Ok, so you’ve signed up for your first website, written whatever deposit check was required and you’re ready for your developer to get to work for you. But wait: what’s this? There’s more you have to do before the marketing group can get started? Indeed there is.

At some point during the early stages of your discussions with your web team the topic of content should have come up and a checklist should have been created noting the pages that will make up your website. From this list, your web developers will make you aware of what material you will need to provide so that when they begin building your site they can place actual content into it.

The reason why developers typically ask their clients to write content for the website is that for all the research into your particular industry that they might do, they won’t be able to speak with your voice. The language you use to talk about what you do—the types of emotions you want to invoke are as much a part of your brand as your logo. While typos, keyword seeding and other structural and grammatical things are typically handled by your developers, the first draft of the content should always be written by your company.

That being said, there are some essential things to realize when you’re writing for the web that may differ from when you’re writing for other media: (more…)