Sam Johnson 
Launching a website properly is critical for any company in this day and age. Sites help businesses develop brand awareness, sales, and many other dimensions needed for a successful business. A good website should be visually appealing, correctly channeling brand message, and adequately provide all needed details about a company’s services, deals, and what-not.
To do everything mentioned above, you will definitely need the assistance of a professional and reliable web design company. Lucky for you, finding one is not an issue today – the market is overflowing with web design companies, and among them, many are reputable and trustworthy.
However, even good web designers often overlook one or more of the crucial parts of any website. There are so many examples of company websites missing well-written copy that the problem may seem insignificant. But, quality writing often makes all the difference between a highly converting site and an ineffective one. So, what exactly makes copywriting so special and essential for any web design process?
The Website Looks Good, but the Copy Is Terrible
Web designers spend most of their time focusing on aesthetics. The common belief is that appealing websites are essentially the best websites. They build mockups with “lorem ipsum” where future text content should be placed but only get back to doing it when the site’s design is complete. The written content is the last thing on web designers’ minds. This creates a situation where website owners end up with visually stunning projects full of poor writing. Outstanding graphics may hide the text but the reality is that poor copy still pops up on each page of the website.
But don’t jump to conclusions too quickly. This phenomenon happens not because they’re unprofessional, but because website owners are primarily focused on what they do best – visual design. That doesn’t fix the problem of weak copy which continues to affect the site’s traffic and other important metrics after its launch. If you want to reach out to someone other than just designers, you have to make sure that those visitors to your website who focus on text and writing understand your message. This requires proper copywriting.
Of course, web users can usually tell beautiful from ugly, but that happens on a largely intuitive level. What they notice is the way a particular website feels to them. They pay attention to whether it’s clunky or smooth, simple to navigate, or is just too confusing – the synthesis of these things structures their opinion about whether it is a good or bad website. And this, by the way, is what designers mean when they state that good web design is transparent. If your site visitors pay too much attention to its interface it may be because they despise it, as terrible as that may sound.
When it comes to copywriting for websites, the same metaphor applies. The reality is that most users understand reading and writing much better than design. When browsing websites, the average user perceives them through reading, instead of visual concepts, especially when looking for particular services or products. That is, they read through sales pitches and feature lists with much greater intent than appraising the web page’s visual elements. But, creating a high-quality copy makes a website with a great visual design valuable in all aspects and takes visitor attention off the graphic elements a bit and makes them focus more on what the site has to say about the things they are looking for.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
The point is that copywriting and design are two different aspects of the same entity. And they are pretty much inseparable. When users see a website, they don’t divide it into text and visual design. So, when you hire a web design company to create a site for you, it’s in your best interest to make sure that the team starts designing with a focus on a particular goal – the one you set at the beginning. Creating a site without a copy is like assembling a box without knowing what you’re going to put in it. Content comes before design. Without the former, the latter is just decoration. Unless you want your website to be nothing more than a decoration for your business, its design should reinforce your brand message, not the other way around.
The very first thing you should consider when your website is being created is your target audience. Who do you want to reach out to with your message? What do they already have in this particular area and why is your offer better? And, most importantly, why would your prospective customers not want to use your website, order the service, purchase the product, etc? What are the drawbacks and missing pieces? It’s important to always answer these questions yourself, even if you wholeheartedly trust your web design company and its team’s decisions.
Designing with both proper copywriting and the overall goal of the site in mind will always produce a unique website since your web design company will build it from scratch in visual terms and based on your primary message. It’s similar to solving a puzzle and making sure every piece is where it should be. The style, arrangement, and layout are critical pieces along with copywriting. And then, instead of trying to cram the writing into the ready-made design, the design company will always keep the things you want to say in mind and either design while the content is being written or at least design with space for the text always in consideration.
Keeping Content Central
When you are looking for a web design company, you should always make certain that the one you hire also deals with copywriting. Unless you have a copywriter of your own in your company, of course. Hiring an agency like Globalgraphicswebdesign.com that provides extensive website creation services will provide you with everything you need for your site in one place. Moreover, the agency’s team will be able to work in complex environments, as described above.
Now, there are various types of teams out there. Some can handle mixed tasks, while others have separate departments and tasks. While it’s preferable to hire a web design agency that has at least one professional copywriter, you may still want to consider mixed teams. They will always be able to carry on with the design, writing, and other tasks without dividing them between various departments.
The point is, anyway, your website’s text content matters just as much as its visual appearance. Since you will be reaching out to people, most of whom aren’t designers, you want them to understand you clearly, and this requires quality copywriting. Which brings us back to what we’ve already mentioned above – your site should always be built around your message, not the other way around.
Conclusion
The bottom line here is that you need a website that will convert. It requires the web design company you hire to work equally hard on its visual appearance and text content. It’s best to work closely with the agency. You can trust this cooperation with your marketing department, for example, and make sure everything is going smoothly and in the right direction. Don’t settle with a website that just looks pretty – in this day and age your potential customers are too sophisticated to be satisfied with a fine-looking company site – they want more. They need proof that whatever you want them to buy from you meets their needs and corresponds clearly to the claimed standards. This is where quality copywriting comes in – it’s an essential part of any web design process, so if you want your site to boost brand awareness, conversion rates, and ROI, you should never neglect it.
