The main goal of any web design strategy is to create a website that is going to both fulfill the client’s needs and look appealing to the target audience.

Of course, this cannot be achieved easily. Besides knowing how to create a stunning graphic skin of a site, a web designer has to know how to make it deliver a certain message, call to a certain action, and create a certain impression.

This means that a good designer has to be a good marketer and psychologist too. It is important to understand how people react to certain things and what can affect people in order to achieve the desired result.

Yet even good designers with years of experience sometimes forget the main marketing rule: the content matters a lot. Creating a stunning web design itself isn’t enough: you’ll need content too.

Sure, all the websites are filled with content later, when the design is finished. However, simply following that pace is not the best thing to do if you really want to make the most out of it. And here’s why.

1. Writing makes a website look complete

Let’s assume you’ve finished your design and want to present it to the client. Right now you have a well-designed web page consisting only of images. Your design can be very good and your images can be beautiful – yet there’s still a chance that it’ll look like something’s missing.

Moreover, even if you make an accent on an image intentionally, consensually refraining from adding some text later this still might not work as good as you hoped. Sure, there are some websites that work well with that kind of thing, usually because it does look unusual to the visitors. But many of these websites are related to art and design mostly.

An image itself is enough to impress a visitor and make them think about something. However, when you add some text to that image, you make the process much easier – and people actually appreciate that. If you want the audience to get your message, make sure that it will be clear enough (and that’s what the text is usually used for).

A good web designer has to ensure that the websites do deliver a message that is expected of it. If it doesn’t, this means that the design isn’t as successful as you thought. That’s why if you aren’t 100 percent sure that your message will be interpreted right, it’s always better to add some writing. This way you’ll also be able to enhance the impact you wanted to create.

This doesn’t mean that you have to write a lot, of course. Even a small sentence placed somewhere near the image is enough. It could guide the visitors in the right direction as well as make a certain nice accent to your design too.

2. Writing helps you demonstrate credibility

While there are different expectations held for websites of different kinds, there’s one common requirement for all of them: they have to look credible. It’s common sense, after all: you might want to sell something with the help of your website, you might want to promote something or to indulge people into a certain activity. But either way, you need them to trust you – and to do so, your website has to look reliable enough.

And, of course, it’s possible to create a website that looks solid and serious. The web designers are able to do so, choosing the right visual elements and arranging them in the right way. However, without a text added on top of that such website still won’t look complete.

Just like I’ve mentioned above, writing enhances the impact you want to create. Moreover, if the writing is good it can not only make a website look credible but engage the audience and give it the most necessary information as well.

It can be also achieved in a subtle way. There’s no need to write about how honest you are and brag about the high quality of your products. Such things could actually have the opposite effect on the audience: after all, a company’s reputation should speak for itself. However, the content still should inform the visitors about what they are going to get for their money and why should they choose this company’s products instead of many similar ones.

3. Writing catches attention

And so does good design, of course. However, if you had an opportunity to double an impact on website’s visitors, would you miss it?

People lose their focus easily these days. When there are so many websites and so many information around, it becomes hard to pay proper attention to anything new that you stumble upon. That’s why people usually don’t spend much time on new websites unless something did catch their attention. And that’s why you should do all you can to make people stay on a website a bit longer so they could get an actual understanding of company’s goals and on what a company has to offer them.

While images to grab the initial attention of a target audience, they aren’t strong enough to make them stay longer. It doesn’t take much time for our brains to analyze and understand an image. However, it doesn’t work like that with the content. When a person stumbles upon writing and it manages to catch their attention, they can stay on a website long enough. And the longer a person stays, the more likely they’ll make an order or at least return to this website.

If the content is catchy and attention grabbing, it can surprise, entertain, and even shock the visitors. Of course, it must be very well-written in order to achieve this result.

These are the three reasons the designers should use writing content in their web design. However, there’s one more important thing worth mentioning: the best way to do is to use actual written content instead of standard text templates.

Why using actual writing is so important?

There are a couple of reasons for that too. First, a website looks more professional this way. After all, finding a writer to deliver a good content for you or writing a content yourself does take time – however, it also shows that you’d thought of so many details.

Second, text templates don’t help you see the real picture. They can be cropped as much as you want, adjusted easily – and some designers do view it as a perk. However, while this could help you create a great and neat initial layout, this also could lead to some problems in the future.

After all, an actual text doesn’t behave this way. You may create a nice block only to find out that a text offered by a writer later doesn’t fit. Cutting some pieces of the text in order to adjust it to your design isn’t always a good idea too. Sometimes it might lead to a text becoming less effective than before.

That’s why it’s always better to work with an actual text right from the start.

• What does effective writing mean?

  Now you know why it’s important to include good writing content in your web design strategy. You also know why it is crucial to do so right from the start. But before you get to writing or start searching for a writer, let’s focus on the definition of effective writing.

  Effective writing doesn’t simply deliver the message you need. It also has to be written and formatted the right way. Probably the first thing you need to focus on is short text blocks that follow the images. The texts for these blocks have to be catchy and concise at the same time, with main points highlighted in bold or italics.

  The sentences shouldn’t be long too, otherwise, you might need to shorten them in the design process. The visitors should be able to scan them quickly and still be able to catch all the main points of the writing.

  Word choice also matters a lot. There’s no point in using complex language – and there are two reasons for that. First, it might fail to deliver the message. Second, it also might not fit.

  Being a web designer, you probably know that people like when things are simple and work the way they used to. This applies to the writing as well: making it simple to read and understand won’t make it less effective, but it will ensure that more people will finish reading the text.

• Where to find good writers?

  You are always able to come up with the writing yourself. However, it’s better to entrust this kind of work to the professional writers. This way you’ll have more time to focus on the design process. Moreover, you’ll be able to rest assured that the content will be catchy and written just the way your client would want it to.

  You can ask the client to find a writer for you. Maybe there are people who write for their company already or maybe the client has someone that they prefer to do all the writing. However, if the client isn’t able to do that, you can look for professional writers on various freelance platforms like Fiverr or Upwork.

  One of the best things about these platforms is that you are able to check the feedback the others give to writers. This way it’ll be easier for you to choose the best and the most experienced ones even if you didn’t place orders on such platforms before.

  You’ll also be able to choose writers who specialize in delivering the content for the web, which is also very important. Some writers focus on article writing mainly and so sometimes won’t be able to deliver the content you’re looking for: their texts might be good but too long, and their formatting might be off. That’s why it’s better to choose a writer who’s already familiar with that kind of work.

Wrapping this up, written content plays an important role in any web design strategy. It makes a website look more complete, increases the impact it has on the readers and allows you to reach your goals more effectively. Of course, coming up with this kind of content by yourself can be a challenging and a time-consuming thing to do. That’s why it’s always better to turn to professional writers for help.

However, if you decide to do so, make sure to specify your requirement well enough and not to overdo. After all, overwhelming your audience with textual content is also not a good thing to do. Remember that balance matters, try to keep it – and everything will be fine in the end.

I wish you good luck with finding the right writer for your and delivering an impressive web design strategy!