Creating a website no small feat; it’s a complicated and time-consuming endeavor, but a necessity to every business—as well as keeping it updated and well-maintained. Building a website—from content (text and images) to design and user experience (UX) to development—for responsive websites that work great on both mobile and desktop can be tedious, but we’ve highlighted the steps of our tried-and-true process to help ease the stress of starting from square one.
Step 1: Plan & Organize
Begin with identifying business objectives and how to best accomplish them; define your audience and assign tasks for all the moving parts.
Step 2: Create a Blueprint (AKA Wireframe)
Develop the website architecture, also known as a wireframe; establish page content and organization, create calls-to-action, metadata and a plan for third-party integrations.
No design decisions are made during this phase.
Step 3: Content Creation
Collect content (text and images) for the site. If you’re refreshing your current website, some content may be able to be repurposed (such as ‘about’ copy) but it’s a good idea to review and add to any existing content to make sure it’s accurately representing your brand. In addition to copy—and in some cases, more importantly—images are a huge consideration at this point. Some questions worth asking: Can any existing images be repurposed? Is new photography needed, and if so, do you have a photographer? Can stock photography be used? Content can be edited and images can be swapped, but we recommend going into step 4 knowing what content is needed.
Step 4: Design Phase
Conceptualize the look and feel of the website; determine design direction with visual elements such as colors, fonts, image style, etc. Once the design reaches approval, additional page layouts and/or templates will follow.
Step 5: Development Phase
Once the design templates are built and the content is complete, the design files and wireframe are handed over to the developer. The design team is still involved to ensure a smooth transition from blueprint to a complete test site. Typically allow about 4–6 weeks for development.
Step 6: Test
This critical step is when the development is complete and a test site has been built for review/feedback; carefully review test site and relay necessary revisions to development team.
Step 7: Launch
After all the necessary revisions have been made, it’s time to launch! Anticipate more changes even after the new site goes live—it happens. Once any final tweaks are taken care of, take a moment to enjoy the new website. However, the work doesn’t end once the site goes live; continuing with content creation (such as blog posts), SEO and analytics is an on-going responsibility.
Are you ready to begin your new website? Take the first step and reach out to us today!
