How to supply content to your web designer

At a certain point in the project we'll ask you to send through your content. All the text, images, and any other media that's going on the site.

How that content is put together matters more than most people expect. A well-organised content document means we can get straight into building. A messy one means a lot of back and forth, and the project drags on while we work out what goes where.

Organising your content

Separate your pages clearly

Start each website page on a new document page, or put each one in its own file. When everything runs together in one long document, we end up guessing where one page ends and another begins, and things end up in the wrong place.

Use headings properly

Headings define the structure of your page. Search engines use them to understand the page, screen readers use them for navigation, and we use them to build the layout. They matter more than most people realise.

On the web, headings follow a numbered hierarchy: H1 for the page title, H2 for major sections, H3 for sub-sections. In Google Docs, Word, or Pages, these map to the built-in heading styles. "Heading 1" is your H1, "Heading 2" is your H2, and so on. Using the built-in styles rather than just making text bigger and bolder means the structure carries through properly when we build the site.

Keep the order consistent and don't skip levels. If you're not sure, ask before you start writing, because heading structure is much easier to set up correctly from the beginning than to fix later.

Finalise before you send

Changing a sentence in a document takes a few seconds. Rebuilding part of a website takes considerably longer. Small wording tweaks after the build are usually fine, but adding new pages or restructuring sections after we've already built them is a different story and likely out of scope.

Get your content signed off before you send it through.

Writing and formatting

Keep the formatting clean

Use the same heading styles throughout. Same body text formatting. Same list formatting. Pick one colour for content and a different one for notes or instructions to us (dark text for content, light blue for notes works well). That's all you need. Deciphering inconsistent formatting through a 30-page document slows everything down.

Write descriptive link text

Avoid "click here" or "read more" as link text. Write something that describes where the link goes. "View our pricing plans" works. "Click here" doesn't, particularly for people using screen readers who navigate pages by jumping between links.

If you're underlining text to indicate a link, tell us where it should point. We regularly receive documents full of underlined text with no indication of what each link is supposed to go to. Underline the text, then add a note immediately after it with the destination.

Describe complex elements plainly

Your job is the content. Our job is the layout and design. We'll take what you give us and arrange it in the way that works best for the page. Trust us on that.

There will be times you need something specific, like a dropdown, an expandable section, or a particular interaction. In those cases, just describe what it should do or link to an example on another site. Trying to mock things up in Word usually creates more confusion than it solves. Tell us what you want in plain language and we'll work out how to build it.

Images and media

Name your files sensibly

Rename your image files before sending them. sydney-office-team.jpg tells us what the image shows and helps search engines understand it too. homepage-hero.jpg only tells us where it goes, not what's in it. IMG_3847.jpg tells us nothing at all.

Use a few descriptive words separated by hyphens. Match the file name to what the image actually shows. Three to five words is plenty. Avoid keyword stuffing though: web-design-sydney-agency-services-team.jpg is just spammy and helps no one.

Mark up where each image goes in your content document. A note like [Image: sydney-office-team.jpg] placed where you want it to appear makes it straightforward for us to match images to their place on the page.

Send images separately

Don't paste images into your content document. Word compresses them automatically, so the version we get is lower quality than what you started with, and we'll need to ask for the originals anyway.

Put images in a shared folder through Dropbox, Google Drive, or whatever you already use, and send us the link. Name the files to match what you've referenced in the document so we can pair them up.

Include alt text

Alt text describes what's in an image for people who can't see it. Screen readers read it aloud. Search engines use it to understand the image content.

Good alt text is specific. "Four people standing outside the Acme Corporation head office in Sydney" tells you what the image shows. "Team photo" doesn't. "Photo" or the file name is worse still. Don't start with "image of" or "picture of" either, because screen readers already announce that it's an image.

Put the most important information first and keep it under 125 characters if you can. If the image is purely decorative and adds no information, tell us and we'll handle it so screen readers skip over it.

Don't host your own video

If your site needs video, host it on YouTube or Vimeo and send us the link. Self-hosted video loads slowly, chews through bandwidth, and causes playback problems across different devices. The video platforms handle all of that, and their embeds work reliably everywhere.

Before you start

If you're unsure about anything in here, ask before you start writing. A quick question at the beginning saves a lot of reformatting later. We're happy to walk you through it.