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The modern website has evolved far beyond its initial role as a static digital placeholder. Today, it occupies a central position in marketing and customer engagement strategies, serving as both a brand touchpoint and a key revenue driver. According to Webflow's 2025 State of the Website report, organisations increasingly recognise the website's strategic value but face a range of challenges in optimising it for today’s complex digital landscape.
This article synthesises key insights from the report, unpacking the current priorities and pain points for marketing leaders, the growing role of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), and the strategies shaping the future of website management.
The Rising Importance of the Website
“91% say their website drives more revenue than any other channel”
For 91% of marketing leaders surveyed, the website is their organisation’s most critical revenue channel, outperforming other digital avenues such as email, social media, and paid advertising. It is not only a platform for customer interaction but also a driver of business outcomes, with some organisations reporting that over half of their revenue originates directly from their website.
However, the expectations placed on websites have risen significantly. Delivering personalised, seamless experiences to users is no longer optional, it is essential. Yet, as websites grow in complexity, marketing teams often grapple with outdated tools and fragmented processes, hampering their ability to meet these demands effectively.
Key Challenges Facing Modern Marketing Teams
While the website’s importance is undeniable, several barriers prevent marketing teams from realising its full potential. These can be broadly categorised into three key areas:
1. Technology and Tools
A startling 90% of respondents noted that their technology stack has expanded in the past year. Despite this growth, only 17% of enterprise marketing leaders with large teams (10,000+ employees) believe their stack meets all their needs. This disparity underscores the challenge of not just acquiring tools but ensuring they work cohesively to enable measurable results. Marketers report inefficiencies stemming from traditional content management systems (CMSs) and drag and drop site builders that often limit flexibility and necessitate significant technical oversight. The result is a reliance on engineering and development teams for essential updates, creating bottlenecks in execution.
2. Collaboration and Processes
Approximately 96% of respondents believe their marketing teams could collaborate more effectively with cross functional teams, particularly engineering departments. This challenge is aggravated by "siloed" workflows, which isolate teams into separate processes and tools, creating delays and inefficiencies.
Organisations frequently fall into what the report calls assembly line workflows, where projects are passed between teams with little integration or collaboration. Such processes inhibit the agility necessary for quick decision making and efficient project completion.
3. Measurement and ROI
Driving revenue and measuring website ROI were cited as top challenges for marketing leaders. While the website is unquestionably a revenue generator, many teams lack the data infrastructure to precisely tie performance to outcomes. Investments are also hindered by the inability to assess the direct impact of initiatives such as personalisation or A/B testing on overall business goals.
The Role of AI and Technology in Future Proofing Websites
Amid evolving customer expectations, technology is emerging as a crucial enabler for marketing teams striving to enhance agility and scalability in website management. AI, in particular, is being recognised as a tapping into AI's powerful force.
Tapping into the Power of AI
AI adoption is growing rapidly within marketing organisations, with 79% of respondents already using AI tools for their website and 69% planning to maintain or increase investments in 2025. The reported benefits are compelling, including enhanced customer insights, improved SEO performance, greater efficiency, and advanced personalisation capabilities.
For teams struggling with budget and timeline constraints, AI offers a path to automation and augmentation of critical tasks. This enables marketers to experiment more frequently and refine their strategies based on meaningful data. AI driven tools also facilitate dynamic content personalisation, making the website experience increasingly relevant and engaging for users.
Building More Collaborative Tech Stacks
The report emphasises the importance of technology ecosystems that foster cross team collaboration rather than creating silos. Seamless integration between tools is a priority, enabling both technical (e.g., engineering) and non technical (e.g., marketers) teams to contribute to website initiatives more effectively.
Investments in headless CMSs, APIs, and experimentation platforms are also on the rise, with companies aiming to future proof their tech stack to adapt to both current and emerging needs.
Strategic Recommendations for Marketing Teams
To address core challenges while making use of the potential of advanced technology, The State of the Website offers actionable recommendations for leaders aiming to elevate their website performance in 2025 and beyond.
1. Optimise Collaboration
Marketing leaders must prioritise tools and processes that enable seamless collaboration across teams. This involves breaking down silos between marketing, engineering, and other stakeholders to create unified workflows. Integrated platforms that simplify the user interface for non technical users while maintaining technical flexibility for developers can bridge many existing gaps.
2. Invest in the Right Technology
The focus for 2025 needs to shift from having more tools to selecting tools that serve the greatest strategic purpose. Reducing redundancies and ensuring integration should be central to procurement strategies. Marketing leaders should evaluate existing tech stacks and sunset tools that create inefficiencies or fail to deliver on core requirements.
3. Focus on Personalisation and Experimentation
Personalisation is a key driver of user engagement and conversion rates. Investing in tools that enable marketers to deliver tailored content without heavy technical dependencies will pay dividends in both the short and long term. Additionally, using experimentation platforms to test and iterate on strategies will help continuously improve website performance.
4. Use Data to Drive Innovation
Website optimisation initiatives must be grounded in data. Leaders should ensure teams have access to clear, actionable analytics that tie website performance directly to business outcomes. AI powered analytics is particularly valuable in providing insights into customer behavior and identifying areas for improvement.
5. Plan for Agility
The business landscape changes rapidly, and customer needs are equally fluid. Marketing teams must prepare for future uncertainties by adopting scalable, flexible strategies that allow for rapid adaptation. Future proofing should not be considered a one time initiative but an ongoing process.
The Future of the Website
As a Webflow Agency focussed on growing businesses, the findings of Webflow’s report underscore the website's unparalleled importance as the primary engine of business growth. Moving forward, companies that excel will be those that approach website management with a forward thinking mindset, one that prioritises collaboration, harnesses technology effectively, and remains agile enough to evolve alongside customer expectations.
By addressing operational inefficiencies, making use of tools like AI, and consistently measuring impact, marketing leaders can transform their websites into strategic assets capable of driving substantive business outcomes. The time to implement these changes is now, and those who act decisively will position themselves as leaders in the highly competitive digital arena of 2025.
There's no question, the website is now the MVP of the marketing team. Organisations that commit to its success will find themselves better prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow, while those that hesitate may struggle to stay relevant in an increasingly digital first world.
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