Do you still need a website when something else is answering for you? It’s the question I’m getting asked most at the moment. If people just ask ChatGPT, what’s the point?
Fair question. The answer is that you need one more than you did before, not less. Here’s why.
What’s actually changed
People used to search, get ten blue links and click one. Now a lot of them type a question, read an answer and never click anything.
That answer gets written for them. By ChatGPT, by Google’s AI summary, by whatever assistant is on their phone. They ask who’s a good electrician in Huddersfield and something hands them three names.
The question that matters to you is simple. Where did those three names come from?
AI doesn’t invent the answer, it reads one
This is the bit people miss. AI isn’t making a judgement about who’s good. It’s reading what’s already published and summarising it.
It reads websites. It reads Google Business Profiles. It reads reviews, directory listings, local news and anywhere else your name appears with some detail attached.
So if there’s nothing published about your business, there’s nothing for it to read. You don’t get a bad mention. You get no mention at all, which is worse, because you never find out it happened.
Your competitor with a proper website, full of clear pages about what they do and where they do it? That’s the business getting recommended. Not because they’re better at the job. Because they’re the one that’s readable.
Not sure how your business looks to Google and AI right now? We’ll take a look and tell you straight, no charge.
A Facebook page isn’t enough
Two reasons.
It’s mostly walled off. A lot of social content sits behind a login, and what’s public is thin. Posts, a few photos, an opening time. There’s very little there that describes what you actually do.
And you don’t own it. Accounts get suspended by mistake, get hacked, or get buried by whatever the algorithm is doing this month. You’ve got no say and nobody to ring. Your own website sits on a domain in your name and nobody can switch it off.
What your site needs so AI can quote you
You don’t need to do anything clever or technical. You need to state the obvious things plainly, because that’s what gets picked up.
- Say what you do, in normal words. Not bespoke property solutions. Boiler repairs. Rewires. Bathroom fitting. If someone would type it, write it.
- Say where you do it. Name the towns. A page for each main area you cover beats one page listing twelve place names.
- Answer the questions people actually ask. How quickly can you come out, do you charge for quotes, are you insured, do you do emergencies. Put the answer on the page. These are the exact sentences an AI lifts.
- Keep your Google Business Profile filled in and matching. You can check yours on Google Business Profile directly. Same name, same address, same phone number as your site. If you are not turning up in the map at all, here is what usually causes that.
- Get reviews, and reply to them. Reviews are read as evidence.
- Put real proof on there. Photos of your own work, not stock images. Accreditations, guarantees, how long you’ve been going.
The thing nobody says out loud
Being in the AI answer isn’t the finish line. It’s the introduction.
Most people who get a recommendation still check you out before they ring. They search your name. They want to see that you’re real, that the work looks decent and that there’s a phone number that gets answered.
If that search turns up a Facebook page last updated in 2023, you’ve lost them at the last step. The recommendation got you in the room. The website is what closes it.
What this doesn’t mean
Don’t panic and start rewriting your site for robots. Stuffing pages with keywords, or writing in some stilted way to please an algorithm, makes things worse rather than better.
The same things have always worked. Clear pages, plain English, real detail about what you do and where. AI just raised the price of not having them.
Common questions
Will AI replace websites?
No. It replaces some of the searching, not the checking. People still want to see who they’re about to let into their house. Websites are also where AI gets its information in the first place, so if they all disappeared, so would the answers.
How do I get my business mentioned by ChatGPT?
There’s no submission form, and anyone selling you one is having you on. You get mentioned by being clearly described in the places these tools read. A website with proper pages about your services and areas, a complete Google Business Profile and a decent pile of reviews. Same work, new payoff.
Do I need to do anything different for AI than for Google?
Not really. Both reward the same thing, clear pages that answer real questions. The main shift is being direct. Write the answer in a plain sentence rather than burying it three paragraphs down.
My business comes from word of mouth. Do I still need one?
Especially then. Word of mouth ends with someone searching your name to check you’re real. That search is the moment you either look established or look like you’ve packed it in.
How many pages do I need?
Enough to cover each service and each main area you work in, plus an about page and a contact page. For most local businesses that’s between five and fifteen. More pages isn’t better. Clearer pages are.
So do you still need a website?
AI hasn’t made websites pointless. It’s made them the source everything else is built on.
If your business is properly described somewhere public, you’re in the answer. If it isn’t, you’re invisible, and nobody will tell you. See how we build websites.