Website Content - It's Your Responsibility

You're setting up your business and you need a professional website. If this is your first time working with a web designer you probably don't know what to expect from the process.

Before your web designer can commence work on your new site, you'll need to provide some information first. As the paying customer, it is in your interest to know what your responsibilities are before work begins, otherwise you may end up paying for work you don't use. By providing this information in advance your designer will be able to work more efficiently and you'll get your website sooner.

Website Content:

By far, the element most likely to hamper your website development schedule, cost and goodwill is the provision of web content. It often comes as a shock to customers to find that they have to provide written text and sometimes images or other media for their website. Many think the content will be provided as part of the website production, but this is seldom the case.

If you think about this it'll make sense. You are the expert for your chosen profession. You have all the knowledge you require to convince your website visitors that you are the authority in what you do. Your web designer will not have the wealth of knowledge and experience that you have in your field, so how could they hope to convey what is so great about your particular business offer in written word? They can't so it's up to you to tell the world why they should choose your service or product.

You're web designer will require basic content relating to your services, contact information, company history and goals (About us) and more. Writing for the web is different to writing for print media, so your web service provider will usually offer advice on formatting the text content so that it is suitable for online consumption, but it will be up you (or your copywriter) to actually write the text.

While it may not be necessary to provide all text content up-front, it is best to supply as much as possible. A good web designer will read your text in an effort to understand your industry better, which will in turn help with their ideas for designing your website.

Often a website will be delivered late because the web designer is not supplied with content by the client. This can lead to a strain in the relationship between client and designer. Often the client feels they are being badgered for the text, and the designer becomes frustrated at having to chase the client for the content. This can impact on the project schedule, quality of the finished website, price and goodwill between both parties.

Even a rough draft of content for each web page can be used, enabling your designer to plough on with the project and meet the deadline agreed by you both. If necessary the draft text can be updated later, either by your designer or yourself. Many web design packages come with a content management system like those provided by businesses like Kerry website design. Avoid this one issue with website content and your web development project is more likely to be a success.