Jean-Christophe Novelli needs no introduction - if you don't know who he is, then you watch shockingly little TV. Despite his celebrity status he's actually very down to earth; when we met for the first time last year to discuss redesigning his website, it was obvious this process would be an enjoyable one.

The Novelli team already knew the website's major failings; it was almost impossible to keep course information up to date with the clunky administration tools, and the order process was tedious for customers, not allowing more than one attendee to be booked on a course at a time. The challenge was to solve these problems to a budget and a deadline – the Christmas sales period was looming!

First off, we sat down with the people charged with keeping the website up to date. Normally we put aside some time to chat and have them talk us through the process, but in this case the process was literally taking up every minute of their day. So instead we chatted between the long pauses while the system loaded a page or saved a change, and observed the process in real-time.

The administration tools weren't up to the task, every process was convoluted and the application itself groaned under the strain of performing even relatively small tasks.

"It's a nightmare to use if you're on the phone to a customer, you have to keep chatting while you wait for it to do something in case they think you've hung up!" half-joked one member of the team.

After a few sessions we identified what mattered the most, what the team did often and what was time-critical. When we built the new tools we made sure that the vital processes were as simple and streamlined as possible. Many of the changes weren't rocket science, like automatically sending an invoice and voucher to customers when they order, instead of one of the team having to write an email, attach the relevant documents, and send it to the customer manually. That saved a lot of time!

The buying process was a joke. There's no getting around it, it was just awful. From find a course to give me your credit card details, not one step in the elongated process was intuitive or reassuring for the visitor. Worst of all, if you ordered a course for two or more people, you were only asked for one person's details, which meant lots of calls to the Novelli team by confused visitors. I suspect a lot of people just gave up.

More than half the planning time went into creating a great buying experience. We gave customers two ways to find a course; either by using the calendar to choose a date, or by course category where they can select something specific to their interests and tastes. And the order process? Well, we built it with care and finesse, as Jean-Christophe himself would prepare a dish. We kept it brief, but made sure we asked the questions that needed to be asked. You can see the results for yourself.

The new website went live just before the Christmas sales period and the figures so far mean Jean-Christophe will be very busy this year. If you love good food (I think we all know the answer?), we invite you to sample the Novelli Academy website.

As important as it is for a website to be well designed and attractive, it simply won't achieve its full potential without good text content, also known as copy.

I have been a part of Getme for many years and my role has slowly evolved, from creating the structure of the web pages using HTML and CSS, to, these days, supporting website production or updates by either proofreading or producing copy from scratch.

This has become one of my main roles partly because I enjoy writing, spelling and grammar more than most at Getme, but there are other contributing factors within my background. I have A-level English Literature, always enjoying the subject at school, and spent five years working in Quality Assurance and Compliance at a major UK video games company. There is a surprising amount of text within modern computer games; it's not all shooting gangsters and punching cave goblins.

Of course it may be difficult to produce copy if I'm unfamiliar with the subject, in which case the client will generally provide the text and I will proofread. If the subject is more general, I can produce copy as a service if required, perhaps based on a list of important points or a general explanation of what is wanted.

Returning to my statement from the first paragraph, by 'good' copy I don't just mean well written – correct spelling and grammar should go without saying – but also appropriate: focused on the subject, not too long or short, and containing the details your potential customers are likely to search for.

The quality and relevance of your website's content is related to the subject of organic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), as one thing which can help to improve your search engine ranking. Assuming the code structure of your website is "search engine friendly" (if Getme have produced it, you can), you're free to concentrate on the page titles, headings and content. If content is useful – valuable in some way – to people, they may well create a link to it, and these links help to contribute to an improved search engine ranking.

The 'full potential' of your website may be difficult to measure, but whether you intend to publicise the activity of your charity or sell a squillion grommets, the right content matters because it will help your target audience to find you. Once your target audience has found your website, the right content matters because it will help to persuade them to act upon what you have to say. And if they do that, you will have very little to worry about.