I’ve spent thirty years watching “experts” try to sell people on complex, multi-stage design workflows that involve more meetings than actual work. They’ll tell you that you need a brand strategist, a UI specialist, and a month of discovery sessions just to get a landing page off the ground. It’s all a smoke screen to inflate the invoice. The truth is much simpler, though it goes against every sales pitch you’ll hear: you need to figure out how to write content before you design anything. If you start playing with colors and fonts before you know what you’re actually saying, you aren’t building a website; you’re just painting a fence around a house that hasn’t been built yet.
I’m not here to sell you a premium subscription to a design suite or a masterclass in aesthetics. My goal is to show you how to do this the methodical way—the way I’ve done it since my first site back in ’97. I’m going to walk you through a straightforward process for getting your thoughts onto paper so that when you finally do sit down to pick a template, the work is already halfway done. No fluff, no expensive upsells, just a clear path to getting your message online in a single afternoon.
The Copywriting for Web Design Truth Bomb
Here is the truth: most people treat web design like picking out wallpaper for a house that hasn’t even been framed yet. They spend weeks agonising over hex codes and button gradients, only to realize later that they have no idea what they’re actually trying to say. This is where the industry tries to sell you “premium design packages” to fix a problem that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. In reality, designing around content isn’t some high-level agency secret; it’s just common sense.
If you start with a blank canvas and a fancy template, you aren’t building a tool; you’re building a shell. I’ve seen it dozens of times over the years—people end up with beautiful, empty boxes that force them to use “Lorem Ipsum” filler. Once you finally sit down to write the actual text, you realize the layout doesn’t fit, and suddenly you’re paying someone else to “re-optimize” the site. By following basic content-first design principles, you ensure the structure actually serves the message, rather than the message being squeezed into a pre-made box.
Designing Around Content Is the Only Way Forward
I’ve seen it a hundred times: a designer hands you a sleek, minimalist layout with beautiful typography, only for you to realize your actual message won’t fit in those tiny little boxes. They build a gorgeous digital sculpture, but you’re left trying to squeeze a gallon of information into a pint glass. This is why designing around content isn’t just a preference; it’s the only way to avoid a structural nightmare. If you don’t know what you’re saying, you can’t possibly know how much space you need to say it.
When you follow proper content-first design principles, the layout becomes a servant to the message, not the other way around. You start with the information architecture planning—deciding what matters most—and let the visual hierarchy follow that logic. It’s much like my astrophotography; I don’t pick a pretty filter and then hope a star appears. I find the target first, then I adjust the settings to capture it. Do the same with your site. Map out your words, then let the design build the house they actually live in.
Five ways to stop building a digital house with no furniture
- Write for humans, not for robots or your ego. I’ve seen too many people try to sound “professional” by using ten-dollar words that mean nothing. If a teenager can’t understand what you do after reading your homepage, you’ve failed. Keep it plain.
- Map your pages before you open a design tool. Grab a notepad—not a fancy app—and sketch out what actually needs to be on each page. If you don’t know if you need a contact form or a gallery, you aren’t ready to pick a colour scheme.
- Respect the hierarchy of information. Your most important point shouldn’t be buried under a mountain of fluff. Decide what the one thing you want a visitor to do is, and write that clearly. The design’s job is to point at that text, not compete with it.
- Don’t let “placeholder text” become your permanent resident. I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve seen still running on Lorem Ipsum months after launch. It’s a trap. If you don’t have the real words, you don’t have a website; you have a template.
- Treat your text like the structural blueprint. In my engineering days, we didn’t decide where the windows went before we knew the load-bearing walls. Your words are the walls. The design is just the paint and the curtains.
The bottom line
Stop playing with fonts and colors until you actually know what you’re trying to say; otherwise, you’re just building a fancy shell for nothing.
Content isn’t something you “add” to a website later—it is the very foundation that dictates how the site needs to function and look.
If you start with a template and try to squeeze your words into it, you’ll end up with a site that feels cramped, awkward, and ultimately useless.
The bottom line
At the end of the day, it’s quite simple. If you try to build a site by picking out colours and fonts before you’ve even decided what you’re trying to say, you’re just building a house without a floor plan. You’ll end up with a beautiful, expensive shell that has absolutely no room for the actual furniture. By getting your words down on paper first, you ensure the design serves the message, rather than the other way around. Remember: content dictates the layout, not the other way around. Don’t let a designer—or a flashy template—trick you into thinking that aesthetic matters more than substance.
I’ve seen enough iterations of the web since ’97 to know that the tools will always change, but the logic remains the same. You don’t need a massive budget or a team of specialists to get something decent live; you just need a clear head and a bit of discipline. Stop chasing the latest design trends and start focusing on the core of why you’re even doing this in the first place. Once you have your text ready, the rest is just technical housekeeping. Get your words right, find a decent host, and get on with it.
