To sum up this post in one sentence: “The Most Successful Websites Begin with Content First”. I can’t tell you how hard it is sometimes to get content from clients. Yes, I’m calling you out specifically client A 😊 No no, it’s a common occurance among many clients I’ve worked with. And with good reason. Content creation is the most important part of any website. But until you jump in and try and write it yourself, you don’t realize how incredible time consuming and tough writing web copy really is.
The Number 1 Excuse
The most common excuse I hear is, “I don’t know where the content is going to go or if it’s going to fit. How can I write without knowing how much to write?” I’m not sure where in the process of making websites this arose. Maybe as designers we’ve been using lorem ipsum (placeholder text) so regularly that the market became used to the idea of design first? No, I don’t think that’s it, but it’s a good possibility.
Why Content First
This is going to be short and to the point. Content is the reason you have a website in the first place. Without content there isn’t anything to organize, layout or design. You can’t design without a subject. The same way you can’t write a book without a story or idea. Another strong vote for content first comes from Responsive design. You may or may not have heard the term thrown around lately. Responsive design (example site) requires a lot of planning upfront. If there isn’t a guarantee of the length of content on a page, it could cause havoc to the layout. Not only would it affect the desktop version of the site, but there is also the tablet version and mobile phone version too. At that small size your bound to run into issues if you don’t have the content first. Content first, from a monetary position, will save you time on any project. There will always be back pedaling on the designs and possibly development too if you wait to put content into place until the end. Having to change a design to make content fit never results in as good of a solution as what previously intended by the design. Designers can plan all day to make estimates and guesses as to how much content we think a client will want to use on a particular page, but it’s never as good as what was previously intended. Save your pennies and wrangle up some great content first.
Hiring a Professional
Copywriting is so often overlooked as a service to hire a professional for. Why? The same reason your Aunt Susan claims to be a graphic designer. Sure, most professionals have some writing skills, but that doesn’t make them a copywriter. Nor does knowing how to use a media program on a computer in your spare time make you a great graphic design, Susan. Writing web copy is incredibly different from other types of writing. The attention spans of many audiences today is dwindling. Copy should be kept quite short and to the point on the homepage. There is so much competition out there, it’s almost impossible to be successful without being different. Hiring a professional web copywriter will allow your website to speak to the correct audience and maybe even have a touch of personality that will engage your market accurately. Connecting with your target market on a personal level will make your website more memorable in comparison to your competition. And how do you do all that? Easy. Hire a professional if you want to compete neck and neck with your competitors.
Conclusion
To sum it up for you… Content FIRST please 😊 It’ll give your website a competitive edge and help your customers better connect with the messages you want to send. Don’t spend your dollars back pedaling. Hire a professional writer to get the job done write. I mean. Right 😊
