Should You Do Website Copy Before Website Design?
When starting out, it can be tough to know where to invest your money first. It can end up being a chicken or egg situation: Do the words on your website need to come first? Or does the design inform what the words need to be?
I’m here to let you in on all the best practices, but I need to rewind a few steps before I answer this.
What needs to come before BOTH website design and copywriting is BRAND strategy.
In my opinion, this is the order you should build your web presence:
Brand Strategy
Website Strategy
Website Copy
Website Design
#1 BRAND STRATEGY
Do you know your brand values? Your purpose and positioning? Do you understand the fundamental messages of your brand?
Clarity is KEY before you even touch the visual side of how your business is showing up online. You can do this yourself or (I recommend) explore it with a brand designer and strategist. That way, you can feel confident and CLEAR about the foundations of your brand.
You’ve got better things to do than fumble around thinking about your brand messaging and target audience halfway through building your website—let’s get this done first!
Ok, is your brand strategy done? Let’s get website-ing!
After having experimented various ways with clients, I’ve come to the conclusion that the BEST and most EFFECTIVE way is: Website Strategy FIRST followed by COPYWRITING, then WEBSITE DESIGN.
#2 Website Strategy
Web strategy takes your brand strategy and applies it to the outline and structure of the site. This will direct what kind of pages you have and the overall purpose of your site. Are you trying to enrol people in your online programme? Or showcasing your interior design portfolio for new clients? Your website strategist and/or developer will understand how best to place all these parts together.
Then, in my experience, it is the perfect time to brief your copywriter (or to start writing yourself!)
#3 WEBSITE COPY
If website strategy is the foundation, copywriting is building the house. When visitors come over, they know exactly what room is for what—very important.
You might think that once you build a site, you can just add copy later.
I’ve seen this happen many times where people will start designing and building a website before they even know what kind of copy they want on their site or how many pages there will eventually be.
Continuing with our house metaphor, you don’t tile the floor before the walls are up. The size of the room (aka length of copy) and the type of room (purpose of copy for that page) will determine the design elements incorporated.
Luckily, you already have the structure of your site (see above), so you can brief your copywriter on exactly what messaging they need to hit. This means no wasting time on redundant copy and clear, concise, powerful messaging!
#4 DESIGN
When designing your website, you'll have all the information you need to start creating tailored webpages. From your brand strategy and expert copywriting, you'll now have insights into how visitors interact with content on different pages (such as which types of calls-to-action they respond best to). You'll also know what information is most relevant or important based on their behaviour as they browse the site.
If you’d rushed the design, you (probably) wouldn’t know all of the important stuff that makes your customers want to connect with you.
Remember: What you like the most might not be what your target market responds to the best. Strategy is important.
Let me know if you still have any questions, and if you're stuck with brand strategy, website design and copywriting, you are always more than welcome to grab a free virtual coffee with me, and we can chat about your business and creative website ideas!
Slide in my DMs @arohavisuals or reach out to me here.
