2.1 – Define Your Website Goal with AI Lesson

Lesson Overview

Before you build anything, you need to decide what your website is for and how it should work. This lesson shows how to use an AI chatbot to shape that decision. The process is the same whether you use Gemini or ChatGPT. You start by writing out everything in your head about the site you want. Plain language is enough. If you already have a website, paste the link and ask the AI to use it as a source for a refreshed site plan.

Your main choice is simple: a service website or an e-commerce website. A service site focuses on generating leads or getting bookings. An e-commerce site focuses on product viewing and purchase. With that goal set, you ask the chatbot to gather details by requesting 10 questions before it drafts anything. You can get the questions all at once or one at a time if a conversation style helps you think. If you are unsure about something such as target audience, ask the AI for suggestions and then adjust.

A good session ends with a clear page list and offers from the chatbot to draft key sections like hero text and an About section. In the video, you will see an example for a service company called New Slate Films that sells video production services to brands. The next lesson will use the AI to write page content you can take into your website builder.

Who This Is For

If you are unsure what kind of website you really need or you want help shaping the plan before you design, this lesson will help you simplify decisions.

• Small business owners who want leads or bookings from a clean service site
• Freelancers and agencies who sell services and need a clear value proposition
• Online sellers planning a simple store with product pages and checkout
• Marketers who want to turn ideas into a clear site outline fast
• Creators with an existing site who want to refresh or restructure their pages

Where This Fits in a Workflow

Use this lesson at the very start of your website project. It sets the goal and outlines the pages before you pick templates or write copy. The clarity you get here informs your structure, your homepage hero, and what you ask visitors to do.

For example, a videography studio that wants bookings will plan for a Services page, a Portfolio, and a Contact or Booking page, with a homepage geared toward inquiries. A small shop that sells products will plan for category and product pages with a clear checkout path. In both cases, the chatbot will ask what it needs to propose the right page list and the core action you want. This makes the next steps faster and more focused.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Planning a site by yourself usually means guessing at structure, audience, and content, then revising after you start building. An AI chatbot acts like a planning partner. It prompts for missing details, suggests a page roadmap, and can draft starter text. You avoid blank-screen moments and get to a viable plan in minutes.

Two use cases show the difference. If you are launching a service site, the AI helps you pick a lead or booking focus, suggests a Services layout, and offers hero and About copy to test. If you are refreshing an existing site, you can paste your current URL and ask for a cleaner plan built from what already works. In both cases, you save time and gain clarity. You also get consistent language across pages because the AI keeps track of your answers and applies them to the draft structure.

Practice Exercise

Try this quick planning run so you have something ready for the next lesson.

• Pick a project type: service site for leads or bookings, or e-commerce site for product sales.
• Write a 4 to 6 sentence brief in plain language. Include a placeholder name if you do not have one, what you sell, who it is for, and what action you want visitors to take.
• Paste your brief into Gemini or ChatGPT and add: “Ask me 10 questions to get all the details you need before you plan the website.” If you prefer a conversation, add: “Ask one question at a time.”
• Answer the questions. If you are short on time, reply with: “Draft reasonable answers for me based on my brief. I will tweak later.”
• Ask the chatbot to propose a page list and offer to draft the homepage hero text and an About section.

Reflection: Which question was hardest to answer and why. Did the AI’s page roadmap change how you think about the homepage goal.

Course Context Recap

This lesson kicks off planning before you build anything. You used an AI chatbot to define your website type, goal, and a starter page roadmap. Next, you will use the same AI to draft content for key sections such as the homepage hero and About, then bring that copy into your website builder. Continue through the course to turn this plan into a working site with clear pages and focused calls to action. The video for this lesson shows the exact prompts and a working example you can adapt.