BIROCO WEB DESIGN -=|=- How to stand head-and-shoulders above the rest on the web

Good copy has an emotional impact

Many business websites are written in a stultifying mixture of corporate-speak and dull empty sentences. Take this example from the web designers to the UK Labour Party and the National Union of Journalists, Netefficiency, who have an unbelievably bland and amateur-looking site given such high-profile clients:

Founded by communication professionals, we take the technology strain so that you can focus on what you know best – shaping and delivering your message. Our content management systems give our clients full control over the content of their own sites without having to incur ongoing costs.

And there are thousands upon thousands of websites spouting the same kind of leaden prose.

There's little point having a fabulous-looking website if the content doesn't also sparkle. That's why BIROCO WEB DESIGN regards attention to copywriting and editorial as every bit as much a part of the design process as layout, colour scheme, and javascript.

Almost any piece of writing can be improved by a professional editor. Some people believe that a 'corporate' website has to present itself in a 'corporate' way, and imagine that suits have to write this way. However, this is just habit and routine, if you present your message in an altogether more vibrant manner no-one will say 'Sorry, that isn't boring enough for me to take seriously.' On the contrary, they'll be taken outside of the badly-written reports on their desk and sit up and take note. They'll actually begin to listen, rather than just switch off.

It may be that the copy you plan to present on your new website is excellent already, but if it isn't, and you suspect it could do with a bit of sprucing up, we can re-think it for you and re-write it. Well, I can. That's what I do as well as web design. Let the full scope of the service being offered here settle like a mellow feeling on a wet afternoon, when the world suddenly seems alive with previously unconsidered possibilities and you realise that evocative images seize the mind, as opposed to the kind of writing you find in soporific reports. Leave report prose style to the reports, you're talking about a website now, and that really has to shine.

It's not so hard to stand head-and-shoulders above the rest on the web, with the right design help. But the content, the way it's written, matters too. Oh, and a fairly healthy concision is useful, lots of repetitive and verbose pages are nowhere near as effective as a few that are focused and to the point.

At the current pace of expansion of the web a business or endeavour without a website can lack credibility. A website creates an impression for you, it tells the world how reliable and professional you are, or not, as the case may be. And it is certainly true that a web design agency's own website, and your gut reaction to it, is the best clue you could ever want to tell you what to expect should you hire them.