State of Sites / Chapter 3
The ownership
problem
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Approval layers slow publishing.
Website updates often stall in review. Teams with three or more reviewers are twice as likely to take a month to publish, yet this is common. Over half of teams require three or more reviewers per page, slowing publishing and limiting experiments.
Approval layers slow publishing.
Website updates often stall in review. Teams with three or more reviewers are twice as likely to take a month to publish, yet this is common. Over half of teams require three or more reviewers per page, slowing publishing and limiting experiments.
“How many people review a page before it goes live?”
19.1%
1-2 people
29.3%
3-5 people
22.1%
6-10 people
14.1%
11-15 years
14.1%
16+ people
“Projects went back to square one because the CEO didn’t like how it looked. It changed the structure of the entire page.”
— Survey respondent
“Projects went back to square one because the CEO didn’t like how it looked. It changed the structure of the entire page.”
— Survey respondent
“What would make it easier to make the case for website projects?”
Website teams don’t just need more resources. They need clearer ownership and coordination. 36% of respondents say better coordination between marketing, design, and engineering would make it easier to prioritize website work. 30% want clearer ownership, and 28% want fewer dependencies on other teams.
When responsibility is split across teams, even simple updates become negotiations. At companies where nobody owns the website outright (15% report shared ownership), decisions stall and progress slows.
29.7%
Clear ownership and accountability for website updates
27.5%
Fewer dependencies on other teams
29%
Faster review and approval cycles
36.4%
Better coordination between marketing, design, and engineering
40.3%
More dedicated time or resources for website work
25.6%
Clearer standards or guidelines for making changes
34.2%
Better visibility into the ROI of website changes
9.9%
Unsure
3.1%
Other
“Design owns everything: strategy, copy, design, and the responsive build. Stakeholders won’t give feedback in the actual tool, so I end up doing two builds.”
— Survey respondent
“Design owns everything: strategy, copy, design, and the responsive build. Stakeholders won’t give feedback in the actual tool, so I end up doing two builds.”
— Survey respondent
“What matters most when choosing a website platform?”
When choosing a website platform, teams prioritize design flexibility (69%), ease of use (60%), and cost (58%), followed by no-code or low-code capabilities (51%). The common thread is autonomy. Teams want to move faster without relying on engineering for every update.
51.4%
No-code/low-code
60%
Ease of use
69%
Design flexibility
38%
Speed to publish
49.2%
Performance
21.9%
Native integrations with your stack
17.5%
Collaboration features
58.4%
Cost
17.4%
Enterprise security & compliance
39.5%
SEO capabilities
40.8%
Built-in CMS
14.6%
Built-in A/B testing
21%
Free templates/starter kits
1.5%
Other
“We want to build complex sites without relying on developers.”
— Survey respondent
“We want to build complex sites without relying on developers.”
— Survey respondent
“How are you using AI for your website?”
Most teams use AI to generate copy, create images, and write code. But most of that work isn’t where the real bottlenecks are. AI can speed up production. It doesn’t fix approvals, ownership, or slow publishing cycles.
69.3%
Generating copy/content
39.4%
Creating/editing images
39.1%
Writing code
32%
SEO optimization
20.9%
Translation
14.7%
UX testing
12.9%
Chatbots
11.8%
We’re not using AI yet
9%
Personalizing content for visitors
6.3%
Other
