From listings to websites to social media, the way consumers find their local businesses is ever-changing. And it is a major challenge for those building digital presence for SMBs to keep up with all of it.

Today’s panel offered a broad view of how new technologies, including AI, are transforming the business of online presence, including domains, hosting, and website building.

Key Takeaways

Here are some key insights that we gleaned from this conversation.

• Core web vitals — essentially the speed at which a website loads — remain critically important for ranking — but it is not the only thing that matters in a website’s performance.
• Website hosting has become a commodity business. This means hosting companies need to layer on services to avoid competing purely on price.
• Bundling is critically important for website builders. There is a clear connection between the number of products a customer purchases from a provider and their propensity to churn. So offering multiple products is essential for a site builder, not only to retain customers but also to have solutions that make sense for customers with different needs, including leads capture, transactions, and more.
• AI will continue to play a bigger role in website building, from selecting domain names to building website pages.

SMB Presence in a More Fragmented World

From listings to websites to social media, the way consumers find their local businesses is ever-changing. And it is a major challenge for those building digital presence for SMBs to keep up with all of it. 

Kevin Walker, Newfold Digital
Russ Jeffery, Duda