Why plain text matters more than beautiful design

Many entrepreneurs invest time and money in the appearance of their website. A sleek logo, beautiful photos, a palette of colours that suits the business. That is not wrong, but it is not the first thing that matters when someone tries to find you. Search engines like Google and AI assistants like ChatGPT primarily read the text on your page. They do not look at how beautifully a button is designed or which font you use. They read words. If those words are missing, or hidden in a picture or an animation, then there is simply nothing for them to read. This means in practice: if you offer a service, that service must appear in plain text on your website. Not only as the title of an image, but as a running sentence that explains what you do, for whom, and where. An AI assistant helping someone find a plumber in Utrecht must be able to read somewhere on your site that you are a plumber and that you work in Utrecht. If that information only appears in a logo or an atmospheric photo, the assistant will miss it. What you can do today Go to your own website and read it as if you know nothing about your business. Is there in plain text what you do, for whom you do it and where you can be found. Not in a slogan or a catchy title, but in full sentences. Many websites have a beautiful homepage with a catchy line, but are missing the explanation behind it. A simple example: a homepage with only the text 'We make the difference' says little. A homepage that explains 'We are a painting company from Almere and work for private individuals and businesses in the region' gives both a visitor and a search engine something to work with. This also applies to underlying pages. Do you have a page about a specific service, then make sure there is actually text on it about what that service entails, not just a price or a button to contact you. The more clear text there is, the more a search engine or assistant can understand what your business excels at. It is not a matter of writing a lot for the sake of writing. It is about clarity. A few good sentences that say exactly what you do are worth more than a page full of vague marketing language. Think about how you would explain it to a customer who walks in for the first time and asks what you do exactly. That explanation, in ordinary language, is exactly what should be on your website. So before you invest more money in a new design or an animation, first check if the basics are right: is there in plain words on your site who you are and what you do. That is the first step to being found, by people and by the systems that nowadays help people search.