The Green Sheet Online Edition
September 28, 2026 • 26:09:02
Your website is no longer the center of the buying journey
For years, businesses have treated their websites as the center of their digital presence. Drive prospects to the website, explain what you do, demonstrate your expertise and create opportunities for them to contact sales. That still matters. What has changed is everything happening before someone gets to your website.
A merchant looking for a payment provider, an ISO evaluating a technology partner or a payments company searching for a new solution may start with Google, an industry publication, LinkedIn, a recommendation from a colleague or an AI platform.
In fact, they may learn quite a bit about your company without visiting your website at all. By the time they get there, the question may no longer be, "Who is this company?" Instead, they may be looking to confirm what they've already learned about you elsewhere. That's a very different role for the company website than the one most of us grew up with.
Your website has a different job
None of this means the company website is becoming less important. In many ways, I think the opposite is true. Prospects can arrive at your website knowing considerably more about your company than they did in the past.
Twenty years ago, your website might have been where someone started learning about your business. Today, it may be one of several places they visit along the way.
Before they get there, they may have read an article mentioning your company, seen news about a new partnership, looked up your executives on LinkedIn, read reviews, compared providers through Google, or asked an AI platform about companies offering the type of solution they need. Each encounter helps shape an opinion before the prospect ever reaches your website.
When they do arrive, the website must reinforce what they've already discovered. Does the company clearly do what they thought it did? Does it serve businesses like theirs? Does what they see give them more confidence in considering the company? That leads to an even bigger question: What happens when a prospect looks beyond your website and finds very little about your company anywhere else?
What exists beyond your website?
This is where I think companies need to take a broader look at their digital presence. Consider two payment technology companies offering comparable solutions. The first has an excellent website. Its products are clearly explained, the leadership team is represented, and there are customer examples and useful resources.
The second company also has a strong website. But look beyond it and you find:
- A recently announced processor partnership
- Coverage of a new integration
- An executive sharing expertise on an industry issue
- A press release announcing a new product capability
- An industry award
- Articles discussing the problems the company's technology helps merchants solve
Both companies may be equally capable, but they don't look equally established when someone researches them. The first company is largely asking prospects to rely on what it says about itself. The second gives them more to work with. There is evidence that the company is active in the market, developing its business, and contributing to the industry.
This becomes even more important as AI becomes part of the research process. A buyer can now ask an AI platform to compare providers or recommend companies that solve a particular problem. The buyer doesn't necessarily need to visit five or ten company websites and piece together the information independently. AI can help do some of that work for them.
And that raises an important question for every company: What information is available for AI—and prospective buyers—to find? Your digital presence is no longer limited to the properties you control.
Your news has a longer life than you think
One mistake I continue to see is companies treating news as something temporary. Think about how many developments happen within a payments organization that are worth talking about:
- A new partnership is announced
- A product or integration is launched
- A new executive joins the organization
- A certification is earned
- The company expands into a new market
- An important industry milestone is reached
The company issues a press release, shares the news on LinkedIn, sends an email, and then moves on to the next thing. The story, however, doesn't necessarily stop working just because the announcement is no longer new.
When a press release is distributed effectively, it becomes part of the company's presence across the web. It may be picked up by news outlets or industry publications and indexed by search engines. Months later, someone researching the company may still come across that story and learn something about the business they didn't know before.
This is why I think companies should look at press releases as more than announcements. They can become long-term marketing assets. One release tells one story. Over time, a series of releases starts to document what's happening within the company: new partnerships, products, people, customer successes, expansion and other developments that demonstrate progress.
And unlike the content that lives only on your website, some of those stories can become part of the broader information available about your company online. That's increasingly valuable when prospective buyers—and the AI tools they're using to conduct research—are looking beyond your website to understand who you are.
Look at your company from the outside
Here's a simple exercise I recommend. Forget about your website for a few minutes and look at your company the way a prospective customer or partner might. Then consider what an AI platform has available to work with.
- Search your company name.
- Search the names of your key executives.
- Search for the products or services you provide.
- Look at what appears in Google News.
- Ask an AI platform what it knows about your company.
- Ask the same questions about several competitors.
Then ask yourself a harder question: If my website disappeared from the results, would there still be enough credible information online for someone to understand who we are, what we do and why they should consider us?
For many companies, the answer may be uncomfortable. If most of what you find comes from your own website and social media accounts, there's an opportunity to build a stronger presence beyond the channels you control.
The next step is to look inside the business for stories you're probably already creating:
- Partnerships and integrations
- Customer successes
- Research or insights your team can share
- Expertise from company leadership
- New hires and leadership changes
- Certifications and awards
- Expansion into new markets
- Product developments and enhancements
- Meaningful involvement in your industry or community
Not every one of these deserves a press release. That's an important distinction. But many companies have legitimate stories worth telling and simply aren't doing anything with them. The goal is to develop a consistent process for identifying the right stories and getting them into places where prospects can discover them.
Consistency matters. One press release or industry article isn't going to change how your company is perceived online. Over time, however, a steady flow of credible information gives prospective buyers more evidence of who you are, what you're doing and why your company may be worth considering.
Your website still matters—it's just not alone
Your website remains one of your company's most important digital assets. It needs to explain what you do clearly, give prospects confidence, and make it easy for them to take the next step. But your website can't tell the whole story anymore.
Buyers are researching companies across more sources, and AI is making it easier to gather and compare that information before you even know a prospect is looking. That means companies need to think beyond what appears on their own websites. The articles, news, partnerships, expertise, and other credible information available elsewhere are increasingly part of how prospects form an opinion about your business.
Your website still matters. Just make sure there's a larger story for buyers to discover. Build the website. But also build the story around it.
Melih ("may-lee") Oztalay is the founder and CEO of SmartFinds Marketing, a B2B marketing firm originally incorporated in 1987 and operating in digital strategy since 1994. He works with CEOs and marketing leaders to help technology, manufacturing, logistics, and professional services companies strengthen market visibility, build authority, and generate qualified demand. Melih is a published industry author, podcast guest, and speaker on marketing, buyer behavior, and the growing impact of artificial intelligence on business growth. For more information about SmartFinds Marketing, visit https://smartfindsmarketing.com. Connect with Melih at melih@smartfindsmarketing.com or via LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/melihoztalay/.
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