How to write a prompt that gets a great first draft

Most disappointing first drafts come from prompts that describe a website in general instead of your website in particular. “Make a landing page for my app” forces the AI to guess everything. It will guess safely, and safe looks generic.

Say who it is for

Name the audience and the one action you want from them. “For busy parents who want to book a swim lesson in under a minute” changes the copy, the layout and the call to action all at once.

Describe the feeling, not the CSS

You do not need to say “24px padding and a sans-serif font”. Say “calm and spacious, like a boutique hotel” or “bold and loud, like a streetwear drop”. The AI translates mood into type, colour and spacing better than most checklists do.

Give it real material

Paste your actual services, prices and opening hours. Mention your brand colour and upload your logo. Every real detail you give is one less placeholder you have to hunt down later.

Change one thing at a time

After the first draft, resist the urge to send a list of twenty edits. Two or three focused requests per message give you cleaner results, and if something goes wrong you know exactly which change caused it.

A prompt you can copy

“Build a website for Lumen Yoga, a small studio in Portland. Audience: beginners who feel intimidated by yoga. Feeling: warm, soft, lots of white space. Sections: welcome, class schedule, first class free offer, teachers, location. Main action: book a free first class.”