OpenAI's Dots Can Build Your Website In Minutes. That's The Easy Part. BUT...

What dots actually are

A dot is an AI assistant that doesn't wait to be asked. It has its own computer and browser in the cloud, can connect to over 4,000 apps, and works on tasks in the background while you get on with your day. You can message it in ChatGPT, Slack or Teams, or call it and talk things through.

They're rolling out first to ChatGPT Pro, Business Premium and Enterprise users. OpenAI itself says dots can still make mistakes, and to always review anything important they do. Hold that thought.

The empty shell nobody warns you about

Most people have no idea how a website actually reaches Google. Developers do. And it's the part that decides whether you ever get a single enquiry.

A lot of AI-built websites are made like apps. When Google comes to look at one of your pages, it doesn't get your words. It gets a near-empty page and a pile of code, with a note that says, in effect, "run this and the website will appear".

Your words, your services, your prices, your phone number: none of it is actually there until that code runs in a browser.

So Google has to come back later, run the code, and hope it works. Sometimes it does, days or weeks later. Sometimes it only half does. And very often every "page" of your shiny new site shares the same title and the same blank starting point, so to Google your ten beautiful pages look like one page with nothing on it.

Which means you won't show up for "plumber in Swansea"

Say you're a plumber in Swansea. You asked the AI for a page about emergency plumbing in Swansea, and there it is. You can see it on your phone. Your partner says it looks brilliant.

But when someone types "emergency plumber Swansea" into Google, that page doesn't exist. Not as far as Google is concerned. The plumber down the road with a plainer, older site, one where the words are actually on the page, gets the call. And the job. And the review.

Same for the barber in Leeds, the cleaner in Bristol, the tutor in Norwich. It's a shop with gorgeous shelves and the shutters down.

And here's the cruel part. You'll never know. The site looks perfect every time you check it. There's no error message and no warning, just a phone that doesn't ring and a nagging feeling that websites "don't really work" for a business like yours.

Try this 30-second test on your own website

• ●On a computer, open your website, right-click anywhere on the page and choose View page source.
• ●Look for your own words: your business name, your services, your town. If you can read them in there, Google can too.
• ●If you see a near-empty page and lines of code instead, with barely any of your wording, you've got a shell. Google is being handed the shutters, not the shop.
• ●Then search Google for site:yourwebsite.co.uk (with your own address). Count how many pages come back. If it's one or two, and your site has twenty, now you know.

We know, because it happened to us

Our own first website was built exactly like that. It looked great. Google barely knew it existed.

But we knew that going in. We're developers, and we built it quickly on purpose, as a working mock-up to test the look, the wording and the offer before building the real thing. Then we rebuilt it properly, so every page arrives at Google as real, readable text the moment it's asked for. No waiting for code to run. No shells. Every website we build for customers is made the same way.

That's the difference. A developer knows the shell is only a first draft. Most business owners have never had a reason to know, so the first draft quietly becomes the website, and it stays invisible.

And the shell is only the first problem

• ●It won't know what your customers type into Google. Nobody searches for "nice website". They search for the job and their town. Someone has to build a proper page for each of those searches, which is how our website design for small business works.
• ●It won't get you reviews. The stars under your name decide who gets the call. A website can't ask a customer for a review the moment a job is finished. A system can. Here's how to get Google reviews without chasing anyone.
• ●It won't keep itself right. Prices change, services change, Google changes. Someone has to notice, and someone has to be answerable when something breaks.
• ●It won't run the work behind it. Customers, quotes, notes and follow-ups still live in texts and scraps of paper unless something ties them together.
• ●It won't know best practice from a guess. An AI does exactly what you ask. The whole trick is knowing what to ask for, and most business owners have never had a reason to learn.

Here's what's going to happen next

Over the next year, the internet is going to fill up with websites that look fine and do nothing. Thousands of them. Same layouts, same phrases, built in an afternoon, and most of them all but invisible to Google.

Which is rather good news for the business that gets it right. When everyone has a pretty website, the pretty website stops being the advantage. Being found, being trusted and being organised becomes the advantage.

Where we fit

We're not against AI. We use it every day to build faster and better. But nobody buys a website from us for the sake of a website. They buy the result.

That's the Complete Business Package: a 40+ page site where every page arrives at Google as real text, built around what people in your area actually search for, review requests that go out automatically when you mark a job done, and a dashboard that runs the work behind it. It's built for trades and small service businesses, from our website design for tradesmen to barbers and beyond, and looked after by people you can ring.

So should you try dots?

If you're on one of those plans and have an afternoon spare, have a play. Honestly. You'll learn a lot about what you want from a website.

Then do the 30-second test. And ask yourself one question: is it bringing in enquiries?

If the answer is no, start with a free report on your business. We'll show you what Google actually sees when it looks at you, where you show up, where you don't, and what it would take to get the phone ringing.

Common questions