- Josh Brentan
- Oct 10
- 6 min read
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Today, small business owners are turning to AI to craft website content—and the numbers show it’s not just a trend.
A 2025 survey from Thryv found that AI adoption among small businesses jumped from 39% in 2024 to 55% in 2025. Of those, more than half (55%) say content generation is their primary use case.
But from what I see out in the wild, many SMBs are barely scratching the surface. This is because they type in a few quick prompts and get bland, generic content that reads like it was generated from a quick prompt. This isn’t a knock on SMB owners—learning how to prompt AI effectively is just one part of a crash course in AI education we’re all getting on the fly.
I may have written a few more prompts than the average person, so let me start with this. The real trick to getting AI to deliver great results is simple: give it context. Lots of it.
Related: Small business website statistics
What a prompt with context looks like
Let me give you an example. Say you give AI the following prompt:
“Help me write around 100 words of content for a landing page announcing a Fall sale.”
And let’s assume that it has no other context or access to previous chats you may have had with it.
AI would go ahead and confidently write the content with some room for you to fill in the blanks. It’ll probably lead with “Fall into savings!” or something lame like that. It will mention that for a limited time, your customers can save big on Fall finds.
It will be bland and generic.
Here’s what I actually got with one of the most popular AI tools (emojis included):
🍁 Fall into Savings! 🍁 [Author’s note: See? I told you]
Autumn is here, and so are our biggest deals of the season! For a limited time, enjoy exclusive discounts on your favorite products—from cozy essentials to must-have seasonal picks. Whether you’re refreshing your wardrobe, upgrading your home or finding the perfect gift, now’s the time to save. Don’t wait—these Fall specials won’t last long! Shop today and embrace the season in style while enjoying unbeatable prices.
Shop the Fall sale now and make this autumn your most stylish, comfortable and budget-friendly yet!
That’s almost 90 words about a Fall sale that doesn’t say a whole lot. But you can’t expect AI to give you much when you didn’t tell it a whole lot, either. And it’s making an assumption that you sell clothes or home goods, which may or may not be true.

Now, imagine you give AI this prompt:
“Help me write content of around 100 words for a landing page about a Fall sale. I own a costume shop. The sale dates are October 2-9. The sale is for every item in the store, with the steepest discounts of up to 40% off on Halloween decorations.
We will also be offering free face-painting during this time, which will hopefully bring in more families, who make up the majority of my business.
The location of my store is [address]. I want to avoid cliche language. Add a reference about how even vampires would risk going out in the sun for this sale.”
Here’s what the same AI tool gave me:
Step into the spirit of the season at [Your Store Name]!
From October 2–9, every item in our store is on sale, with Halloween decorations reaching up to 40% off—so good, even vampires might risk stepping into the sun.
Families are especially welcome: we’re offering free face-painting to make your visit extra fun. Explore our wide range of costumes, props, and décor to create a hauntingly memorable Halloween.
Whether you’re trick-or-treating or hosting the ultimate spooky party, this is the perfect time to stock up. Visit us at [address] and grab your favorites before they vanish!
See the difference? The more information you give it, the more personalized—and less generic—your output will be.
Learn more:

The formula I like to use: RACE
To help you create content with AI when building a website, let’s look at a handy prompting framework you can use.
The one I share when I’m giving “Intro to AI” sessions is the RACE framework, as written by Trust Insights. It stands for Role, Action, Context, Execute.
If I’m being honest, I didn’t actually follow it in the example I gave above about the costume store, so let’s expand on that example.
First, tell AI what role you want it to take on. Using the example from earlier, you might say, “You are a copywriter with a specialty in creating high-converting landing pages.”
Then, state the action: “I would like you to help me write content for a landing page based on the following information.”
Next, give the AI context, like how I provided extra detail earlier about the product discounts, face-painting and even a quip about vampires.
Then, just to remind it what it’s supposed to do, add another line about executing the task.
“Please let me know if you have any questions that would help you in this task. If not, please write the landing page content now.” (Do you have to say “please?” No. But my mom taught me to be polite.)
Now, take a look at what AI gave me:
🍂 Fall into Savings at [Your Store Name]! 🍂
From October 2–9, every item in our store is on sale, with Halloween decorations up to 40% off—even vampires would risk the sun to snag these deals!
Bring the whole family and enjoy free face-painting while you shop. From spooky décor to show-stopping costumes, there’s something for every ghoul and goblin.
Don’t miss this chance to transform your Halloween and your home without breaking the bank. Swing by [address] and make this Fall unforgettable.
Well, it still says “Fall into Savings,” which I’d want to fix, but that’s why you always need a human in the loop. Speaking of which…
How I make sure my content sounds human
Using the RACE framework will get you much better results from AI, but it’s still important to review all AI-generated content. And even if you’re not an editor, there’s one thing you should definitely do to ensure a human touch. Read the content out loud to yourself and see how it sounds.
In my experience, whether the text is generated by AI or another person, this is the best way to identify phrasing that needs to be reworked. But be warned: AI will often put together a string of words that sound nice in sequence but don’t actually mean much if you think about them for more than two seconds.
So, read it out loud. Then either make fixes yourself or let AI know about a specific sentence or word you don’t like and ask for changes.
Here’s how I would have edited the email above. I’ve marked my changes in red.
The Fall Super-Sale is Coming
From October 2–9, every item in [Your Store Name] is going on sale, with Halloween decorations up to 40% off—even vampires would risk the sun to snag these deals!
Bring the whole family and let the kids enjoy free face-painting while you shop. From spooky décor to show-stopping costumes, there’s something for every ghoul and goblin.
Don’t miss this chance to transform your Halloween and your home without breaking the bank. Swing by [address] and make this Halloween unforgettable.
Of course, it’s up to you as to how much you want to use AI for your business website content. Personally, I don’t like it too much for writing headlines because I’m very picky about headlines.
To me, AI is best used for anything that is highly specific (product descriptions, for example) because specificity acts as a compass for AI. The narrower and clearer the task, the more precise, useful and aligned the output tends to be.
Bring yourself to the AI party
There’s a final ingredient to ensuring your AI-generated web content isn’t bland and generic, or, as they like to call it these days, “AI slop.”
That ingredient is you. Your personality, your expertise, and your ideas. AI has amazing capabilities, but to get amazing results, you have to bring yourself to the party, too.
When you combine what makes you unique with the generative powers of AI, that’s when the good stuff really starts happening.
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