As a web design company in Charlotte, NC, we frequently encounter opportunities for high-level collaboration both with clients and with fellow professionals in the field. The modern digital landscape calls for an extensive division of labor, and it is not unusual for one provider of web services to lean upon another when their expertise extends into different areas. At the same time, some clients may bring their own knowledge and preferences to bear on a collaborative project, especially when it comes to the comparatively non-technical but highly important task of content creation.

Part of the challenge for a web design company in Charlotte, or anywhere else, is to manage work flow for this sort of collaboration. Design and content creation are very different tasks, requiring very different skillsets, but they must operate together seamlessly if a website is to be truly effective. Entrepreneur.com recently published an article on this topic which we recommend reading. It examines the shortcomings of both “copy first, design later” and “design first, copy later,” and concludes that simultaneous web development and content creation is the better alternative.

We won’t go into too much detail about that argument here, but we will try to briefly expand upon it to emphasize how this simultaneous approach should encourage local collaboration. That is to say, a North Carolina client may see the best result for their website when they hire a web design company in Charlotte and work closely with it to give digital structure to their ideas. It is perhaps especially worthwhile to remain local if the client is producing content on their own, as opposed to giving a general guide to web designers and entrusting them to realize it from start to finish.

Of course, a client could draw up all the content they want on their site and then simply dump it onto a web design company in Charlotte or literally anywhere else in the world. But this is extremely limiting, as it leaves no room for that content to evolve. This is a major problem if the site represents a business, since the business itself will no doubt be expected to change along with markets and customer expectations, and the site should be able to do the same.

What’s more, the evolution of site content is often specifically enabled by its interplay with web design. That process is severely impeded when a web design company in Charlotte has to arrange a Zoom meeting with a client on the other side of the world before getting on the same page about new ideas as they come up. Of course, availability is not guaranteed by local clients and contractors, but the fact remains that opportunities for spontaneous communication are more plentiful when there are no barriers of space and time zones between them.

Distant collaborations may face other obstacles, as well. The staff of a web design company in Charlotte will generally share a common vernacular with clients in the same region, as well as a common understanding of local culture and economic as they apply to marketing communications. While it may seem unlikely that these things will have a strong impact on a company’s approach to web design, you never know much a tiny misunderstanding can be magnified when it goes unchecked throughout a long collaborative process.