Do I Need a Total Website Redesign to Get Found by AI?
Do I need a website redesign to get found by AI?
Usually not. And I say that as the guy who makes money redesigning websites.
Most of the time the problem isn't how your website LOOKS. It's that your website never says the plain thing out loud. Here's what I mean.
The client who told me no
If you're in the horse world you know her name, Lindy Burch. NCHA Hall of Fame, Oxbow Ranch, world championships, the whole deal. We built her first website back in 2012, and she still liked it. Clean, pretty, simple, big beautiful photos of horses doing what they do. It looked like her.
I've had this conversation a hundred times, and it usually goes one direction. The web guy (me) says the site is dated, let's start over, here's what it costs.
Lindy skipped all that. She told me, 'keep the look and feel I love, just make it work better.'
Part of me wanted to redesign it. That's the fun part of the job. But she was right and I was wrong, and here's why.
What was actually wrong with her website?
The problem was never how it looked. The problem was it really didn't SAY anything. Gorgeous photos, hardly any words. She'd been one of the best in the business for forty years and her website mostly just... showed you really GOOD horses.
A search engine can't look at a photo of a great horse and figure out that the woman who owns it runs clinics, or where they are, or who they're for. It needs words. Actual words, on the page.
What we did instead of a redesign
We did Tell Your Business Story. I got Lindy on the phone, recorded it (with permission), and just let her talk. Then we took her actual words and her stories and put them on her actual website.
Same colors. Same fonts. Same photos. Very similar layout she fell in love with in 2012. We made sure it worked right on a phone, and we put her story where a search engine and ChatGPT could actually read it.
Did it work?
Type "cutting horse clinics in Weatherford, Texas" into Google's AI search and Lindy comes up first. Ask ChatGPT the same thing, same answer.
That's Weatherford. THE Cutting Horse Capital of the World. You can't throw a hat in that town without hitting a world champion trainer. And the AIs handed the top spot to the lady whose website we didn't even redesign.
See for yourself! https://lindyburch.com/
Here's the deal. Lindy was ALWAYS the answer to that question. She's been the answer for four decades. Her website just never got around to mentioning it.
So when DO you actually need a redesign?
Sometimes you really do, and I'd rather tell you straight than sell you something. You need one when:
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Your site genuinely doesn't work on a phone. Not "looks a little small," but hard to use.
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It's slow enough that people give up before it loads.
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You can't get anything updated, and nobody can find whoever built it.
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The information on it is flat wrong and there's so much of it that fixing costs more than starting over.
Notice what isn't on that list. "It looks old" isn't on there. Looking a little dated while saying something CLEAR will beat looking brand new while saying nothing. Ask me how I know.
What should my website actually say?
The plain stuff. What you do, who you do it for, where you are, why you do it.
The stuff that's so obvious to you it feels silly to type out. It isn't silly. It's the only thing the AI has to go on, and people love reading it too.
Frequently asked questions
Will a brand new website automatically make AI recommend me?
No. AI answers get built out of what your site SAYS. A beautiful new site with thin content can do worse than an older site with clear, specific writing on it.
How long before I see a difference?
Google tends to pick up changes within days. Tools like ChatGPT take longer depending on how they refresh. Think weeks, not hours.
Do I have to write all that content myself?
No. That's exactly what Tell Your Business Story is. A 30 minute recorded conversation that we turn into website content in your own voice. It starts from $495 and it works on the site you already have, no rebuild required.
What if the photos are the best thing about my site?
Keep them. Lindy did. Photos and words do two different jobs and you need both.
Does this only work for horse businesses?
No, but horse people are who we've built for since 1998, so that's where most of our examples come from.
Let's talk
If you want to know what your website is telling AI about you right now, call me at 979-217-1544 or reach out through our contact page. No pressure, just a conversation.