Have you heard the rumors lately? People are whispering that the traditional website is dead. With Google and AI chatbots giving answers directly in the search results, the fear is that no one will ever click through to your site again. This 0-click world sounds like a nightmare for business owners who rely on traffic for leads and sales, but I recently sat down with Roger Williams from Kinsta to talk about why these rumors are completely wrong.
Using AI is great when used correctly. It is a tool for efficiency and inspiration, not a total replacement for the human connection you build with your audience. Roger Williams from Kinsta took this a step further during our conversation on Episode 305 of the HMBT Podcast. He pointed out that your website is actually the fuel for the entire AI engine. Without high-quality, human-created content to learn from, these chatbots would eventually have nothing new or accurate to say.
The Fuel for the AI Engine
Roger made a brilliant point that I think every marketer needs to hear. When an AI gives a high-quality answer, it is pulling that information from somewhere. That “somewhere” is your website. If we all stopped creating and publishing original thoughts, AI would eventually run out of current, accurate information. It would become a closed loop of recycled, stale data.
Instead of worrying about clicks, we should focus on being the most authoritative source of information in our niche. When you provide real value, you become the data point that AI trusts. This is a shift in mindset. We are no longer just writing for humans, we are providing the foundational knowledge that AI uses to serve those humans. If you are the source of the answer, your brand remains relevant even if the user never hits your landing page.
Eventually, those users will need the “how-to” or the specific service that only you can provide, and they will come looking for the source.
Accessibility: The Triple Threat You Can’t Ignore
We also talked about something many people ignore until it is too late, which is website accessibility. Roger described this as a “triple threat,” and his explanation was eye-opening. It is a legal requirement, an ethical responsibility, and a major factor for search engine optimization.
If your site is not accessible to everyone, you are essentially locking the door to a huge portion of your potential audience.
Think about it in terms of email marketing. As I discussed in Revive Your Email Efforts After A Pandemic, the road to recovery starts with getting your brand back in front of people. But if your brand’s digital “home” is broken or impossible to navigate for people with disabilities, you are undoing all your hard work.
Just like we focus on clean lists and deliverability in email, we need to focus on a clean, accessible experience for every single web visitor. It is not just about avoiding a lawsuit, it is about being a good digital citizen and making sure your content is reachable by everyone, including the bots that index your site.
Don’t Let Technical Nightmares Kill Your Growth
One of the most practical takeaways from my talk with Roger was the importance of managed hosting. We have all had that moment of panic when a plugin update breaks the entire site or a sudden spike in traffic brings everything to a grinding halt. Roger explained how Kinsta handles the heavy lifting of security and performance so you can actually focus on running your business.
He recommends two non-negotiable tools that I think every website owner should implement immediately:
- Staging Environments: You should never “test in production.” Always try out your changes, updates, or new designs in a safe sandbox before they go live. This prevents those 2:00 AM technical emergencies.
- Automated Backups: Make sure you can hit the “undo” button if something goes wrong. A website is a living asset, and things happen. Having a reliable backup means a mistake is a minor speed bump rather than a business-ending disaster.
Why Your Owned Assets Matter More Than Ever
In a world where social media algorithms change overnight and search engines are experimenting with AI-driven results, your website and your email list are your two most important assets. They are the only things you truly own. You don’t own your Facebook followers or your TikTok views, but you do own your domain and your subscriber data.
Remember that your website is the foundation. If that foundation is shaky, slow, or hard to navigate, AI will not want to crawl it, and users will not want to stay. Use this week to audit your site speed and check your accessibility. Are you making it easy for people to find the value you offer?
Go to your website on a mobile device and try to sign up for your own newsletter. If it is frustrating for you, it is frustrating for your customers.
Make sure to listen to the full episode with Roger Williams. We cover even more ground on WordPress security, the future of the open web, and how to stay ahead of the technical curve without losing your mind.
