AI Tools for Creating a Website

ai-tools-for-creating-a-website

[[p]]We&rsquo;re living in a truly historic time. The way we used to do many things is rapidly changing thanks to [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/ai-in-digital-marketing-the-ultimate-guide" target="_blank"]]artificial intelligence (AI)[[/a]].&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]While some people try to resist the AI revolution (and ignore or dismiss the benefits it brings), it&#39;s much better to embrace changes and learn how we can use AI technology to make our work more efficient.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Take creating a website, for example. AI tools can be used in almost any part of web design &mdash; from research and planning to coding and [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-is-seo" target="_blank"]]SEO optimization[[/a]].&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Before AI, when someone wanted to build a website, they typically hired a web developer to do this job. But today, it&#39;s relatively easy to create a website using AI-powered no-code web builder tools.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]No-code web builders are ideal for beginners! These tools can generate layouts optimized for fast loading time, with user-friendly design and built-in [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/digital-accessibility-for-marketers-part-2-user-experience-websites" target="_blank"]]accessibility[[/a]].[[/p]]

[[p]]However, with so many different tools to choose from, how can you decide which one you should use for your website project? In this article, we will review essential [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-are-the-best-ai-and-marketing-automation-tools" target="_blank"]]AI tools[[/a]] you can use to create a website.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[a href="#heading_78207"]]Human creativity versus artificial intelligence[[/a]][[/li]]
	[[li]][[a href="#heading_78209"]]Using AI for website creation[[/a]]
	[[ul]]
		[[li]][[a href="#heading_78211"]]Conduct user research[[/a]][[/li]]
		[[li]][[a href="#heading_78215"]]Plan your website[[/a]][[/li]]
		[[li]][[a href="#heading_78229"]]Select your website-building platform[[/a]][[/li]]
		[[li]][[a href="#heading_78237"]]Generate content[[/a]][[/li]]
	[[/ul]]
	[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]You might ask, "Will AI eventually replace human creators?"&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Well, it&#39;s complicated... AI can indeed improve the efficiency of web design activities, but it can never completely replace human creators.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Design is all about creating for humans by humans. No matter how efficient the tools we use are, they are ultimately just tools we use to solve human problems. And the result that tools generate should be evaluated by humans.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Even today, you can use AI tools to generate an entire website. However, most of the time, you&rsquo;ll need to invest time and energy into refining the outcome that AI generates.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Product design is a specialization that has evolved over a few decades. People who have worked in this domain for years have a lot of expertise that you can rely on when building your product.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]&nbsp;Follow these steps when using AI to help create your website:[[/p]]

[[ol]]
	[[li]]Conduct user research[[/li]]
	[[li]]Plan your website[[/li]]
	[[li]]Select your website-building platform[[/li]]
	[[li]]Generate content[[/li]]
[[/ol]]

[[p]]User and [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-is-market-research" target="_blank"]]market research[[/a]] is an integral part of the product design process. The better you understand your target audience and their problems, the higher your chances of creating the right solution for them.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]However, collecting and analyzing this information is one of the significant challenges in research. AI tools can help you overcome this challenge.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]AI tools can be used during almost all phases of the web design process, from the very beginning (when the team conducts initial research analysis of users and market) to later stages (when a team has a working prototype of a website and needs to validate it).&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]During the early steps of design, you can use AI to create a user persona (archetype of an ideal user). And you don&rsquo;t need any specific tools for that. It&#39;s possible to use chatbots like [[a href="http://chat.openai.com/" target="_blank"]]ChatGPT[[/a]] or[[a href="https://claude.ai/" target="_blank"]] Claude[[/a]] for this task.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]For example, if you&rsquo;re planning to design a site for selling bikes, you can prompt ChatGPT to &ldquo;[[em]]Generate a customer persona who buys a mountain bike[[/em]]&rdquo; to learn more about your target audience and their needs.[[/p]]

Asking ChatGPT to generate a persona of a mountain bike buyer

[[p]][[strong]]Pro tip: [[/strong]]Remember, you [[em]]cannot [[/em]]rely on AI-generated research without validation. You still need to fact-check the output information through multiple reliable sources.[[/p]]

[[p]]AI tools can be very effective during the planning phase of your future website. They can speed up key planning activities and help you establish an effective foundation for your future design.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]As with any other project, when it comes to a website, you typically start with foundational elements like site mapping, content planning, and the design of key pages.[[/p]]

[[p]]A site map will help you outline the structure of your website. This enables you to see what pages you will have and what content you will need for those pages. When it comes to the design of individual pages, it&#39;s recommended to start with low-fidelity wireframes rather than go straight to high-fidelity pixel-perfect mock-ups.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Both site mapping and wireframing can be done using a tool called[[a href="https://www.relume.io/" target="_blank"]] Relume[[/a]]. With this tool, all you need to do is to provide a text description of what you want to build, and the tool will do the rest! AI will generate a sitemap with specific pages that match your intention and turn them into wireframes.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]You can also easily modify the design in real time. For example, you can introduce both global changes (such as alter the prompt you provide to AI) or fine-tune the design of individual elements (such as design of sections in a wireframe generated by AI).[[/p]]

Sitemap of a company website generated by Relume

[[p]]Once you are done with a sitemap and wireframes, you need to focus on content. This is obviously a key element of a web design. Indeed, your content is the primary reason why people visit your website!&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]While sitemaps and wireframes generated by tools like Relume can outline key sections, the content in the sections is generic. This is why you need to invest in a [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/build-a-content-marketing-plan-in-10-steps" target="_blank"]]content marketing plan[[/a]] that will help you make the most of your design.[[/p]]

[[p]]Shaping solid content strategy is both an art and a science. It will likely require a few iterations, as you will need to test to see what works and what doesn&#39;t.&nbsp;[[br /]]
ChatGPT is an ideal tool for making broad strokes for your content strategy. Submit a prompt like "Content strategy for a site for selling bikes" to get the initial version of your content strategy. And refine it manually with insights you have about your project.[[/p]]

General outline of a content strategy for a website. Outline generated by ChatGPT

[[p]]Once you finish with content strategy, you need to invest in design elements.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Visual elements such as logos, icons, and graphic patterns, as well as images (see next section), are integral for your site&#39;s success. They are the first things that users notice when they land on a new page. Also, they typically stay in human memory long after they leave your website.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]There are many different tools you can use to generate visual elements, but [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/videos/walkthrough-guide-canva" target="_blank"]]Canva[[/a]] is by far the easiest tool for that. Whenever you need a certain visual element, you can either choose a ready-to-use element in Canva&#39;s massive library of graphic assets or generate it in real time, using Canva AI generator.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Pro tip: [[/strong]]Canva&rsquo;s ready-to-use design is fully editable. For example, if you decide to use one particular image for your logo, but the text doesn&rsquo;t work for you, you can click on the logo and change it.[[/p]]

Using Canva to find a logo for a website that sells bikes

[[p]]The design process described in this section is a conventional one. You start with an idea and gradually add details and refine your design. However, sometimes you need to get to the final design much faster.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]For example, during brainstorming sessions, you might want to have a tool that enables you to turn your prompt into a ready-to-use high-fidelity design that you can show to other team members and discuss right in the meeting.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]When you want to fast-track to an initial design, you can use an AI tool called Uizard. All you need to do is provide a prompt, and the tool will turn it into a final design.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Pro tip: [[/strong]]Although this approach will very quickly give you an initial design, it shouldn&rsquo;t be used as a replacement for the regular design process. The design generated by Uizard is good for quick exploration. However, the AI-generated page mock-ups are typically created from pre-made building blocks, and, as a result, such a design might look generic.[[/p]]

[[p]]Many popular website-building platforms offer AI tools for their clients. These AI tools can vary from narrow-focussed AI features such as AI-powered background removers to entire page (or full site) design.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Here are two platforms that deserve your attention.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Wix Studio [[/strong]]is a comprehensive web creation platform tailored for freelancers and agencies. It combines intuitive design tools with flexible development capabilities that help streamline the web design process.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]When it comes to AI tools, Wix allows you to generate images right from the tool. You can also upscale existing images, and generate content and meta information for your website. Instead of navigating to tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT, you can complete the image-generation or copywriting tasks without leaving the tool.[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Elementor for WordPress [[/strong]](one of the most popular content management systems in the world) is another very useful website builder. Elementor uses AI for the same cases as Wix. However, it can also understand the context and generate copy that aligns with the voice and tone of your brand.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Once you define the voice and tone, you can submit a content sample to the Elementor AI Context tool so it can be analyzed. It will then generate a copy that aligns with the voice and tone of your organization.[[/p]]

[[p]]Now it&rsquo;s time to start considering the content that will appear on your website. This includes the images, video, and copy.[[/p]]

[[p]]Humans are visual learners; images help communicate ideas faster than plain words. Before the AI revolution, we used to hunt for the perfect visuals on stock image platforms such as Shutterstock: that said, Shutterstock is leading the way in incorporating AI into its platform.[[/p]]

[[p]]Now, however, we can easily generate any visual that we want using tools like [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/videos/walkthrough-how-to-use-midjourney" target="_blank"]]Midjourney[[/a]] or DALL-E 3. All you need to do is provide a text prompt to summarize your idea and refine the AI tool&#39;s output.&nbsp;[[/p]]

Mountain bike image generated using Midjourney

[[p]]It&#39;s vital to understand not only the benefits but also the downsides of AI image generators. AI tools still have a few issues when it comes to images of people. The problem with extra fingers on a human hand in generated images is less frequent now. However, most AI-generated images still have a plastic effect so that people with a trained eye can easily spot them.[[/p]]

[[p]]Another important thing that requires mentioning is copyrights.[[a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/ai-generated-art-cannot-receive-copyrights-us-court-says-2023-08-21/" target="_blank"]] US Copyright Law[[/a]] states that images generated by AI tools like Midjourney are not &#39;works of authorship&#39; because they have no human authors. It means that images created by AI belong to the public domain and cannot be protected by copyright.[[/p]]

[[p]]Videos have become an integral part of modern web design, adding dynamic visual elements that can captivate and engage visitors far more effectively than static images alone.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]When it comes to video generation,[[a href="https://pika.art/home" target="_blank"]] Pikalabs[[/a]] and[[a href="https://runwayml.com/" target="_blank"]] Runway[[/a]] are two AI tools that can generate videos based on either a text prompt or a static image. Creating a short video from a static image is particularly useful.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]You can transform a static image of a breathtaking mountain range into a short video clip, adding subtle animations like flowing clouds, swaying trees, or the gentle movement of a river.[[/p]]

[[p]]Many designers often use &ldquo;Lorem Ipsum&rdquo; text (also known as placeholder text) in their work.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Some designers argue that they use Lorem Ipsum because it makes it easy to design a proper structure for a web page. However, most of the time, they use Lorem Ipsum text because they don&#39;t have a real copy.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]The biggest problem of Lorem Ipsum is that it is meaningless! It doesn&#39;t communicate anything apart from &#39;here will be text&rsquo;. However, thanks to AI, you can generate a real copy in no time.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]For example, suppose you design a landing page for a mountain bike and need a copy for a feature section. You can then prompt ChatGPT to "[[em]]write key features of the professional mountain bike.[[/em]]"[[/p]]

Asking ChatGPT to provide features of a professional mountain bike

[[p]]You can even use AI to generate both macro copy (such as a copy for the product description section) and micro copy (such as button labels and error messages).[[/p]]

Ideas for button labels generated by ChatGPT

[[p]][[strong]]Pro tip:[[/strong]] If you have any specific requirements for UI copy, such as character limit or specific voice and tone, include these in the prompt to the AI tool.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]If you want to see text up to 100 words, write a prompt like "Write for the hero section for a mountain bike shop in under 100 words" to give ChatGPT clear instructions for the content length.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Depending on your goal, you can use different AI tools that better align with your intention and content style. Popular options are ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Read: [[/strong]]Check out our comparison of [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/using-ai-tools-for-copywriting" target="_blank"]]AI tools for copywriting[[/a]].&nbsp;&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]The wide range of AI tools available today streamline website creation in many areas&mdash;from initial design exploration to UI design, content writing, and image generation. AI tools help achieve professional results without investing a significant amount of time. However, the role of humans still remains crucial in the design process. The human touch defines the vision and ensures that the final product truly resonates with the audience it was originally intended for.[[/p]]

[[p]]There&rsquo;s no better or faster way to break into the digital industry than with a digital marketing certification. DMI&rsquo;s certified and industry aligned Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will teach you the fundamentals of digital marketing, show you how to leverage AI in your marketing activities and simple ways to cultivate soft skills. You&rsquo;ll also explore key channels such as email marketing, social media, SEO, content marketing, and display and video advertising to execute successful marketing campaigns in any industry.[[/p]]

AI Tools for Creating a Website

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Nick Babich