For a long time, we were told to think of our websites as digital storefronts. Places to display products, post announcements, and maybe capture a few leads.
But this metaphor’s tired. Bone tired. It comes from an era of broadcast marketing. Loudspeakers! Slogans! Sales!
A billboard shouts. A website, when built with care, has the potential to converse.
Most business owners still treat their site like a static poster in a high-traffic intersection. It’s not really their fault! We are busy people. They pour energy into their homepage copy and then forget about it until something breaks. But the truth is, the web is not a highway. It’s an energetic ecosystem.
People arrive there and explore, and maybe they decide to stay awhile and sit with someone they find interesting. To take a look at what they’re tending. To peer inside another person’s perspective.
Despite the various horrors the internet has brought us these last few decades – it’s also brought us the ability to connect with people from vastly different backgrounds and realities. Within that opportunity is the internet’s gift to us all.
So if your website isn’t a billboard, what is it?
I think of it more like a garden. Digital gardens have had a recent comeback and have been exploding in certain areas of the web recently. These are some of the place I love to visit the most, if I’m going to wander around and visit various portals.
So, yeah, a garden. Something that grows slowly. Something that requires tending. Something that gives back when you show up for it.
You plant your ideas there. You water it with your time and care. You compost what’s no longer relevant. Over time, it becomes its own little biome or somehow a reflection of who you are, what you value, and how you want to connect with others.
What a Living Website Looks Like in Practice
If you want your website to feel more like a garden and less like a billboard, here are a few ways to start:
Build for return visitors, not just traffic spikes.
Add an ongoing journal, blog, or field notes page where people can check in and see what’s evolving. Think relationship over reach.
Let your content lineage shine through & compost old content
Archive old offerings or posts instead of deleting them. Show the lineage of your work. Transparency builds trust – plus, it’s fun to see where you came from and how much you’ve grown.
Design for wandering. (Not all who wander are lost!!)
Use clear, intuitive navigation that invites curiosity instead of forcing funnels. Link between related posts like you’re threading mycelium through the site.
Honor quiet attention.
Keep pop-ups, autoplay, and flashy banners out of the experience. Let visitors breathe and engage at their own pace.
Include signs of life.
Seasonal updates, new projects, small reflections — they show your site isn’t abandoned. This also keeps search engines (and humans) happy.
Use your “About” page as a relational space.
Instead of a résumé, tell a story. Why you care. Who you’re in service to. What you’re learning. Make it feel like someone’s meeting you for tea.
No matter how sales-y and weird the rest of the internet can be, it doesn’t mean your place has to feel that way, too. Use this page as a way to weave your unique magic and to allow people to feel seen and welcome.
Simplify your backend ecosystem.
Your website’s roots matter too. Choose tools that align with your values:
- Privacy-respecting analytics
- More ethical hosting
- Minimal plug-ins when possible
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When you shift from billboard-thinking to ecosystem-thinking, you stop asking, “How can I get more traffic?” and start asking, “How can I create a place people want to return to?”
That’s the work I love doing! Helping people build digital spaces that feel like a breath of fresh air.
Your website doesn’t have to scream to be seen. It only needs to feel alive, feel like you.
