AI and the future of websites | Momentum

Description

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In this extract, Adrian Rosenkranz (CRO at Webflow) shares the data that is redefining the role of the website in B2B marketing:

→ +125% increase in AI bot crawling on Webflow sites. The website is no longer built for humans alone

→ 6x conversion rate from visitors coming through LLMs and why it changes everything about the experience you need to deliver

→ "Own the answer": the 4-pillar framework (authority, measurement, content, technical setup) to exist in AI-generated answers

→ Is the website dead? What would need to be true for that to happen and why we're far from it

→ The Wikipedia effect: when information alone isn't enough, it's the experience that brings people back

→ Why AI will kill websites optimized only for SEO and unlock creativity for the rest

WHERE TO FIND ADRIAN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianrosenkranz/

WHERE TO FIND JORDAN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanchenevier/

WORK WITH BULLDOZER: https://bulldozer-collective.com/

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Transcription

Speaker #0
Right now, you're sitting on a lot of data. How do you see the AI impacting the market in general based on the data that you have at hand?
Speaker #1
The number one thing that has become very clear is that the website's not for humans alone. We've seen a 125% increase in AI bot crawlers. We also saw a 6x increase in conversion for people who came from LLMs, which is unbelievable. And so I think it's going to really demand us to rethink how we create dynamic experiences for where someone is. The best example, and I don't know, when's the last time you went to Wikipedia?
Speaker #0
Honestly, I don't know.
Speaker #1
Exactly. It's not the best way to get that information anymore. It's all there, but the experience isn't special. It's just data on a page. How do we create the next generation of customized experiences? Since everyone is getting accustomed to this world where I can ask anything, and it's going to give me something specific to me.
Speaker #0
How do you see the future of the website with zero-click content and people searching first on LLMs? Well, we already talked about AI, but I would like to open an official chapter around AI. Sure. So right now you're sitting on a lot of data. And so you see how your customers are using the website.
Speaker #1
etc how do you see the ai impacting the market in general based on like the trends you see based on the data that you have at hand the number one thing that has become very clear is that the website's not for humans alone and we see that in the data so we've seen 125 increase in ai bot crawlers so these are or those of you who may not understand exactly, it is when an AI, like you go and search in chat GPT, and it is going through your page, seeing what is on your page. And so we saw 125% increase, which is unbelievable. And the thing that's interesting is that all of those are bringing back information back to an experience in a chat where a human is talking to you and getting an opinion or a question answered with a lot of judgment in there. And in the past, you'd compete for clicks. So we would compete. We try to get a click. The click would show, you know, in Google, you'd see a little information, but you chose what that was. You land on your page. You chose what that was. But now it's this huge surge in crawling and you go back to the, you don't know what the AI is saying about you. So I think it's super interesting to see that. big of a surge. We also saw a 6x increase in conversion for people who came from LLMs, which I think is something that surprised me. But what it's telling me is that people are coming, when they do come to you from an LLM, they have so much more information. Yeah, it's the convert. It's more bottom of funnel. And so I think it's going to really demand us to rethink how we create dynamic experiences. for where someone is. Because I think there's still going to be people that are still going to go to your website directly. And there's some who are going to find you through a question with AI maybe, but how they find you and how do you create a different experience based on that? I think that's not new, but I think it's going to be a higher bar of what you create.
Speaker #0
Interesting. In your team, what do you see as the threat or the opportunity of AI?
Speaker #1
I think it. AI from a web perspective and how it's evolving it, it's wedging itself in all our funnels. I think depending on where your business is, how mature, how sophisticated of an SEO strategy you have, I think people are, we're seeing customers see it at different stages. I've had some customers who said, who are very, very sophisticated in how they've set up their SEO for the last 10, 15 years, and they are really focused on how do we figure out how to. convert the traffic. We also have other customers who are really, really focused on, this is our chance to own the answer. And so I think what it comes down to is we have two principles on the team. Principle one, how do we own the answer? And what that means is it's a question of how do we make sure people find us? And so we break that down into four categories. Authority, which is pretty common with SEO. Measurement, which is... critical to understanding how often are we showing up, but also how much referral traffic is coming to us. The next one is content. So how are we making sure that our content is designed and set up in a way so that we can better be visible? And then also, how do we make sure that content is as relevant as possible to use the conversation we had a second ago that I think the expectations are growing and growing, growing, and you need to have very clear content. And the last one is, are you set up technically so that the AI can understand you easily and understand what your brand is, what you solve? So it can answer. And so that's the owning the answer. And then there's the converting the traffic. And so we split into those two things. And the converting the traffic is about how do we create the next generation of customized experiences since everyone is getting accustomed to this world where I can ask anything and it's going to give me something specific to me. If I go to a website and it's not going to do something like that, how are we going to compete? You're not. you We need to be able to show them something that's relevant and show them something that's not just data. It needs to be visual. It needs to be immersive. It needs to be valuable. The best example, and I don't know, when's the last time you went to Wikipedia?
Speaker #0
Honestly, I don't know.
Speaker #1
Exactly. Because Wikipedia's value is not, this is, I had this moment like three or four months ago. It's like, I haven't gone to Wikipedia in a long time. And I like information. But the truth is. It's not the best way to get that information anymore. It's all there, but the experience isn't special. It's just data on a page. I can get that. Yeah,
Speaker #0
you need to find the information inside the page. When you want to find like a really specific information, it's like, oh, but then I have to open this toggle and maybe it's there and yeah.
Speaker #1
Exactly. And that doesn't make sense anymore. And so if Wikipedia maybe came up with this really immersive experience that like the value was the experience, not just the one data point, I think maybe I'd go back. But as of now, there's better ways to get that information. I don't have to look for it.
Speaker #0
Yeah, you're right. It's a really interesting point. I didn't realize the fact that I didn't go to Wikipedia for a long time. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker #1
I know. I had this moment a couple of months ago and I was like, wow, I haven't not. I used to go all the time.
Speaker #0
Yeah, I agree. Same. Um, and so, you know, there is a big debate around, like, I saw maybe it was last week, nautical saying like, You know, a website is dead because of course, SEO is dead and blah, blah, blah is dead, you know? Right.
Speaker #1
And so now sensational headlines. Yeah.
Speaker #0
And so now you've got the website is dead because zero click content and because, you know, ABC, how do you see the future of the website with zero click content and people searching for us first on LLMs? Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's a great question. I've heard this, as you can imagine, quite often.
Speaker #0
Sure.
Speaker #1
And I like to first go through the exercise of what would need to be true for that to be the case. I think the first piece is that you have to assume not only that there's zero click content, but also that LLMs no longer need websites to get smarter. And you have to assume that we'd be in a world where everything's synthetic, where they're creating synthetic data to get like AI to get smarter. And there is no reason to ever go to a website ever again. Now, what's really interesting is I think that's a pretty far distance from what we're seeing. We're seeing that AI is actually using websites to be able to answer questions. And the other part of it is I think that, and ChatGPT just announced this last week as an example, they're bringing external experiences into LLMs, which is not replacing them. It's bringing them in. So, for example, they announced an integration. you know, with Stripe and Shopify. And so like there's all those announcements where, so you can imagine that the challenges that brands are going to need to have is how do you make sure that you build an on-brand experience, which already is hard. How do you create an on-brand experience? How do you, that exists on all your digital experiences, including when it get that digital experience gets brought into an LLM. And the truth is today, if you went into agent mode or operator mode, you know, and you watch it, it's actually spins up a virtual machine. It goes to the website. You can watch it, look at a website. So it's, it may not be you that's doing it, but then the AI is doing it. And so I think it's interesting because I think it's actually going to put more pressure on websites to be able to give AI the answer faster and structure it technically and the content. So it can be faster at it, but it also, I think is going to be amazing for us. So I think what's going to happen. I think we've all been there. I don't know if you've seen a website that has been. clearly optimized for SEO, but not a human. You sit there and you're like, it's like, wow, that footer is hard to look at. It's like, it's just, and I think that's because it was a world where there was a trade-off and the showing up in Google is more important. I think in this world where we're entering, it's going to allow the creativity to come to life because when you do come to that site, you're going to say, Hey, this site is for a bot or a human. If it's for a human, it has to be better and different than an LM. It has to be experienced. It has to be visual. It has to have motion. It has to have value in what I'm doing in addition to the information on it. But I think the information might be brought over. So I think we're in an interesting place. I love to think about what would need to be true for websites to die. But I think at the moment, brands, companies, businesses are all representing themselves on their website and AI is using that. to be able to represent them in AI.