Lorem Ipsum: Kick the Habit, Build Websites That Actually Work

Let’s face it, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” is the design world’s equivalent of a sugar pill. It’s the placebo we’ve been feeding ourselves (and our clients) for centuries, pretending it’s the cure for weak, ineffective websites. At FunkPd, we don’t do placebos. We build websites that hit like adrenaline, converting visitors and leaving competitors scrambling. And we do it without clinging to design crutches.

Placeholder text kills momentum. It masquerades as progress, stalls real decisions, and dumps rework on the build team. Every minute spent designing around dummy copy is a minute stolen from real deliverables.

• When the actual words arrive, layouts fracture, approvals reset, and budgets swell.
• Nielsen Norman Group calls it “a placebo that masks usability issues” Nielsen Norman Group.
• Google’s Helpful Content Update penalizes pages that feel generic or unfinished, rewarding sites that ship real answers instead of Lorem Ipsum padding Google Search Central.
• Accessibility guidelines at W3C outlaw placeholders as primary labels because they vanish when users type and force low-vision visitors to remember context that’s no longer visible W3C LVTF.

If you want reliable builds, you need real content up front; nothing else ships.

This placeholder gibberish? It’s a lazy shortcut. A bad habit that leads straight to bland designs, frustrated clients, and missed opportunities to actually connect with your audience.

The Illusion of Progress

Real-World Scenario (Anonymized):

A website project kept stalling because the real text was missing. We used fake text, so no one could say what worked or not. When we got the real words, we finished the site fast. The work got done without more delays.

FunkPd take: Use real words early. It saves time and fixes problems before launch the illusion.

Design shops love the Lorem Ipsum because it lets them show polished comps on day one. Stakeholders nod, sign off, and assume the project’s halfway done. Then reality hits:

• Real headlines don’t fit the hero banner.
• Product specs overflow the grid.
• Legal disclaimers sprawl through footers.

Baymard Institute found that mismatched form expectations cause a 22% error rate on e-commerce sites when placeholders hide field requirements Baymard Institute. Nielsen Norman Group’s usability videos demonstrate that users ignore disappearing placeholder labels, leading to more abandoned forms and support tickets NN/g Video.

What looked like forward momentum was design theater. The project then backtracks, burns sprint capacity, and fractures stakeholder trust.

Every time you let placeholder text dictate layout, you defer the most critical decisions. You pretend you know what the copy will say, and you pretend it will fit. That pretense costs real agility.

• Teams juggle versions of wireframes, mockups, and sprint backlogs, chasing phantom words that may never land.
• By the time copywriters scramble to produce final text, the design is rigid, CMS fields are locked down, and every change churns through approvals again.
• You end up paying twice for every paragraph: once in design and once in redesign.

That is the real cost of Lorem Ipsum.

The FunkPd Content-First Framework: Beyond Placeholders

Simply ditching Lorem Ipsum isn’t enough. At FunkPd, we structure projects around a core framework to ensure content drives design effectively:

The 4 Pillars of FunkPd’s Content-Driven Design:

1. Pillar 1: Deep Audience & Goal Definition: We don’t write a line of code or design a pixel until we understand who the site is for and what it needs to achieve. This defines the required message.
2. Pillar 2: Early Content Simulation/Drafting: We work with clients to get draft content or use targeted AI prompts to generate realistic placeholder text reflecting the defined strategy before detailed design begins.
3. Pillar 3: Adaptive Design & Layout: Designs are built flexibly around the simulated content, ensuring layouts accommodate real-world text variations, CTAs, and data requirements without breaking.
4. Pillar 4: Iterative Refinement & Validation: We test designs with representative content and gather feedback early, refining both the content structure and the layout based on usability and goal alignment, not just aesthetics.

This structured approach minimizes rework, aligns design with business objectives, and moves beyond the guesswork inherent in placeholder-heavy workflows.

Why Placeholder Gibberish Holds You Back

Real Example:

One site took too long because we used fake text. People could not check if the site was right. When we got the real words, the project finished fast. Real words mean clear feedback and fewer edits.

Reference: Google Search Central
FunkPd tip: Fake text slows you down. Real words speed things up.

Okay, okay, we’ll admit it: Lorem Ipsum isn’t completely useless. It can give a vague sense of layout in the absolute earliest sketches. But let’s be honest, it’s a weak-ass solution. Like trying to fuel a rocket ship with lighter fluid. Here’s why it’s actively sabotaging your designs:

The Content-Blindness Trap

Lorem Ipsum is content-neutral. Sounds good, right? Wrong. It’s a huge problem. Designing without knowing the actual message means you’re designing in a vacuum. This fundamentally breaks good design principles. As content strategy pioneer Karen McGrane nails it:

“Designing without real content is like building a bridge without knowing the load.” ; Smashing Magazine Smashing Magazine

Placeholders mean you’re ignoring half the equation. You risk layouts that fail to communicate, engage, or meet goals. Users scan for meaning; dummy Latin carries none. Reviewers and testers overlook content-specific layout failures until late-stage QA, when fixes cost 10× more than if they’d been caught during prototype reviews. Every wasted cycle inflates timelines.

Deniz (FunkPd UX Lead Insight): “How can users know where to click if the links are just gibberish? You can’t test a flow without real language.”

The Illusion of Readability

Placeholder text creates a dangerous illusion of readability. Just because the Latin fits nicely doesn’t mean real content will. It completely ignores that typography exists to communicate, not just look pretty. Renowned typographer Erik Spiekermann cuts through the BS:

“Type is a tool to help the reader, not annoy them.” ; Erik Spiekermann

You simply can’t judge if your type choices are helping or hindering communication when the text itself is meaningless noise.

Client Confusion & Wasted Time

Let’s be real: clients often get totally confused by Lorem Ipsum. They fixate on the weird Latin, ask what it means, or worse, think it’s final copy.

Finding: Designers online constantly share stories of feedback sessions getting derailed by clients questioning the placeholder text instead of reviewing the actual design.

This isn’t just annoying; it wastes valuable time and leads to frustrating revision cycles. Smashing Magazine reports that retrofitting content deep into design can multiply revision cycles by 3×, adding weeks to launch schedules Smashing Magazine.

The Nightmare: Launching with Placeholders

Real Example:

A business site went live with fake text still on some pages. Search engines did not list it well. People got confused. When we changed to real words, rankings and customer actions improved quickly.

Reference: W3C Accessibility
FunkPd tip: Never launch with fake text. Only real words work.

Think it can’t happen? Think again. There are documented cases of websites accidentally launching with Lorem Ipsum still live. Imagine the horror: your beautiful new site greets visitors with a wall of Latin nonsense. It’s unprofessional, tanks your SEO, and makes your client look like an idiot. It’s the ultimate design faceplant.

• SEO Penalties. Google’s algorithms reward “people-first content.” Pages launched with dummy text start under a penalty that can take months to reverse. Sites that launch with real, keyword-rich copy index faster and rank higher for target queries. According to Search Engine Journal, sites optimized around authentic content see a 68% improvement in click-through rate compared to template-filled pages Search Engine Journal.
• Accessibility Breakdowns. WCAG 3.3.2 forbids placeholders as sole labels because they disappear on focus, breaking context for screen readers and low-vision users. GOV.UK’s design system officially bans placeholders, requiring explicit labels that persist at all times to meet accessibility standards GOV.UK Design System.
• Budget Overruns. Teams that do content-first builds spend 25% less on post-launch fixes. Crazy Egg saw a 21% lift in conversions within 30 days of replacing filler copy with targeted messaging, cutting iteration costs and maximizing ROI Crazy Egg Case Studies.

Nolan Phelps, Founder @ FunkPd: “This isn’t theoretical – it’s a real-world time suck we’re dealing with right now at FunkPd… building a site where we initially planned filler content while awaiting product data… But because we customize heavily… incredibly inefficient. Spend time finessing placeholder text… Then, when the real copy arrives, you do that work all over again, but constrained… double the effort. Same applies to data – placeholder specs change from ‘mm’ to ‘cm’, suddenly layouts need reworking… why we’re revising our own SOPs to mandate essential content and data upfront…”

Placeholders actively hide problems until it’s painful and expensive to fix them. Our tech guru Axel sees it constantly:

Axel (FunkPd Tech Insight): “Placeholder text hides problems… real content comes in… boom. Rework. It’s pure technical debt caused by lazy planning.”

Real-World Proof: Content-First Drives Results

Theory is one thing, results are another. We consistently see the impact of ditching placeholders for a content-focused approach. Here are a few examples:

Minetek; Rebuilt While Live.

Minetek moves $60M+ in industrial supplies annually. Their four fractured WordPress installs collapsed under heavy traffic and duplicated content. FunkPd consolidated everything into a single, structured build on Elementor Pro, scrubbing 200MB of bloat and syncing forms and notifications.

• Result: global page load dropped from 9–12s to under 3s.
• Zero downtime.
• Google crawled and indexed content cleanly for 2–3 years without outage.
• Bounce rates fell and session durations rose.

Site became an operational backbone Minetek Case Study.

Fanquip; Stable Industrial Platform.

Fanquip’s site was a patchwork of outdated templates, slow load times, and missing SEO structure. We rebuilt it into a lightweight Elementor site, implemented JSON-LD schema for product pages, and trained their team on content updates.

• Within 60 days, core pages hit top-3 rankings for key ventilation-system keywords.
• Internal editors publish new specs without developer intervention.
• Organic visibility and user engagement remain strong.

Fanquip Case Study.

Actiwork; Scalable & Editable.

Actiwork’s legacy CMS blocked edits and produced slow page loads. We migrated to Elementor, restructured the backend for modular content, and integrated WooCommerce for future expansions.

• Page speed improved by over 50%.
• Google Lighthouse scores hit high-90s despite hosting constraints.
• Internal staff manage content and DNS in-house, eliminating ghosted ticket queues.
• Ensured reliable local visibility.

Actiwork Case Study.

Infographic:

If You Must Use Placeholders… Do It Smarter

Look, we get it. Sometimes deadlines loom, content is missing, and you need something to visualize a layout skeleton. If you’re absolutely backed into a corner – despite everything we just hammered home – do not use Latin gibberish. At the bare minimum, use placeholders that mimic real content structures. It’s still a crutch, but slightly less dumb.

To make that less painful (because deep down, we’re helpful rebels), here’s a simple structure copier. Click a button, get a common content structure snippet copied. No fluff, just basic building blocks. Go on, try it. Your secret’s safe with us.

Try It Live: Build Realistic Placeholder Structures

Click a button below to copy a common content structure snippet directly to your clipboard. It’s a smarter way to skeletonize layouts if you absolutely must use placeholders.

Demo the Snippet-Copier Below

Quick Structure Snippet Copier

There. Click those in whatever order you want, they will build up your lorem ipsum. Happy now? Slightly more intelligent placeholders. But seriously, get the real content. ASAP.

The AI Uprising: Your New Placeholder Toolkit

Forget tedious placeholder text. AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Llama 3 are here, and they make traditional methods look ancient. They are the Lorem Ipsum killers.

Why AI Beats Gibberish

• Context-Aware: AI generates text tailored to your actual topic, industry, or purpose. It makes sense.
• Hyper-Realistic: The output often reads like a human wrote it. No more jarring gibberish confusing clients.
• Dynamic & Adaptable: Need a blog intro? Product description? Social media caption? AI spits it out in seconds, in various tones and lengths.

How We Build: Content First or Not at All

FunkPd refuses to wireframe or sketch until we have final, approved copy. We run content workshops with stakeholders, extract headlines, calls to action, legal disclaimers, and product specs. Only then do we open design tools.

Interaction Design Foundation defines content-first as “putting content ahead of aesthetics to create user-friendly products” Interaction Design Foundation. Smashing Magazine calls it “content-first prototyping,” using real text from day one to validate structure before polish Smashing Magazine. That blueprint keeps complexity in check and ensures final pages work as intended.

Our 6P workflow:

1. Content Workshop. Gather stakeholders to define brand voice, messaging hierarchy, and legal requirements in a shared document.
2. Mapping & Structure. Assign each text block to a URL slug and on-page anchor to clarify SEO and user flow.
3. Draft & Review. Run copy through SEO tools, readability checks, and compliance audits before sign-off.
4. Prototype & Test. Place final text into low-fidelity wireframes and run usability tests on real content.
5. Design & Develop. Only after text locks do we build high-fidelity designs, export HTML, and integrate into WordPress.
6. Ship & Monitor. Launch with analytics tracking on content performance, iterating if metrics dip below targets.

What We Use Instead

• Docs-as-Code. Store copy in Markdown in Git. Pull updates into staging and lint for style, length, and compliance on every merge.
• Snippet Libraries. Maintain a library of approved legal, safety, and product-spec text to eliminate rewriting and ensure consistency.
• Shared Version Control. Writers, developers, and legal review the same file, reducing context-switching and keeping feedback in-line.
• Text-Based Prototypes. Use static HTML prototypes with real content for early user testing. We follow Smashing Magazine’s content-first prototyping guidelines to validate structure before design Smashing Magazine.
• Automated Checks. Integrate SEO audits, accessibility scans, and readability tests into CI pipelines to catch issues before staging.
• Inline CMS Fields. Limit editable areas to validated text blocks, preventing rogue HTML and layout breaks.

The Future is Interactive (And Not Just Text)

The placeholder game is evolving beyond just static text blocks. Get ready for smarter images, placeholder animations, and dynamic UI that communicates design vision far better than static layouts filled with gibberish.

Figure 3: Discussing placeholder alternatives and content-first concepts.

Ditch the Placebo, Build Websites That Work

Let’s cut the crap. You’re a designer, not an archaeologist digging up Latin phrases. Your job is to build websites that kick ass – sites that engage users, drive conversions, and dominate search. Clinging to Lorem Ipsum isn’t helping.

FunkPd Editorial: “We used AI for some initial heavy lifting here – why wouldn’t we? But anyone thinking AI alone writes content worth reading is kidding themselves. Nolan, our founder, took that raw AI output and infused it with the stuff that matters: hard-won lessons from building high-performance sites day-in, day-out… AI’s the assistant; Nolan’s the expert driving the strategy.”

The path forward is clear: Leverage AI for smarter placeholders and adopt a content-first mindset. It leads to better designs, smoother processes, and happier clients.

Your Action Plan: Kick the Habit Now

1. Delete Lorem Ipsum from your toolkit. Seriously. Just stop using it.
2. Experiment with AI content generation. Use ChatGPT, Gemini, etc., for realistic placeholders. See the difference.
3. Demand content early. Push for a content-first workflow in your projects. Level up.

FunkPd: We Build Without the Bullshit

At FunkPd, we don’t rely on placebos. We push boundaries, challenge lazy conventions, and build websites powered by smart strategy, real content (or intelligent placeholders), and cutting-edge tech. We focus on what actually works to get results.

Sophie (FunkPd Data Insight): “Meaningless text means meaningless metrics. You can’t optimize conversions if your baseline CTAs were ‘Dolor Sit Amet’.”

Ready to build a website that pulls its weight and leaves the competition wondering what hit them? Let’s Talk.

Methodology & Disclosures

Content Creation: This article was drafted with AI assistance for initial research and structure, then substantially rewritten, edited, and augmented with real-world experience and strategic insights by Nolan Phelps, Founder of FunkPd. All core arguments and recommendations reflect FunkPd’s hands-on practices.

AI Tool References: Mentions of specific AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) are based on publicly available information and FunkPd’s internal testing for placeholder generation and workflow efficiency. We do not endorse any specific tool for all use cases.

Snippet Copier Tool: The “Quick Structure Snippet Copier” provided uses JavaScript to copy predefined text snippets to your clipboard upon clicking. No user input or data is stored or transmitted by this tool. Its use is subject to standard browser clipboard permissions. Please review our site’s Privacy Policy for general data handling information.

Expert Quotes: Quotes attributed to external experts are based on publicly available works or statements. Links are provided where feasible.

FAQs (Quick Answers, No Fluff)

Quick Self-Check: Is fake text still on your site?

• Do you see “Lorem Ipsum” or other dummy words?
• Are pages waiting for the right text?
• Did something break after adding real content?
• Is your site hard to find on Google?

Action: If yes, switch to real text now. FunkPd can help.

Q: Seriously, what the hell is Lorem Ipsum?

A: Not exactly real Latin. Lorem Ipsum derives from sections of Cicero’s “De finibus bonorum et malorum,” but it’s been scrambled into nonsense over centuries. Typesetters in the 1960s popularized it, and Aldus PageMaker bundled it into early software, cementing its use as default filler.

Q: Why do designers even use this stuff?

A: Habit and fear. Copy rarely arrives on time, so teams drop Latin to keep the Gantt chart moving. Some claim it helps visualize layout without distraction (we disagree). But as the research shows, that speed is an illusion: content-first teams ship faster, with fewer bugs and higher conversion rates.

Q: So what’s wrong with it? It’s just temporary, right?

A: Wrong. It’s a design placebo. It masks real problems (layout, readability, content fit), confuses clients, and wastes time. It leads to accessibility failures, budget overruns, and even SEO penalties.

Q: Okay, I’m convinced. What are my options?

A: Best option: Get real content early (Content-First). Next best: Use AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) for realistic, context-aware placeholders. Last resort: Use structural snippets (like our tool above).

Q: But isn’t AI kinda scary? Ethics?

A: Valid concerns about ownership and misuse exist. Use AI responsibly as a tool, guided by human judgment and ethics. Don’t let it replace critical thinking.

Q: You mentioned interactive placeholders?

A: Yep, the future. Think AI-generated placeholder images, video snippets, dynamic UI elements for more realistic mockups.

Q: How do I explain ditching Lorem Ipsum to my clients?

A: Frame it as a benefit to them: using realistic placeholders (or real content) leads to a better final product, clearer communication, fewer surprises, and a website more likely to meet their goals.

Q: What about SEO?

A: Real, relevant content is KING for SEO. Never, ever let Lorem Ipsum go live on a site – it’s duplicate, meaningless content that search engines hate.

Don’t Fake Progress. Build It.

Industrial builds run on precise specs, safety margins, and clear tolerances; not filler. Lorem Ipsum delivers none of that. Real content exposes edge cases early, locks scope, and accelerates approvals. The agencies still selling dummy text are selling delay. You don’t have time for delays. Ship real words up front. Then let the build fly.

How We Work:

Every example is real, but no client is named. We only talk about the process, never people. This info is written by FunkPd, checked by a real person. If you want to ask how we work, just ask.

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