Leveraging AI as a startup company in order to save time can be valuable in terms of some web design elements. We’re going to dig into examples of where this can happen, as well as a few things to be cautious of throughout the process to make sure that everything runs smoothly! AI can’t completely replace the need for help from professionals, however it can be a crutch to help the process and save time, which is extremely important as a startup as we’re sure you’ll be aware!
Remember You Also Need To Work With A Professional Agencies
AI can be great to utilize for your business, but it needs to be used carefully. Whilst you can ask AI to generate a logo in seconds or you could get a page worth of code written up, it’s all about the quality. AI can only gather information that already exists online, and so if you’re asking for a specific bit of code for a web design function, it could be that the code is taken from a website that isn’t working effectively.
So, we will provide some inspiration of how AI can be used to strengthen your business, but it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t solely use it, and that working with specific agencies who work in web design and development, like BGN in Manchester, will help to ensure that everything is implemented properly so you don’t face issues later down the line, such as things like issues with code and Google penalties.
When To Be Cautious Of Using AI
Just before we move on to having AI can be used to help startup businesses, there are a few times that it needs to be approached with caution. One of the main areas is in SEO. As we mentioned, AI pulls content that already exists online and presents it as an answer, so if you ask it to write content about a certain topic, it will use content that is already online in order to do that. Not only do you risk the content not being 100% accurate, but if it’s too similar to another website, which you run the risk of, then you could face penalties.
Also, you’ll need to make sure that the tone of voice of your content is completely yours which can be difficult with AI, and from an SEO perspective, the content needs to be unique and not something people can find elsewhere to help you rank, again, which goes against best practice. So, using AI for your content should be avoided, as although it saves time, if you want your website to rank well organically, it’s worth the additional time.
How AI Can Be Used For Your Startup Business
Image Optimization
A core issue when it comes to web design often is the size of the images on your website. You can quite easily upload your imagery to an AI tool and ask for the images to be resized, compressed and optimized for your website. This will help with all important elements such as load times and your performance in general.
User Experience
If you’re looking for some top level guidance on how to improve the user experience on your website in terms of the web design, then you can ask AI where improvements can be made. Usually these aren’t things that are super specific to your website, but will cover some general advice on things that may be missing. This might include more visual components, introducing social proof, more call to actions or considering mobile experience, but it can help you to understand where your focus should be if you’re really new to the world of web design. You can also use AI to ask whether your page needs to be improved in terms of accessibility, to make the experience stronger for people with different disabilities.
Coding Functions
Another good feature if you’re wanting to implement a particular design element on your website would be to ask for snippets of code for the website. For example if you wanted to add an accordion to your website in HTML, you could ask for an example of this code to help guide you in the right direction. There could also be things that are simple to add but would cost a web developer to implement, such as “how do you make a phone number clickable” or a query like “how do you add a new page to the navigation menu in WordPress” and it’ll give you the answer. This is a good way to save time crawling the internet for answers, just make sure to fact check whatever it is you’re looking at and also test code on testing websites to keep your live website safe!
Full Design Tools
There are also full design tools available out there to generate versions of designs and also suggest improvements if you’re unsure of the right direction to go in. An example of this is Figma, a tool that is used by many web designers to create prototypes of web designs that can then be rolled out across websites, but there are some integrated AI tools that can make life easier if you don’t have the budget to be working with web designers on a regular basis yet, but want your website up to scratch. Push past any creative blocks you might be having with this helpful tool!
Final Thoughts
AI tools can be great time savers and can really be beneficial for new businesses, but they should be used carefully and should be supplemented with the experience of web designers, developers and content marketing specialists to help get the most out of them and also to futureproof your website. Sometimes the time saved may result in issues later down the line, so it’s important to find the balance between saving money and ensuring your website performs as you want it to!
About the Author
Darcy Fowler – after completing a University degree in Journalism, she has spent a significant amount of time studying about the ever-changing worlds of digital marketing and ecommerce, working in a variety of industries while expanding her knowledge. Darcy is determined to share insightful content in the hopes of inspiring others.
