Can you use AI to build a website?

AI tools can draft your page copy, suggest a structure, write the code, or produce an entire site from a single prompt. For a sole trader with no budget and little time, that is useful. The tool doing the work does not move anything off your plate, though. The legal duties stay with you, and so does the quality bar. If the site says something wrong or breaks a rule, nobody is going to blame the software.

The generating is the quick part. The real work is checking facts, adding what only you know (prices, service area, real photos, real reviews) and meeting the UK rules that apply to any business website. That is the bit people skip, and it is the bit that matters.

How to do it well

Start with the facts, before you touch any AI at all. Write down what you do, where you do it, your prices or how you quote, your opening hours and your contact details. Then hand those to the AI rather than letting it guess. Left alone, it fills gaps with confident nonsense, and confident nonsense on your own website is a nasty thing to find after launch.

Here is a list of facts about my business: [your facts]. Write a five-page
website outline (home, services, about, contact, and one main service page)
in plain British English. Do not include any claims beyond the facts I've given.

Keep the structure simple: home, services, about, contact, and a page per main service if that helps. Fewer, better pages beat a pile of thin ones. Google’s guidance says generative AI can be useful for researching a topic and adding structure to original content, but using it to churn out many pages without adding value for users may breach its spam policy on scaled content abuse. So resist the urge to ask for fifty location pages because it is easy.

Then check every claim the AI writes. No invented awards, no made-up years in business, no testimonials from people who do not exist, no guarantees you never agreed to offer. Read it as the customer, then again as the person who would be held to it.

Use your own photos where you can. Real photos of your real work are yours to stand behind. The same goes for reviews: if you add them, they should come from real customers.

Google also asks for accuracy, quality and relevance, including metadata such as page titles, so do not ignore the behind-the-scenes bits. It adds that sharing how content was created can give readers useful context.

Before going live, check three things: the cookies, the privacy notice for any form, and the company details in the footer. More on those below.

Last, think about how people find you now. That means search engines, and also AI assistants answering questions directly. A plain page that states clearly what you do and where you do it helps with both.

Rules and risks

The rules do not care who typed the words.

Cookies. Under regulation 6 of PECR, the ICO says you must tell people if you set cookies, clearly explain what they do and why, and get the user’s consent, which must be actively and clearly given. Cookies that are strictly necessary for a service the user asked for are the exception. Site builders and plugins can add analytics or tracking cookies without you ever deciding to, so check what the finished site actually sets.

Privacy information. If you collect personal data, say through a contact form, the ICO’s right to be informed means you must give privacy information at the time you collect it: your purposes, your retention periods and who the data is shared with.

Company details. If you are a limited company, GOV.UK says your website must show the company name, its registered number, its registered office address and where it is registered (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland). An AI-generated footer will not know any of that unless you tell it, and it may invent something plausible instead.

Selling online. If you sell to consumers at a distance, GOV.UK says you must give information such as your business name, contact details and address, delivery arrangements and costs, and how customers can cancel. Customers can usually cancel up to 14 days after goods are delivered, and if you do not tell them about that right, they can cancel at any time in the next 12 months.

Scaled content. Generating lots of pages with no added value for users may fall foul of Google’s scaled content abuse policy. The fix is fewer pages, each one accurate, useful and specific to you.

None of this makes AI the wrong tool. It is a fast first-draft machine, and the facts only you hold are what turn that draft into a proper small business website. If you plan to advertise the site, see Can you use AI to advertise my business?.

This is general information, not legal advice.