Websites are not just collections of colorful pages for entertaining users. The majority of users visit a website for a specific purpose and a professional website designer understands this thoroughly. You as a website client also have a message to send to your target market population. In order to communicate your message, a web designer will use a combination of copywriting (web content writing) and graphics to fulfill the visitor's information need, compel them to action, and create a pleasant web session experience.

The primary tool for communicating your message is through text. It is true that pictures and icons send many words to their viewers but they should never be relied upon as total communication solutions. There are several important reasons for this. First, people access the internet through not only web browsers but mobile devices that download web pages much more slowly and in a smaller screen space. Text is the fastest way to render a web page and get a message out. Second, some of your visitors will have visual difficulties and images are no match for text that is of high contrast and can be enlarged if need be. And lastly, the messages from images are not recognized by search engine crawlers so they add no value to search engine optimization (SEO) which is part of a website's communication strategy.

Textual communication must be written so that it communicates to your target group. Textual communication, also known as copywriting, is written in a way that your target group can understand and personalize it. Prior to writing, the website designer will probably ask you questions for describing your target market group and what their typical needs are. After you have written the answers for these questions for your website designer you can forward them to your copywriter (if you have one) and they will write better copy for you because they understand you goals and needs better. This is the reason why you need to have a very clear picture of target audience, market position and goals.

Copywriting should be written with the "you" message. It should not be written like an impersonal research paper or report. When it is written with the "you" message, the reader makes the message personal. Also, at the end a web article, you can have the copywriter put in a call for some action like making a phone call, a purchase, or sending for more information. Informative web content should not be filled with colloquialisms and sales language as this will only turn away visitors.