Most people can appreciate the time and energy that goes into crafting a unique, effective website design. Companies and organizations spend good money for quality design that says a lot about their brand and what they stand for.

On the other hand, words and copy that bring a website to life are often an afterthought. Web copy has become a tool to manipulate search engines rather than speak to people in an authentic, persuasive tone.

Making design your first priority is putting the cart before the horse in my opinion. Hours should be spent crafting the right copy for your site before starting on the first mockup. This ensures the best possible chance at success when the designs are created because if it's well done, it makes the copy really pop. When copy pops, so does your ROI.

I spend a good portion of my time working on copy for some of our sites and have come up with a guideline. At least 50% of the time you spend designing the website should be spent creating and refining copy. On average we spend at least 40 hours designing a website, so that means the minimum amount of time spent on copy should be 20 hours. If the site has more than 15 or so pages of static content, the percentage should be even higher.

Just like a quality website design takes time and multiple iterations to get perfect, so does your copy. Your first or second draft should never make it anywhere close to a finished web page. By using the 50% rule you will be a great deal closer to a final design you are thrilled with, and results that you are even MORE thrilled with.