What to figure out BEFORE your website designer starts (no, it’s not just web copy!)

You’ve decided it’s time for a new website. You find an incredible website designer, LOVE their work and happily invest £5k into getting the website your business deserves. Website budget: sorted. Website: sorted. Right?!

Well…not quite. Because one of the biggest misconceptions I see around investing in website design is assuming that investment covers everything you need to create a website that actually works (ahem…makes you £££££££!).

You’ve hired the website expert, after all. Surely they’ll figure out what needs to go where, what you need to say, how you should position yourself, how people will find you on Google, what will make them enquire…

But unless all of that is specifically included within your designer’s scope, it’s not automatically their responsibility.

And that can come as a bit of a shock when the project starts and suddenly you’re being asked for your sitemap, your SEO keywords, your final copy…and you realise there’s a whole lot of strategic thinking still to do (and you didn’t give yourself the time, energy, headspace or budget to work it all out!).

This isn’t me diminishing website designers, by the way! Quite the opposite. I work with some INCREDIBLE ones. But positioning, messaging, conversion strategy, SEO strategy and copy? They’re not automatically included because you’ve invested in website design.

And this distinction really matters.

Because you can spend £5k on incredible design, but if nobody has taken responsibility for the strategy behind it, you could still end up with a beautiful website that doesn’t resonate with the right people, doesn’t get found, confuses visitors or simply…doesn’t generate enquiries.

So before you assume your website investment is all wrapped up, here are the things that need to be figured out — and budgeted for — before your designer can truly do what they do best.

Your messaging

What does your ideal client actually need to hear to feel instantly heard, understood and in sync with what you do? Your messaging is bigger than the individual words you put on your website.

Think of your core message as the ONE THING you really want to communicate. No, you’re not going to literally repeat the same sentence 1000 times across your website. But there should be an overarching idea that everything comes back to.

Then you have your supporting messages: the ideas, beliefs, differentiators and proof points that help reinforce it.

When someone spends five minutes on your website, what do you want them to walk away knowing about you? What do you need them to understand about your approach? What do they need to believe before they’ll feel ready to invest?

Your core messages — and the supporting messages around them — need to be clear before you jump into your site design.

Most website designers expect you to be clear on this.

Your positioning

Next up: how are you positioning yourself? This is the thing that gives you your (leading) place in your industry.

It’s what you’re known for. The reason someone should choose you over the other very talented person they’ve got open in another tab. And it’s also about communicating at a certain level.

If you want to attract a more premium client, for example, changing your fonts and making everything look more expensive isn’t going to do that alone.

Your positioning needs to communicate that level too. What are you actually an expert in? Where do you sit within your market What makes your approach different? What do you want to be the obvious choice for?

Your website design can absolutely reinforce your positioning. But to be able to do that, you need to feel confident in what that positioning actually is (and you need to be able to communicate that to your designer).

This is often one of the most important things you can get clear on if you want to uplevel your business and reach a more premium audience.

Your user journey

Where does someone land? Where do you want them to go next? What do they need to know, believe + understand along the way?

Your website isn’t a collection of pages. It’s a journey towards a decision. And that journey probably isn’t as simple as: Homepage → About → Services → Contact → DING DONG, new enquiry.

Someone might land directly on a service page through Google. They might read three portfolio pieces before they even look at your About page. They might be a warm referral who already knows they want to work with you and simply needs reassurance that you’re the real deal.

Your job is to think about what each of those people needs and make it easy for them to move through your website.

Website designers are incredible at designing intuitive user experiences. But the best website designers KNOW that copy is a HUGE MAHOOSIVE part of informing that journey.

What we say, where we say it, what comes next and where we send someone all influence how the website needs to be designed.

This is why your website designer asks for your copy BEFORE they design. Strategic website copy is created to flow with — and inform — the user journey.

Your conversion strategy

Conversion strategy is not sticking an ENQUIRE NOW button every few scrolls and calling it a day.

It’s thinking through that user journey and anticipating the key conversion — or lose ’em —points along the way.

What could STOP someone enquiring? Where might doubt creep in? Where do you need proof to back up what you’re saying? You might have an incredible testimonial, but what’s the specific detail inside it that matters at this particular point? Is now actually the right time to introduce your offer? Do they need more technical information first? What’s the real CTA we need here to drive action? Maybe it is Enquire Now. Maybe it’s Explore the Service. Maybe the most useful next step is reading a case study that proves you can get the result you’ve just promised.

That’s conversion strategy. You’re not forcing people towards a button. You’re anticipating what they need next and making that next step incredibly easy.

Your website designer should receive copy that has considered all of this BEFORE they’ve designed a single element.

Your SEO

Your website designer might include foundational SEO as part of your build, and that’s truly GREAT.

But there’s strategy behind what you optimise for. And ultimately, making those decisions strategically is what’s going to get you results rather than ranking on page four for an obscure term that three people search for on average every month.

Before you start adding keywords, you need to understand: What are your ideal clients actually searching for? Which searches have commercial intent? Where are the real opportunities? How competitive are those opportunities? Which page should target what?

And how does all of that fit with the wider goals of your website and business?

Because SEO isn’t about sprinkling keywords into some copy, filling out your title tags and hoping Google does the rest.

It’s understanding the goals driving everything, looking at the data behind your keyword choices + using that information to make strategic decisions. And ideally, that happens before the website is built (before the copy is written!).

Your SEO strategy might influence your website structure. It might show you that you need a dedicated page for a service rather than bundling everything together. It could change how you talk about an offer. It even could uncover an opportunity you hadn’t even realised your ideal clients were actively searching for.

SEO shouldn’t be something you suddenly remember when your website designer asks for your meta descriptions the day before launch.

And only THEN…your website copy

Okay, stating the obvious here: Your website designer is not your copywriter. You know that already.

And while they can absolutely advise you — some have brilliant guides, templates and prompts — it’s ultimately your responsibility to hand over copy that’s going to work, unless professional copywriting is included within the service you’ve invested in.

But there’s a reason I’ve put copy on this LAST point.

Only NOW do you create your copy. Because your copy needs everything we’ve already talked about — positioning, messaging, customer journey, conversion strategy and SEO — to give it revenue-generating potential.

Then come the words. Headlines. Bios. Stories. Proof. Personality. Calls to action. The lot. And yes, those words need to be very, very good. But pretty words alone aren’t going to do the job.

Great website copy has a strategy telling every word what job it needs to do.

Writing website copy yourself because the budget doesn’t stretch to done-for-you support?

I get it. But that doesn’t mean you need to skip the strategic thinking.

My website copy template is the next best thing: guiding you through the foundations first, then page-by-page through writing copy that has a clear purpose, structure + strategy behind it.

Take a look here

The expensive bit nobody talks about

Here’s where this really matters: You can invest £5k in incredible website design and still end up with a website that doesn’t work.

• If your positioning isn’t clear, the design can’t fix it.
• If your messaging doesn’t resonate, making it look beautiful won’t make people care.
• If your copy confuses people, they’ll still leave.
• If there’s no conversion strategy, people won’t know where to go next.

And if you haven’t thought strategically about SEO, that gorgeous new website might not get found by the right people in the first place.

Your design isn’t the problem. Your website designer hasn’t done anything wrong.

The problem is investing £5k in bringing a strategy to life that…doesn’t actually exist. And I’ve seen this happen time and time again. I’ve even experienced it msyelf as a website copywriter who hired an amazing designer, wrote amazing copy…yet didn’t do the deeper work (watch my video on this here!).

A brilliant designer. Good copy. A big investment. Lots of work. But NOBODY stepping far enough back and asking:

How is this ENTIRE website actually going to work together to generate revenue?

So before you invest thousands in your next website, don’t rush the thinking that gives that investment its best chance of paying you back.

• Figure out your positioning.
• Get clear on your messaging.
• Map the journey.
• Think about conversion.
• Understand the SEO opportunities.
• Then write the copy.

And give your website designer something solid to bring to life.

Because your designer can absolutely LIVE and BREATHE their brilliance when you come to them not only “prepared”, but invested in the BIG revenue-generating strategic picture.

That’s how you stop building a website in separate little vacuums. And start building one CONNECTED website where strategy, copy, SEO and design are all working towards the same goal. A website that doesn’t just look the part. It actually earns its keep.

Want someone to take responsibility for the whole picture?

That’s exactly what The EVERYTHING Experience is built for. You do not have to figure out all this alone (and as a side note: your website designer will LOVE you for it!).

My signature done-for-you website experience brings strategy, positioning, messaging, customer journey, SEO and copy together before your designer brings it all to life.

This is for founders who are DONE investing in surface-level shiny things…like a new website that looks better/ amazing/ beautiful. That’s just vanity that doesn’t pay…and my clients loveeee real money-making strategy. You’re investing in a website with the potential to become one of the biggest revenue generators in your business.

Website copywriting services, with website strategy always included

Dive into the EVERYTHING Experience here, and see what it’s all about.