Wanna hear my nerdy joke about a website designer, a copywriter, and an SEO strategist?
I’m going to assume you shouted an enthusiastic “YES!” at your screen.
OK, here it is. *Clears throat.*
A website designer, a copywriter, and an SEO strategist walk into a bar.
The bartender asks, “Whaddya having?”
Frowning, the designer says, “I’ve got some ideas. But I’ll order once I’ve seen what the others are drinking.”
The bartender sticks an empty glass on the bar to hold their place.
The copywriter pipes up. “I’ll have a beer please.” But they quickly turn to the SEO strategist and ask under their breath, “Should I have said ‘cold one,’ ‘pint,’ ‘brewski,’ or ‘ale’ instead in this part of the world?”
Thinking this over, the SEO decides. “Beer is fine,” they say. “But you’ll get a better result if you specify whether you want it in a glass, a bottle, or a can.”
Nodding, the copywriter orders 3 bottles of beer.
And the bartender is left thinking, Wow. That was a lot just to order 3 bottles of beer.
Cue laughter.
OK, I’ll admit it’s not a side-splittingly funny joke. But hopefully it raised a smile, and got you thinking about the close working relationship between these 3 characters and the role they play in your business’s:
- website creation and development
- growth and sales.
For most of us with small, owner-operated businesses, our websites are at the heart of our marketing. All roads lead back to it (socials, blogs, guest links, emails, ads, etc.) and we rely on it for conversions. Given its importance, the bartender’s parting thoughts aren’t insignificant.
But now let’s replace ‘beer’ with ‘website.’
There’s a lot of work involved in website creation. At times, business owners can find the process long-winded and overwhelming. But the advantage of having the trinity in your corner is that when a copywriter, website designer, and SEO strategist work together on a project, they each bring their own expertise and ideas.
The result? An epic website that works hard for your business.
The challenge is taking the plunge and hiring the 3 simultaneously.
Handing over a key part of your business can feel intimidating. That anxiety and fear can be laid to rest by better understanding each person’s role and what they bring to the table when creating your business website.
Get to know your 3-part power team
These role outlines are a quick overview of the main duties you can expect each professional to contribute to your business website. They’re not full job descriptions. And you may find that some designers, copywriters, and SEO strategists offer less or more than I’ve described.
You may also notice there can be some crossovers between the roles, which is a perfect excuse for a Venn diagram. (I can feel you’re as excited as I am.)
The responsibilities of a web designer
It’s the designer’s job to create a site that looks good but is also functional. It has to make sense from a user’s point of view. (The ‘user’ being your customer.) Here’s what usually sits with them.
Site layout and design. Using tools such as Photoshop, Balsamiq, or Figma, they create mock-ups of what the site will look like. These are called wireframes and are similar to a blueprint. They’re rough working documents that give you and the other creatives they’re collaborating with an idea of what the finished product will look like.
Brand asset creation and placement. This is what designers are probably most famous for: creating the logo and color palette and choosing the typefaces (fonts) for your business. (Assuming you don’t have these already.) In terms of your website, they’ll decide when and how these brand assets are used.
Creating a positive user experience (UX). From how the copy is laid out and spacing around images to CTA placement, the design plays a large part in creating a site that’s easy on the eye and logical in terms of how people should move through it.
Sourcing images. I should caveat this by saying that some designers do this, but not all designers. This task usually depends on your preference for original or stock images, and how many images you have. It’s usually up to the designer as to what images are placed where.
Basic design coding. Using CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, a designer will add code to your site to get it looking and functioning the way it should.
The role of the copywriter
Giving your business a voice, and communicating your messages clearly to your ideal audience so they feel compelled to act, is the copywriter’s job. Here’s what you can expect them to do for you.
Write all the words. From product and service descriptions to the microcopy on buttons and in the footer, any text that appears on your site should be written by (or at least checked over by) the copywriter. This keeps your tone and messaging consistent.
Clearly communicate messages. During an in-depth briefing session, a copywriter will want to know everything about your business, including how you do what you do and why—when compared to your competitors—you’re the better option. They’ll also ask a lot of questions about your target audience. Using this information, they’ll write clear, concise messages that give readers the information they’re looking for.
Convince people to convert. Using emotive and persuasive writing techniques, copywriters encourage people to buy, download, sign up, or click. Basically, they’re only ever really happy when they get conversions.
Develop and define tone of voice. Tone of voice work is capturing your business’ personality. It covers:
- word and language choices
- cadence
- structure
- text formatting (dates, abbreviations, numbers, capitalization, etc.)
Edit and proofread copy. Copy that’s free from errors is easier to read and considered more trustworthy. Most copywriters edit their own work and then sometimes hand it to an editor for a final polish.
Optimize copy. Writing metadata, including links, using keywords, and having an awareness of readability are all ways a digital copywriter will make sure their content is as friendly to search bots as it is to humans.
The duties of the SEO strategist
The internet is a big place. It’s your SEO strategist’s job to find ways to make sure your business website shows up in front of the right people, in the right place, at the right time. Here’s how they do it.
Run SEO audits. By assessing the health of a site, they can identify any challenges that might stop it from ranking (or not rank as highly as it should). They’ll then suggest fixes and, often, keep doing on-page optimization work for you. (Or collaborate with writers, designers, and developers to fix the issue.)
Set SEO goals and create a strategy. By understanding your business and the outcomes you want to achieve with your online marketing, they’ll suggest ambitious yet workable SEO goals for your website to aim for. Example of goals include:
- generating leads
- increasing conversions
- generating more website visits from organic traffic
- improving how long visitors stay on the site and interact with it.
They’ll then write and set about implementing what needs to happen to make those goals a reality and monitor the strategy’s effectiveness.
Identify new ranking opportunities. Usually this is done through keyword research and competitor analysis. They’ll find new ways for your business to rank, and attract the right groups of people to your business.
Content ideation and strategy. Content marketing and SEO go hand in hand. Once an opportunity is identified—usually a keyword or topic—they’ll suggest what content could be created and how you might start showing up for that term or topic. This could involve writing new blog posts, creating new product or service pages, sending out emails, or starting discussions and linking back to your site from social media.
Monitoring analytics and reporting. SEO strategies are working documents. Expect your strategist to constantly monitor Google Analytics and Search Console, and fine-tune the plan as needed to make sure the website keeps working towards the goals you want to achieve.
How website designers, copywriters, and SEO strategists work together
As the joke suggests, each role feeds into the others.
SEO strategists and designers collaborate on
- user experience
- site functionality
- increasing site visibility using design-relevant optimizations (accessibility, site speed, site maps).
Designers and copywriters collaborate by
- creating a unified visual and tone brand identity
- working out how to best communicate and present key messages and information
- ensuring the copy meets readability standards and is easy on the eye.
Copywriters and SEO strategists collaborate to
- create content that seizes on ranking opportunities
- increase site visibility using text-relevant optimizations (metadata, keywords, heading and subheadings, links).
[Image suggestion: Venn Diagram. See end of document for copy to take for this]
Because these 3 professions work together so harmoniously, digital marketing agencies will package them together. Freelancers in each discipline also regularly look for opportunities to team up, creating what we call a floating agency. In fact, this is what I do for some clients. I handle the SEO work, and outsource the copy and design to trusted colleagues.
Who should you hire first: the designer, copywriter, or SEO?
Being in a position to hire all 3 simultaneously is the ideal scenario. But I understand that isn’t always possible. Budget and project deadlines might restrict you. Hiring one before the others might be the only way to keep things moving. In this case, who should you hire first?
The answer to that question depends on your business: what you do, what you sell, and what your business aims are.
Let’s take a professional photographer as a first example. Having a good-looking site that showcases their portfolio to the max is going to serve them better than a lot of content. Naturally, investing in design is the right place to start.
It’s a different case for a New York City-based cleaning company, where competition to win jobs and contracts is high. In this scenario, getting an aggressive SEO strategy in place to get noticed and bring in leads will be more beneficial.
The story is different again for, say, a business coach. They need to build trust with the people who visit their site. They need to start building a rapport from the start and provide key information about who they are, how they help, and the services they offer. For them, starting with copywriting makes more sense.
The downsides to hiring one over the others
- A poorly designed site that confuses visitors.
- Blocks of text or hard-to-read copy that overwhelms the reader.
- A site that doesn’t rank or show up in search results.
- A site that doesn’t clearly communicate what the business does or is about.
- A site that doesn’t convert.
None of these are ideal.
But what you should note—and what I want you to know—is that none of these are irreversible.
That’s the beauty of digital. So if you really do have to prioritize one skill over the other 2, know that you can always go back.
You just need to budget in time to redo parts of your site.
Wondering where to start?
Getting a handle on your digital marketing can feel overwhelming at times.
And of all the plates that need to be kept spinning, it’s often the first one business owners are happy to drop.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Get more out of your digital marketing with one takeaway each week.
No fluff—guaranteed. Sign up to my emails today.
