The short version
A brand strategist decides what the business should be known for. A web designer decides how the website looks and works. When the first question has already been answered well, a good web designer is all a business needs. When it has not, a new website will look better without being any easier to choose.
Why the order matters
Visitors make up their minds quickly. Jakob Nielsen’s research at the Nielsen Norman Group found that users often leave web pages within 10 to 20 seconds, and that a page has to communicate its value clearly within about 10 seconds to hold attention. That puts the message ahead of everything else on the page.
Design still matters. When the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab studied how people judged a website’s credibility, the design look of the site was the factor mentioned most often. People use what they see as a shortcut for what they cannot check. A good design makes a clear message believable. It cannot supply the message.
Signs you need a strategist first
It is common for an established business to commission a new website when the real problem is the position underneath it. These signs usually point to strategy:
- New clients regularly misunderstand what the business does, or ask for work it does not want.
- Buyers see the business as smaller or more local than it is.
- Competitors describe themselves in almost the same words.
- The team describes the business differently depending on who is asked.
- The business is moving into new markets or larger clients.
Signs a web designer is enough
A web project on its own is the right call when the message is already clear and consistent, and the website is simply out of date: slow, hard to update, poor on a phone or missing recent work. In that case, a skilled web designer working from the existing position will deliver the improvement the business needs.
When you need both
Many projects need both, in sequence. The strategy agrees the position and the key messages, and the website is designed and written from them. Zelexis handles both stages, which keeps the website and the position aligned, but the order is what matters most, whoever does the work.
A useful next step
Something to try this week.
Show your website’s home page to someone who does not know your business for ten seconds, then close it and ask what you do, who you do it for and why someone would choose you. If they cannot answer all three, start with the position. If they can, the website itself is the problem.