Do Websites Even Matter in 2026?
I built my first site in NetObjects Fusion more than 30 years ago, and I still remember most every major question we deliberated in painstaking detail over the course of the grand evolution of websites. Is the three-click rule real? Will users scroll? Do we need a mobile app? Is parallax bad? Are hamburger menus signals of the degradation of our industry?
But the question we’re asking ourselves these days is far more existential:
"Does the website even matter anymore?"
If Google’s AI Mode is just going to scrape your content, summarize your programs, and serve it all up on a silver platter without a user ever clicking through ... why are we spending six figures on a redesign?
The Realist's View: The "Click Crisis" is Real
I won’t sugarcoat the data:
Traffic is dropping: Traditional organic click-through rates drop by an average of 15.5% when an AI Overview is present.
Zero-click is the norm: A massive chunk of search queries now result in no click to an external website at all.
If your strategy is just "getting traffic," you are fighting a losing war. The robots have won the battle for discovery.
The Strategist's View: The Pivot to Verification
But here is what the Optimist in me knows: Your website has never been more important. It just has a completely different job description.
In the old world, your website was a discovery tool. In 2026, AI handles discovery. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google are the new front door.
By the time a human being actually clicks a link and lands on your site, they aren't looking for general information. They have already done their homework. They are looking for verification. They are looking for trust. They are looking to see if the "vibe" matches the data.
Your website is no longer an opening gambit; it’s a closing argument.
Eight Rules for the "Verification Era"
If the website is now a "closing tool" for high-intent visitors, how do we build it? Here are the eight themes I’m advising leaders to focus on this year.
1. Unmistakable Human Authenticity (The "Un-AI" Content)
AI is great at summarizing facts. It is terrible at being human. If your website is filled with generic "excellence" and "innovation" copy, you are feeding the robot, but you aren't feeding the soul.
The Move: Double down on Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Real faculty voices. Real student stories. Content that screams "a human wrote this." Trust is the new currency.
2. Accessibility as a Growth Engine
For years, we’ve treated accessibility (WCAG compliance) like eating our vegetables—something we do because we have to.
The Reality: It’s a competitive weapon. 94.8% of the world’s top homepages still fail basic accessibility standards. Accessible sites are easier for AI to parse and easier for humans to navigate. Investing here isn’t just compliance; it’s ROI.
3. The "Zero-Friction" Conversion
With fewer visitors coming to the site, every single visit is precious. These are high-intent users. They are ready to convert.
The Problem: We still put up barriers. Slow load times are killer—on mobile, 53% of users will abandon a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.
The Fix: Treat your site like an e-commerce engine. Speed, chatbots, and clear pathways are non-negotiable.
4. Personalization at Scale
If a prospective nursing student lands on your homepage, why show them a generic photo of a frisbee game?
The Strategy: Embrace AI-driven personalization. Serve dynamic content based on user behavior—showing the nursing labs to the nursing prospect and the art studio to the painter. In e-commerce, this drives 35% of total sales. In Higher Ed, it’s the difference between a bounce and an application.
5. Immersive Storytelling
If visitors are only coming to your site for the deep dive, you better make the water deep.
The Strategy: Move beyond static text. Embrace interactive tools, data-rich infographics, and video-first experiences. Engagement metrics are the new SEO; if users bounce, AI assumes you aren't authoritative.
6. The Mindset Shift: From Project to Process
This is the hardest pill to swallow. For decades, Higher Ed has treated the website as a capital project: you build it every five years, launch it with confetti, and then ignore it again until it breaks.
The Reality: In an AI-driven world, the landscape changes too fast for a five-year cycle.
The Fix: Move from "Website as a Project" to "Website as a Product." Treat your digital presence like a garden that needs daily tending, not a building that is "finished."
7. Governance: The Gatekeeper of Trust
You can't build a high-performance engine if nobody knows who has the keys. As we push for more content from more SMEs (Rule #1) and personalized variants (Rule #4), the risk of "content rot" explodes.
The Reality: In the age of verification, accuracy is everything. If an AI "Answer Engine" finds three conflicting tuition rates on your site because old PDF pages were never deleted, it downgrades your trust score.
The Fix: Governance is no longer just about brand police; it is about quality assurance. We need clear ownership, automated audits, and a culture that values deleting old pages as much as publishing new ones. If your site is cluttered with outdated info, you don't just confuse users—you train the AI to ignore you.
8. Strategic Segmentation: Separate Public Proof from Internal Policy
For too long, we have treated the .edu website as a junk drawer for every PDF, meeting minute, and internal policy document the university produces.
The Problem: In an AI world, this is dangerous. AI scrapers don't distinguish between your "Admissions Promise" and a dusty "Faculty Senate Minute from 2014" that contradicts it. Mixing internal operations with public marketing dilutes your authority and confuses the bots.
The Fix: Strict separation of concerns. Your public website is for storytelling, verification, and conversion. Your internal policies belong on an Intranet behind a login. If it doesn't serve the prospective student or donor, it doesn't belong on the open web.
The Bottom Line
So, is the website dead? If you view it as a dusty digital brochure, then yes, it’s already gone. But if you view it as the ultimate verifier of your institutional soul? Then the website isn’t dead. It’s finally ready to do the job it was always meant to do.
Let’s build something worthy of that trust.