We recently attended the London edition of the Webflow Conference 2024, which brought exciting announcements and valuable insights into the future of web development, AI, and design. Continually innovating, Webflow’s growth in the low-code / no-code space meant the conference delivered key takeaways for businesses, developers and designers alike. 

Highlights from the Keynote: The Future of Webflow

Starting strong, and testament to its growing impact on the low-code / no-code movement, Webflow announced that over 40,000 websites have now been built using Webflow. However, one of the most significant discussions was about the influence of AI on organic traffic, with a 30% drop-off expected due to AI’s growing role in digital spaces. What does this mean then for web experiences moving forward? Well, websites need to be an experience for the user, to keep them engaged and interested. 

The opening keynote also gave a first look at several new features, including:

• A new list view in the project area
• Compliant variants, a feature that was once only custom-built for clients is now native
• Approval flows for enterprise users, allowing site changes to be reviewed before they go live

Webflow Analyze and Webflow Optimize

Webflow continues to integrate AI to help users build faster and smarter and reassure users that their data won’t be used to train AI models unless they choose to opt in. Webflow has made it clear that they are taking a user-centric approach to AI integration. With the introduction of Webflow Analyze and Webflow Optimize, Webflow users will be able to enhance website performance and user engagement within the platform itself. 

With the introduction of AI-powered features, the platform can optimise A/B tests, update components based on performance, and even generate components via AI.

Analyze is a built-in analytics tool that delivers insights into visitor activity, tracking essential metrics to help support designers and marketers in making data-driven choices without needing third-party analytics solutions. Optimize on the other hand allows users to A/B test and tailor website content according to visitor characteristics. 

Currently, Webflow is exploring whether AI features will be part of a per-project or agency-wide paid add-on model. They are also fine-tuning the AI's responsiveness and design flexibility, with a focus on improving its ability to create tags and modify layouts. While still in its early stages, Webflow’s use of AI promises to simplify the design process significantly.

By integrating AI across the Webflow platform, Webflow is empowering you to move faster and focus on work that needs a human touch.

Optimising Search Engine Optimisation

It was also noted that SEO has become more critical than ever with the increasing dominance of AI-generated content featuring on the first page of search results. This shift is changing the search landscape, impacting how people find information, and making it for businesses to prioritise SEO strategies that cut through the noise.

Webflow offers a suite of features designed to enable users to build SEO-friendly websites without extensive coding knowledge and align with best practices to improve search engine visibility. 

• Flexible Meta Tags: With Webflow, creating unique meta titles and descriptions for each page is quick and straightforward, helping search engines grasp and index content accurately.
• Efficient, Clear Code: Webflow generates clean, semantic HTML and CSS, making sites easy for search engines to crawl and ultimately supporting better rankings.
• Built-In Responsive Design: Every Webflow site is built to be mobile-friendly from the start, aligning with search engines' mobile-first indexing priorities.
• Automated XML Sitemaps: Webflow handles sitemap creation and submission, simplifying the indexing process and ensuring each page is easily found by search engines.
• 301 Redirects Made Simple: Webflow’s 301 redirect setup helps preserve link equity and avoids broken links when URLs change, keeping your site’s SEO healthy.
• Optimised Images: Adding alt text to images is supported directly on the platform, enhancing accessibility and giving search engines valuable context for visual content.

Til Devs Do Us Part: Bridging Design and Development

A standout session titled "Til Devs Do Us Part" discussed the challenges of collaboration between design and development teams. The main takeaway was that a great product is built by a great team, not just frameworks and tools. Webflow plays a crucial role here, as it allows designers to understand the limitations of development from the start.

By using WebGL in conjunction with Webflow’s GUI, teams can prototype interactive experiences early on, building trust and alignment before the design process fully kicks off. This session emphasised how Webflow can save time by enabling early-stage prototypes that already incorporate development constraints, speeding up the production process.

Scalable Design Systems in Webflow

Design systems are a core focus for Webflow's growth. The session on scalable systems highlighted the use of variables (design tokens) to keep designs consistent. Attendees also learned about new tools for grouping, reordering, and bulk actions within design systems.

Other exciting updates include:

• A Figma to Webflow plugin update, improving the workflow between design and build
• Native support for component variants, previously a custom feature for select clients

These tools ensure that Webflow remains a powerful option for teams looking to scale their design operations.

Is A/B Testing a Waste of Time?

A thought-provoking session discussed the relevance of A/B testing. While A/B tests are popular, Airbnb revealed that 92% of their tests failed, leading to minimal business impact. For companies with smaller audiences, user interviews and qualitative feedback may prove more effective than testing minor changes. 

The lesson? A/B testing requires maturity, scale, and a culture of testing to truly unlock its potential.

Yes, You Can Do That in Webflow

Tuesday’s session focused on creativity and innovation, especially for users intimidated by code. Jomor Design showcased how Webflow allows designers to get creative with native interactions and improve existing features like the default slider.

Designers were encouraged to experiment and embrace new ideas, using Webflow's flexibility to deliver solutions tailored to each client’s needs. Whether through custom interactions or thoughtful asset management, Webflow gives designers the tools they need to push boundaries without writing code.

20 Ideas to Boost Growth

One of the most actionable sessions provided 20 ideas to drive growth through Webflow. These ranged from running launch campaigns to creating location-specific landing pages and comparison pages. The emphasis was on proving ideas through testing and optimising the best performers, using frameworks like ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) to prioritise initiatives.

And Finally

The Webflow Conference 2024 demonstrated once again that Webflow is a platform where innovation thrives. From AI enhancements and design system improvements to powerful app integrations, the platform is positioned to help businesses scale faster and smarter. The blend of creativity, user-centric AI, and collaborative tools makes Webflow a key player in the future of web design and development.

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