The Importance of Your Content vs. Your Design

When setting up a website – there are two main aspects you’ll want to concentrate on: your content and your design. Both of these things are important for different reasons and both should be given time and effort.

Many people would argue than one is more important than the other though – and for many people (copy writers and designers mainly) they spend their time convincing clients that one aspect deserves more time and investment than the other.

So what are the arguments for each case?

Arguments for web design

For many people, web design is the all-important first impression. Just like when you read a book – you judge it by it’s front cover, when you visit a website for the first time – you often judge it by it’s web design and the success of the design.

Of course, we all know that first impressions are important – and thus a lot of time and effort should be put into ensuring your customers and first-time visitors are getting a good first impression of your business and brand – and that they are getting the right impression too.

Believe it or not – web design does more than just frame your text and content. Web design (when executed properly) can actually communicate far more than you’d have originally thought. Web design is made up of several things; colour, layout, structure and images…. And all of these things say something about your business – and about your brand. A communication hat’s happening before the visitor has even started reading any content or text.

Colour is something powerful – and the right colour choice can communicate not only the type of service you offer or the type of product you sell – but also the kind of brand ethics you have too. Choose the wrong colour – and suddenly your customers and visitors are confused about what you’re offering or what niche you’re in.

Your layout is also powerful in this way – and can affect the way people find and locate your products. For example – great web design will showcase your products and services in a subtle but clear way. Bad web design will hide away these things – making it unclear and difficult to locate things.

Arguments for content

If investing in web design doesn’t have you convinced – then you’re probably swaying towards the content argument. Those who argue the value of content would argue that content not only communicates your brand voice – but good promotional copy and content can also sell your products and services too.

If you communicate your products and services properly – and successful explain them then people won’t need flashy web design – as the content will explain it all.

Content also has the added advantage of benefitting your SEO and Google rankings. Believe it or not – the more you upload fresh, original content onto your website – the more your rankings will begin to improve. Content also encourages new visitors to stay on site and read what you’ve written – meaning they become invested in you brand voice and opinions. Oh, not to mention – they’ll hopefully share your content on social sites! Meaning you get free publicity!

In conclusion

Both arguments are strong here – but I think to truly become successful online and to really boost your business online – you need to fully embrace both of these aspects and invest time and effort into both of them. A proper online strategy is one that embraces all aspects of online – and this is the only way to become a high-quality online presence.

About the Author!

This guest post was provided by Elle, who works with Who Is Hosting This – a website where you can compare online hosting plans. Great for businesses looking to strengthen their online presence.