The promise is seductive. Type “modern plumbing business website, blue and orange, trustworthy but friendly” into an AI tool and thirty seconds later you have a live site. Wix AI, Squarespace Blueprint, v0.dev, Cursor, Bolt — the “vibe coding” wave is everywhere.
But here's the uncomfortable truth most small business owners in the UK are about to discover the expensive way: these AI-generated sites look impressive in demos and fail spectacularly in the real world.
What “vibe-coded” actually means
“Vibe coding” is the 2025–2026 term for telling an AI in plain English what you want and letting it generate the code. No Figma, no developer, just vibes. Tools spit out React, Tailwind, or no-code templates based on your description.
The result? A site that looks current for about three weeks. Then reality hits.
The 5 problems that kill AI-generated websites
1. Generic design = zero differentiation
Every “modern, trustworthy” prompt produces the same hero section, same rounded buttons, same stock-photo energy. Your competitors are using the exact same tools. Google users can't tell you apart. You become wallpaper.
2. Bloated code = slow loading = Google punishment
AI doesn't optimise. It generates. The average vibe-coded site ships with unnecessary JavaScript, duplicate CSS, missing lazy loading, and poor Core Web Vitals. Google's 2026 algorithms are even stricter on speed. One extra second of load time and your bounce rate jumps 32%. We've audited dozens — most score below 70 on PageSpeed Insights.
3. No real ownership
Wix AI, Squarespace AI, or even custom vibe-coded outputs on certain platforms still lock you in. Export the code and half the functionality breaks. Stop paying the subscription and your site can vanish. True ownership means clean, hand-crafted code you can move anywhere.
4. Zero conversion strategy
AI can make it pretty. It cannot make it sell. Contact forms still sit there lonely at 2am on a Sunday. No one's built in a quiz funnel that qualifies leads while you sleep. No smart CTAs, no instant personalised response. Result? Looks great, generates nothing.
5. Impossible to customise for real business workflows
Need a quote calculator that talks to your CRM? Booking system that syncs with your diary? Lead scoring that routes urgent jobs to your phone? Vibe coding gets you 70% there, then leaves you stuck with spaghetti code no developer wants to touch.
What actually works in 2026
A website built with clean, bespoke code from the ground up. Fast by design. SEO-optimised from day one. And most importantly — built to convert.
Take bbqpods.uk. We built their entire site, including a quiz funnel, in a single day. It now captures qualified leads 24/7 from 114 countries, ranks #1 for multiple high-intent terms, and the owners say they can't keep up with the enquiries.
That's not luck. That's deliberate engineering.
Bespoke doesn't mean slow or expensive anymore. With modern stacks and experienced teams, we deliver high-performance, conversion-focused websites in days — not weeks — and you own every line of code.
Ready to future-proof your online presence?
Stop gambling on AI that looks good on a demo but fails your customers. Book a 15-minute call and we'll show you exactly what a website that actually works looks like for your business.
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