The Legitimacy Problem

1. hot take [linkedin multi-level marketer]: i don’t even have a website
2. hot take [swedish vibe coding startup]: you need a website, and it should have 24 font types
3. hot take [guy new to hot takes]: here’s a screenshot of my own tweet
4. hot take [me, kevin]: if you don’t have a website, someone shady is going to make it for you

On LinkedIn, you’ll see a subset of orgs & businesses saying: “I don’t need a website, I have LinkedIn.”

In Mexico, loads of businesses don’t have websites at all. They use instagram.

Being into websites, this always bums me out.

But it makes me ask myself a question. If loads of people don’t have websites, and they’re still in business, then it means they actually don’t need one?

They actually don’t! They exist, so therefore, they’re making it by without one. But, then I think of all the reasons why I still think they do.

And I often think of the non-obvious one.

It’s not that they’re losing business.

(BTW: they for sure are losing business. there’s no question. Given how scraping is used for chatbots, they’re just choosing not to influence an important channel. It’s trivially easy to start getting indexed by ChatGPT with your website. Not the case with your Insta/LinkedIn.)

I think it’s actually more that they’re running a risk. A risk of not having legitimacy. Of being easy to fake & scam.

When we programmers hear “hey, does this look like a scam to you?” the first thing we try to find is a domain.

This is, of course, not perfect. It’s a bit of a quick cue/tell. If your bank has always been on one domain, chase . com, we know for SURE that chasez . com is not a safe place to log in. Emails from help@chasingchase . com? Forget about it.

When you buy a domain, connect an email, setup a website, and start getting indexed, you start to build a web presence that’s more legitimate than hoping Insta & LinkedIn keep working out for you.

If you don’t, then anyone can buy the first domain that looks close to your name and setup a website to try and grab business on your behalf.

If they haven’t yet, oh boy, with AI?

They will.

I’m not saying this is the main reason you should have a website. The main reason is more business.

But, claiming your stake in the digital channel that’s been around before social media and will be around through its iterations is becoming more urgent than ever with AI fraud.

Now, let me connect our update yesterday about our new work.

A lot of businesses don’t have websites because they go out of date, and are hard to keep updated.

Oh boy, with AI?

It totally doesn’t have to be like that anymore.

You should be able to update your website with a message from your phone.

Same as you can with LinkedIn or Instagram.

Again, my take is that all these website-less orgs are going to now have websites. Made by… someone. Hopefully, them!

If you wish your website was easier to update, with just a chat message to your ai provider and want help setting it up, DM us 🕶️🦛✨