Recently, it has become possible to create a ready-to-use WordPress website using AI in a matter of minutes to hours. But is this really such a good idea for sustainable entrepreneurs or organizations? Not always. In this article, find out what works best for you: having your website built using AI or manually by a web designer.
In this article you will learn:
- The difference between AI-generated and AI-driven building
- Manual development versus AI-assisted development: what are the differences?
- 10 Reasons for Ssstainable entrepreneurs and organizations to choose a handcrafted, sustainable WordPress website
As an environmentally conscious company or organization, projecting your sustainable impact matters greatly. Of course, that includes having a sustainable website. Are you going with WordPress? Starting in 2024, you can choose between manual, AI-generated, or AI-driven development. Both approaches have their advantages.
AI-generated or AI-driven – what’s the difference?
When building websites with AI, we currently distinguish between two categories:
- AI-generated website: Here, everything from individual pages to an entire website has been created using artificial intelligence. The AI wrote the titles, text, and code, generated the images, designed the layout, and operated with minimal user input. An example of this is Divi AI Agent.
- AI-driven website: Artificial intelligence controls the site – for example, in terms of design – but a human oversees it. So AI doesn’t generate everything. The website owner or web designer can take this as far as they want. For example, they can decide to let AI handle image generation while doing the rest themselves. Divi AI (not to be confused with Divi AI Agent) is a tool that can do this.
Neither of these issues has much to do with building a website entirely by hand, since in that case there is no AI involved in the development process. AI can be used here as well, for example, to optimize code.
What is the difference between building a WordPress website manually and having it built by AI?
Now that the difference between AI-generated and AI-driven is clear, we’ll discuss the difference between building with the help of AI and building manually.
Both approaches have both advantages and disadvantages:
- Speed of the development process: An AI-driven WordPress builder delivers immediate results within minutes to hours, whereas the manual development process takes days to months before a complete website is ready for use.
- Cost: This is inexpensive in the short term, with low upfront costs. Outsourcing to a web designer involves much higher costs but may be cheaper in the long run. A poorly built AI website can end up being more expensive due to the need to fix bugs, address SEO issues, or redesign the site.
- Unique design: Many AI-generated websites have a generic design that lacks a sense of individuality. You don’t have that issue with a manually built WordPress website. In terms of style, it’s often fully customized to match a company’s or organization’s brand identity.
- Sustainability: A well-optimized website (AI or not) consumes less energy. However, manual development is generally more energy-efficient than having web content generated by AI, because training the AI and processing data consume a significant amount of water and energy. Green hosting can help reduce this difference.
- Maintenance: Manually built WordPress websites are easy to maintain; your web designer can explain exactly how to do it. With an AI-built website, it mainly depends on the tool you use. For example, you can easily customize the layout with Divi AI Agent from Elegant Themes, as long as you enter good prompts.
10 reasons to choose a hand-built, sustainable website
As a sustainable entrepreneur or organization, you want, above all, a website that pays off in the long run. One that attracts new visitors, followers, supporters, and customers. Such a site is fast, easy to find in search engines or chatbots, and has a look and feel that aligns with your mission. And a website with low carbon emissions is definitely a bonus!
Discover 10 reasons why you should choose a custom-built, sustainable WordPress website:
1. A unique design that fits your brand
A sustainable web designer does their best to translate a company’s or organization’s mission as effectively as possible into the design of a WordPress website. By really taking the time to do this, you’ll end up with a website that’s just right. Think about: the right pages, photos or illustrations, colors, shapes, buttons, forms, and more. AI can certainly help with inspiration, but it can’t do this as well as a web designer. For example, artificial intelligence might generate content that doesn’t align with your company or the local culture.
A strong design is often also minimalist. Read here to learn how to create a minimalist web design yourself!
2. Faster load times
A manually built website is easier to optimize – for example, in terms of loading speed. After all, the web designer can take care of that. They optimize the site so that it loads quickly on all devices. And faster websites also rank higher in search engines like Google or Ecosia. After all, they score better in online tools such as Google Page Speed.
Want to make your WordPress website faster? Check out these 11 tips to turn your site into a rocket!
3. A website that’s easy to find
SEO stands for search engine optimization. By incorporating keywords and specific phrases into your website, it can be found more easily in search engines or AI tools such as ChatGPT or Mistral Vibe. Although AI can help with keyword research and technical SEO, human intervention is still necessary to achieve good results —especially for local SEO. For example: if a bakery in the Oud-Borgerhout neighborhood of Antwerp wants to primarily serve local customers, its local SEO must focus specifically on this neighborhood. And this is where the web designer plays a key role.
4. Scalability: easy to expand
Many sustainable companies and organizations want to expand their websites with new features over time. Think of a web store or a booking system. A web designer knows exactly what to do to integrate the right plugins or external platforms into your site. Think of plugins like WooCommerce or The Event Calendar. Artificial intelligence can help with simple integrations, but not with more complex systems, such as connecting a payment system.
5. Safety: You won’t miss a thing
WordPress security is becoming increasingly important, as it ’s also getting easier for bots to hack websites – with all the ensuing consequences. Prevention is better than cure. To keep your website secure, your web designer can help you with the following:
- Replacing the default wp-admin access link with something else
- Setting up two-factor authentication
- Protecting your website against spam with a plugin like CleanTalk
- Make life difficult for bots by installing a firewall on your website
- Limiting the number of login attempts
- Rename the administrator to something other than the default name “admin”
- Creating a secure password
Artificial intelligence can provide tips here, but a web designer or developer knows the ins and outs to keep your site secure.
Want to secure your WordPress website yourself? Check out these 8 steps to make your site secure.
6. Web designer’s personal commitment
A web designer is professionally involved in your project over an extended period of time – weeks, months, or even years. They get to know your company or organization well, understand your target audience, and can provide strategic advice. An AI agent can’t do that yet.
7. Sustainability in practice
Although AI and cloud computing are becoming increasingly energy-efficient, language models continue to consume enormous amounts of energy and water. Of course, you can continue to use AI, but perhaps not to build an entire website with it.
A sustainable web designer also knows what to do to make your website sustainable. This starts with sustainable hosting (such as Combell), optimizing images, or choosing an energy-efficient design. Artificial intelligence can provide tips for these tasks, but a web designer can do it right the first time.
Want to make your website more sustainable? Read here to learn how to make your WordPress website more eco-friendly.
8. Transparency and ethics
Artificial intelligence uses enormous amounts of data for training purposes, for which permission has not always been granted. Examples include family photos on social media or works of art for which copyright has not been respected. In addition, people in precarious circumstances in low-wage countries are put to work processing this data. There is also AI that does use legal datasets for training purposes, such as Adobe Firefly. After all, ethical AI and copyright are important for sustainable entrepreneurs.
You also don’t always know exactly what’s happening behind the scenes when you have an AI agent build a website. It may create anywhere from a few to dozens of subagents that perform different tasks, using different language models. And you have no control over that.
Is this really what you want as a sustainable entrepreneur or organization? By choosing a sustainable web designer, you can be sure that issues such as copyright and human rights are generally respected during the website development process. If artificial intelligence does need to be used, the designer will know exactly which tools and language models are required.
9. Support for the local economy
Working with a sustainable web designer also means supporting the local economy. Choose local, sustainable web designers if you want to support the local economy!
10. Boosting your credibility
A non-optimized, AI-generated website can, without you even realizing it, make you appear less credible to potential clients. Suppose you’re a sustainable architecture firm, but your website consumes a lot of energy and has a clearly AI-generated design? This undermines your credibility with clients who are committed to sustainability. After all, an AI-generated WordPress website is still easy to spot these days. A professional, manually created WordPress website strengthens your image.
In short, a custom-built WordPress website offers quality, durability, and credibility – exactly what sustainable entrepreneurs need.
Conclusion
Having an AI build a WordPress website may be cheaper, but it doesn’t always pay off in the long run. Furthermore, this isn’t always in line with the mission of sustainable businesses and organizations. Do you want a sustainable website that really works, is fast and easy to find, and has a look and feel that aligns with your mission? Then choose a handcrafted, sustainable WordPress website.
Are you looking for a sustainable web designer who creates WordPress websites using traditional craftsmanship? Then you’ve come to the right place. My name is Jochem Oomen, and I work as a sustainable web designer in Brussels for environmentally conscious companies and organizations, often with a social mission. Check out my approach or get in touch.
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