Writer: Jordan Sprogis
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Cristian Lopez
Key Takeaways
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The website is far from dead: It’s becoming the place customers go to verify what AI tells them.
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AI crawlers are adding a new kind of traffic to websites — and that’s a big problem for hosting providers.
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Blocking bots wholly isn’t the answer, but Kinsta’s CRO has a few ideas for finding the middle ground.
With all this talk around traffic dropping and AI search dominating, the discussion around the state of the website has been a bit sensitive.
New research from Kinsta, the WordPress managed hosting provider, surveyed about 1,000 U.S. consumers and found that 61.2% believe AI will eventually replace websites as the primary way people discover products
The good news is, even if this becomes 100% factual, people still rely on the website for a brand or product’s reputation. And that’s because, no matter how much people use AI search engines, more than 90% of people are still concerned about AI-generated misinformation.
“So where do users go when they want the real truth? The short answer is: your website,” Matt Reid, CRO of Kinsta, told HostingAdvice. Like checking Yelp reviews of a restaurant before you go.
“User browsing habits are changing fast, but we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking AI is going to replace websites,” Reid said. “It’s the go-to reference for anyone looking for deep, reliable information and, of course, the final destination for making a purchase.”
Bots Are Making Everything Worse, But Providers Can Still Win
The only thing stopping consumers from going to the website is distrust of the other half of the internet. Yaknow, the agentic ones.
The report found that 43% of consumers trust websites less when they know bots are active online. But you can’t just block the bots, either. Some are bringing valuable traffic, while others are eating up resources, and telling the difference isn’t always easy.
“The constant crawling websites face today eats up resources, ties up PHP workers, triggers endless database queries, and drives up bandwidth usage,” Reid says. That’s not good for a hosting provider hosting an SMB.
If your customers are getting cited in AI search (which they should be), then it could be helpful to know the report found that about 45% of consumers always or almost always visit a company’s website after getting an AI recommendation. In addition to making sure sites are legible to crawlers and their search engines, you have to make sure your infra can support that kind of freeloading traffic.
“Site infrastructure matters now more than ever. When every visitor carries more value, having a secure, reliable, high-performance host becomes a crucial driver for your business. A lightning-fast website keeps brand trust high, creates a smooth buying experience, and boosts customer retention.”
Global CDNs, multi-level caching, advanced monitoring and security, and quality support are all things Reid says are essential when choosing a hosting provider.
But as the hosting provider, you may have to do some fine-tuning.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, which is why a premium hosting provider needs to deliver the right traffic management tools for every type of site,” Reid says.
Kinsta, for example, offers bot protection features that let its customers tailor their defense level based on the traffic hitting their site or the specifics of their business.
“From our hands-on experience,” Reid says, “a solid hosting foundation is the main pillar of success for online businesses in the AI era.”
