Imagine you've just received a design proposal from your web designer. You're excited because it looks great. But as you start entering your own content into the site, you notice that nothing quite fits. When you swap out the hero images for your own, it becomes painfully clear that you need new photographs taken by a professional. Similarly, when you go to add team members' details, you discover that the designated spot only accommodates four entries — but your team has eight people. And on the homepage, where you wanted to introduce your association, there's only room for two sentences, not the two short paragraphs you had in mind.
This is one of the most common and costly mistakes in website redesigns.
It's entirely understandable that once you've hired a designer, you want to see results as quickly as possible. Following the stages of visual design feels like concrete progress, while content production can feel like extra work on your own calendar. But focusing on content from the very beginning of the project helps clarify what you actually want to say, what has changed since the previous site, and what matters most. The design process then shifts from guesswork to genuine collaboration.
A website redesign should begin by mapping out the desired structure of the site: what pages are needed, what they aim to achieve or what need they address, what content they will specifically contain, and which are top-level pages and which are subpages. The content of individual pages should be thought through carefully, accounting for even small pieces of information such as dates, introductions, and profile photos. You should also consider what content you may want to highlight or feature elsewhere on the site. This is not, however, a step you need to take alone — your web designer should be involved at this stage.
When all the content has been thought through and planned first, it makes the visual design easier and more efficient. If the process is reversed, the project ends with content being cut because it doesn't fit the design. If the content is still to be included, the visual design has to be revised and that almost always means extra work and extra cost.
That's why it's worth asking, even when looking for a developer, how the project will proceed — and choosing someone who takes content into account before visual design. The result is then not a compromise, but a website that truly serves you, your content, and your visitors.