Happy Tuesday! Quick question before we get into it: when's the last time you actually looked at your website the way a stranger would?
Not to check a typo. Not to update your hours. But to sit with it for 60 seconds and ask: if I knew nothing about this business, would I know what to do next?
Most of us build our websites from the inside out. We know what we do, we know why we're great, so we write about that. But the person landing on your homepage doesn't know any of it yet. They showed up with a problem and about 8 seconds of patience. What happens next is entirely up to your website.
☀️ THE FORECAST
Your Highest-Intent Visitors Are Already Here
Here's a number worth sitting with: visitors arriving from AI tools like ChatGPT convert at 3.49%, compared to 2.86% from traditional organic search. That gap is only growing.
People who find you through an AI tool aren’t browsing. They asked a question, go a recommendation, and clicked through with real intent. They’re ready. The question is whether your website is ready for them.
All those AEO and AI visibility improvements you've been hearing about (and hopefully making) are working. People are landing on your site from AI recommendations. But if the site doesn't know what to do with them when they arrive, you're leaving the best leads you've ever had on the table.
🍳 THE YOLK
Your Website Is a Brochure. It Should Be a Salesperson.
A brochure tells people about you. A salesperson listens, answers the right questions, and asks for the next step. Most small business websites are doing the first thing and completely skipping the second.
Here's how a great salesperson operates, and how your website can too:
1 They answer the visitor's actual question first.
Not "Welcome to our website." Not a mission statement. The person who just landed on your homepage is asking: "Is this the right place for me?" Your first few lines need to answer that, fast. Who you help, what you do, and why it matters to them. If they have to scroll to find it, most of them won't.
2 They tell people exactly what to do next.
Every good salesperson has a clear ask. Your website needs one too. Not four options, not a vague "learn more" link. One clear, obvious next step. Book a call. Get a quote. Sign up. Whatever it is for your business, make it impossible to miss, and make it show up more than once.
3 They give people a reason to trust you before asking for anything.
A good salesperson earns the sale before they ask for it. Your website does this through reviews, photos, specific results, and real details that signal: this business is legit and they know their stuff. "Serving Maine since 2012" does more work than you think. So does a real photo of your actual team.
Scroll through your homepage right now with those three questions in mind. Most sites nail one of them. The ones that nail all three are the ones converting strangers into customers.
✨ SUNNY SIDE SHORTCUTS
Your Google Business Profile Is Free Real Estate
🗓️ Check your hours right now.o This First
Tourist season is here and people are searching today. If your summer hours changed and your Google Business Profile didn't, you're sending people to a closed door. Log in, confirm everything is current, and while you're there, make sure your services list actually reflects what you offer.
📸 Add one fresh photo this week.
Businesses with updated photos get up to 42% more direction requests and 35% more website clicks. That's not a small difference. You don't need a photoshoot. A well-lit shot of your space, your product, or your team from your phone is enough. Add it today.
❓ Answer the Q&A section before someone else does.
Most business owners don't know this exists. Your Google Business Profile has a Q&A section where anyone, including strangers, can answer questions about your business. Go check yours. If there are unanswered questions, answer them. If there's nothing there, seed it with the two or three questions you get asked the most.
💭 WHAT I'M COOKING
Everybody Wants a New Website. Nobody Wants the Same Problem.
I'm deep in client website projects right now, and I keep having the same conversation. Someone reaches out wanting a refresh. New look, new copy, maybe a better flow. And when we dig in, the issue usually isn't the design.
It's that the site was built to explain the business, not to do anything.
There's no clear next step. There's nothing that captures a lead if someone isn't ready to call yet. There's no reason for the AI tools that are now sending traffic to trust it as an authoritative source. It's a beautiful, static thing sitting on the internet waiting for someone to take action entirely on their own.
The good news is that fixing it doesn't usually mean burning everything down. It means asking the salesperson question at every page: what is this visitor here for, and what do I want them to do next? Once you answer that, the edits get a lot clearer.
If you've been staring at your own site thinking something feels off but you can't put your finger on it, that's probably it.
See you on the sunny side,
Heather ☀️