Website copy matters more than design for converting first-time visitors, roughly twice as effective according to the speaker. People decide in seconds whether to stay, so non-generic writing paired with good design is what actually works.
Chapters
For first-time visitors to your site, website copy is the number one conversion driver. It's twice as effective as good design. Now by that, don't misunderstand me. I don't mean to say that design isn't important. Great design and awesome copy are inseparable. You need them both. Design's role is to support the copy, to help better and more effectively communicate the message of your brand, business, or product, which is why design and production can only ever come after you've finalized your copy. It takes just seconds for visitors to form a judgment about your website. If visitors don't like what they see, visually or textually, they'll hit the back button faster than you can say "call to action." You need to entice them in with non-generic, non-boring copy and a design.