Lessons from the Web Performance Summit 2026
More than 100 corporate digital communications professionals from many of Europe’s biggest companies met in Berlin last month for the fourth annual Web Performance Summit, hosted by Bowen Craggs along with Vogel Corporate Solutions and the Axel Springer Academy of Journalism & Technology.
It was the biggest gathering of its kind in Europe since before Covid – reflecting the rising focus on owned digital channels across all sectors amid the rise of AI search.
Here are eight takeaways from the event:
The corporate website is more strategically important than ever as the “mothership of truth”
Caterina Sorenti and Scott Payton from Bowen Craggs outlined the must-take steps to optimise for the AI search age:
- Feed AI platforms with bite-sized answers
- Build deep authority in LLMs via credible longer-form content
- Tackle tough topics head on
- Harness on-site AI search
- Go large on authenticity
- Double down on consistency
- Go local where it matters
- Adapt to the new roles of social media
- Give people a real reason to click through
- Collaborate across all areas of communications
- Constantly measure, to give you the insights you need to constantly improve
Forget keywords – AI rewards trust
Mike Linthe from Contiamo said in his session that “Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust” – E-E-A-T – is now the deciding factor in search visibility, not keyword density.
So communications teams should invest in content depth, original research, and structured data.
The real barrier to next-generation web experiences is not technology – it’s alignment
As Roche’s Cem Sever, Louise Schmidlin and Albert Thottiyil highlighted in their session, companies must work to unify regions, functions, and data around an agentic web strategy.
They must also make their content structured, machine readable, and task orientated.
The corporate website, they pointed out, is the single, coherent expression of a company’s narrative across topics, functions, and regions.
When rolling out a multi-site update, go big and go fast
Deirdre O'Reilly from Unilever shared the key lessons from a successful update of 97 sites within six months, including:
- Prepare for the unexpected
- Prioritise progress over unattainable perfection
- Work smarter, not harder
- Cultivate a growth mindset
Keeping content fresh is an easy GEO win
Leon Sentker from Peec.ai pointed out that on ChatGPT, for example, more than 70% of citations come from content that has been updated within the last 12 months.
He also warned that an over-reliance on AI-generated content gets “punished quickly” in AI search.
So keep it real, as well as fresh.
If something’s been translated by AI, say so
Elena Sofia Agostini and Lydia Wartewig from BASF showed an example of AI-translated content on their company’s vast, multi-language web estate.
A caption is provided clearly explaining to users that AI has been used for translation, with an onward link to the original German version.
This kind of transparency about use of AI is a crucial building block for growing and maintaining trust among users in an increasingly AI-generated information environment.
“Generative AI isn't a problem for the tech team to quietly ‘sort out’. It's a brand and reputation issue that belongs at the top of the agenda”
This is the view of Christina Ruby from Shell, who joined a panel discussion at the conference.
“It’s going to require a coordinated breaking down of silos across comms, PR, brand, SEO and digital,” she adds. “And the hottest skill in digital comms right now isn't prompt engineering. It's consistent, well-governed, optimised content about your brand across every channel that feeds the models shaping your reputation. Starting with the mothership: your website.”
“Create better content, not more content”
…and this is the view of Christina’s fellow panellist, James Cadman from HSBC. “We have built www.hsbc.com to be a great experience for humans… now we’re working on making it a great experience for the ever-ravenous AI bots as well,” he adds.
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If you would like to be part of next year's Web Performance Summit, get in touch with Tom Golden tgolden@bowencraggs.com