not the best choice for a business that wants to invest heavily in SEO and organic searches.

Like Squarespace, Wix hosts your site and moving your site to another hosting service is more complicated than most people would think.

I have many years of SEO experience in Austin and would be happy to provide a referral for a top provider that can help you customise one of these site builders for maximum SEO benefit if you hire one.

Which One to Choose

WordPress is the platform most SMEs adopt when they want to raise their online presence. It does take some time to learn and requires more effort to maintain, but it has high developer adoption and brings very strong SEO capabilities to the table. This reduces the likelihood of issues that may impact the business in the future.

Squarespace is perfectly suited for businesses looking for something simple and clean to manage, that doesn’t require too much developer input, and is more about looking credible than using its site as a primary traffic source.

Wix, although not a great platform for businesses that intend to grow, is great for simplicity and especially great for speed. It also ranks below both WordPress and Squarespace for SEO.

One thing worth mentioning is that moving from Wix to WordPress or to any better platform is a challenge that most businesses will end up regretting, and for that reason a little more consideration should be taken when making the decision.

Building a website is one of the more important decisions a business owner will make. Surprisingly, a lot of people do not pay the same attention when hiring a web designer that they do when hiring an employee or leasing an office. The outcome is missed deadlines, significant monetary loss, and a product that falls short of the company’s needs.

If you are exploring website programming Northampton, we look at some pointers to help you make a more informed choice.

Empower Yourself with Understanding Prior to Inquiries.

A common pitfall is asking designers to quote a project prepared with a minimal understanding of the project’s requirements. To a degree, a company owner

must first assess the project.

How will the website function? Is it purely an information portal, or will it accommodate transactions, booking, data storage, or other advanced functions? Who will be responsible for periodic site content updates? How manual will the updates be? Who will maintain the site? Will the new site link or integrate with other pre-existing business software applications?

You may think that the answers to the above may be simple, but if you are unable to answer some of them, you will find it extremely difficult to conduct a meaningful comparison of the proposals.

The Value of Localised Work

When hiring a local developer firm, you are able to meet in person, which allows for easier communication compared to a firm that is nationally located. If you are commissioning website programming Northampton, you are hiring someone who understands your market.

There are also good developers and bad developers who are both located next to each other. Local developers are knowledgeable, and their services are convenient.

Expectations for Designers and Developers

Project Background. What you want to understand is why certain decisions were made. Ask about specific projects, what was the client’s problem, and how was it solved technically?

Intellectual Discussion about Platforms. In order to make sure you are making the best decision for your specific business, you need to understand the impact and importance of what a project is built on.

Truthful Time Requirements. Good developers are usually busy. If someone can turn around a complex build in two weeks, ask why.

Post-launch processes. What does life after going live mean? Who is responsible for site updates? For hosting? For software maintenance? For security? For all of the above? Website ownership cost includes all maintenance aspects. Meeting post-launch clarity is vital to running your site.  A breakdown of what is lost on the site after maintenance breakdown is vital.  Most cost quotes include lost maintenance costs. Look for unreasonably low quotes.

A Word About Contract Language

Contracts vacuously stating legally are still contracts, and you still need to know what you are losing. A contract with a well-established site owner states the equivalent of a good estimate, and a contractor is an unwilling to provide details. This is not the norm. This is a warning sign. At what cost are you building trust? What are you losing?

Where Should You Go for Balance?

Should you be looking to freelancers? Should you be looking to larger companies?

Each option has its set of good and bad. Balance is a good mix with companies. Choose a larger company for a larger project. Choose a documentation-savvy company with a solid track record and a good employee for a smaller project.

Summary

Website programming Northampton is a competitive market with no shortage of talent. The most successful businesses aren’t always the ones with the deepest pockets — the most successful businesses are the ones who ask the most relevant questions before making a commitment.

By doing the same, you will already be ahead of the rest.

A website is quite a personal thing to you and your business. The look, feel and navigation of your websites will depend entirely on your purpose, so if you want to achieve direct sales via your site, you will need to have an eCommerce website that works well and where people can place orders straight away on your site. If you just want a website to make you look more professional, then you can have a more simple site, but it still need to be right.

You should discuss your needs and aims with your web marketing agency ahead of your website design and build. They can tell you about the different things that you can get out of a website, and what might suit you and your needs. Any good web design and marketing agency will be able to give you expert advice and help you arrive at the right decision.

A site map shows all the pages that are part of your website, so you can see exactly what is included and how all the URL structures will work. For example, if a page is going to sit underneath another page, like an ‘about us’ section, this will be represented in the site map.

You must choose a site map before having a website built, so the design and build teams know which pages to include. Discuss this with your web marketing agency before deciding on anything final, as the site map will really affect SEO. There will need to be certain pages to target certain keywords, so you need to have all your bases covered.

A marketing agency can also advise on the usability of your sitemap. The aim is to make sure people visiting your website can find exactly what they want on it, so a clear and concise site map will really help.