This is something that has always both frustrated and baffled me.  I see companies all the time that are willing spend big bucks to have their online corporate identity overhauled; including logos, web template designs, content management solutions, etc.  Yet these same companies cringe at spending money on having a professional copywriter do their site’s content.

Copy is as important as the other two parts to a site (design and code).  It delivers the message to the potential client and it optimizes your site for the search engines.  People don’t understand how valuable solid copy is with regards to search.  Natural search (results displayed on the left of a search results page) are FREE ADVERTISING.  That’s right, you pay nothing for that.  There are obviously many more factors that go into search results (which I will talk about in another article) but content is a major one.

What ends up happening time and time again is that the site is designed, partially coded and then we (the coder, designer, and the client) wait for weeks or months for the client to get the copy to us.  This grinds the entire project to a halt.

There are basically two options in my experience.  One, have all copy written before you start redesigning and programming a new site.  Two, hire some one like my friends at www.homerowed.com to do your site’s copy.

To sum up just understand that content is just as important as the design and programming.  If you don’t have content written for your new site, either write it ahead of time or budget for and hire a professional.