Websites are an integral part of running a business or an institution in today’s world. And when it comes to launching your website, content and design should seamlessly blend together to form a perfect union. Cluttered content can kill the best design and conversely, impressive content can’t hide the glitches of a poorly designed site either. This brings us to an important question – which should come first, design or content? If you are well-versed in technology you might be able to design the site yourself and get content written to fit your requirements. On the other hand, if you can write captivating content you might get a site designed around it.

Trends suggest that most businesses make the mistake of getting the site designed first and then asking writers to fill in the spaces. This isn’t ideal as it often restricts the content writers who merely fit in. Ideally, you should invest the same effort and time on design and content and work on a strategy where they are developed side by side. Even if you work with two different agencies, opening up a channel of communication between them does help. Ignoring this can lead to great trouble and here we take a look at two common problems businesses face when content writers and designers work in isolation.

# There Are Chances of Mismatch
Your website needs to follow a strategic approach and there should be no room for assumptions. If designers don’t have a clear idea about your content strategy, they often end up working on something that might go against your goals. For instance, they may work on a parallax scrolling site when you actually want to create an informative site with tons of content. A designer can suggest you the best strategy only when he/she is aware of your content strategy. Similarly, a content writer who has prepared the first draft for the site can easily communicate it to the designer and this allows the designers to work on a design that is tailored to the last pixel based on your needs.

# Working in Silos Increases Cost
Between design and content, designing would surely cost you more as it involves more time and effort than writing content as it’s intricate. A good design agency will improvise upon its skills and creativity. Now when they don’t work in tandem with the content team, designers may end up creating a big website even going beyond your actual needs such as putting additional pages or leaving long scrolls. In such a case your content team will have to do a catching up job and merely fill empty spaces instead of writing crisp and terse content. On the other hand, if you ask designers to create a site around a final draft of the content it can increase their complexity and restrict creative options. In both of these cases, you end up paying more for work which may not be worth the money.

To sum up, if you plan to build an inspiring website that engages the users and helps to meet your end goals make sure you work on design and content simultaneously.