In our world of drag-and-drop web design, almost anyone can build a website these days. Heck, you may even have a tech-savvy nephew who says he can build you a site for a few hundred dollars or for free.
Designing and building a website is a multi-step process. Successful websites blend creativity, technical skills, and strategic planning and can be customized to fit your needs and budget, just like building a house.
I've outlined the seven phases of a website design and build below so you know what you can expect.
1. House Hunting: The Discovery Phase
As they say, with log homes, a successful stain and restoration job is all about the prep. The same goes for your website. This is the phase of discovery and research where I ask all the questions to get to know your business and your audience.
I need to know who your ideal customer is and what their needs are and research your competition. I'll be asking lots of questions during this phase like—
- Who is your ideal customer?
- What problem does your product or service solve for your customers?
- Why do your ideal customers seek you out?
- What makes you different from your competition? Do you have more experience? Are you certified?
- Does your product have unique features and benefits?
- What’s working and what’s not with your website right now?
- Who are your competitors? What are they doing right? What aren’t they?
- What are the goals of your website?
- What does it need to do?
- How does your website fit into the larger picture of your business goals and marketing plan?
- How will you measure success—more leads, better search engine rankings, click-through rates, etc?
2. Laying the Foundation: The Planning Phase
You get in what you put out. Proper planning is essential to building a website that will grow with your company. During the planning phase of the website development process, the foundational structure of the website is laid out.
During this time, we’ll—
- Create a sitemap and decide on the structure of the website. Check out the example below. I'll ask questions like—
-
- What pages need to be included? What don’t?
- What was working with your old website? What wasn’t?
-
- Select your content management system. (CMS), theme, plugins, and tools. We’ll want to pick the best solution for your company based on your goals and plans for the future. I love WordPress for my website, but Big Commerce, SquareSpace, or even Shopify might be more up your alley.
The above is a small snippet of a site map developed for LiveLoveDance Studio in Broomfield, CO during their WordPress website planning stage.
3. From the Windows to the Wall: The Content Phase
If home is where the heart is, then content—your copy, images, and video—is at the heart of your website's structure.
Think of it like your house’s walls, roof, insulation, and architectural style. Your content, whether written or visual, tells the story of your business and what makes you different from Joe Schmoe down the road.
Building the structure and the content development of your website means—
- Writing compelling and SEO-friendly content to help you communicate your value to your customers and rank in search engines.
- Sourcing, optimizing, and creating visual content.
- Defining your brand so it communicates and tells the story of who are and what you do.
- Mocking up your site, plot out and test your customer’s journey through your website to ensure it’s user-friendly and flows smoothly from one page to another.
4. Decorating Your Home: The Design Phase
The design and development phase is all about the visuals. It’s the equivalent of hiring an interior designer to decorate your house. Like an interior designer shows you swatches and has you pick out your countertops for your kitchen, we’ll work together on a concept so that when we move onto the development phase, the focus is on implementation.
During the design phase, you can expect to —
- Choose a color scheme and typography that reflect your brand’s identity.
- Finalize the user interface (UI) design, including elements like buttons, icons, and menus.
Above is a sample of Mike's Remedies Big Commerce website mockup. The CMS was chosen and we mocked up the side in Adobe XD to set the style, colors, and flow of the website before populating the content into the website.
5. The Finishing Touches: Website Development Phase
Website development is where all your proper prep and planning really start to pay off, and things start to take shape.
This includes:
- Front-end development to create the website’s visual elements and interactions
- Populate, format, and optimize your content.
- Back-end development to manage the server, database, and application logic.
- Integrating CMS, e-commerce platforms, or other necessary systems.
- Implementing responsive design to ensure the site works across different devices.
6. The Inspection: Testing & Launch Phase
Before you move in, or after a major upgrade like a new roof or furnace installation, someone will usually test or inspect the project for any issues or workmanship.
Before we launch and go live, your website will be tested to identify and fix any bugs and issues. We test for—
- Check the functionality of all features to make sure they work as they’re supposed to. Do the buttons go where they should, and do the plugins work?
- Performance testing to optimize loading times.
- Responsiveness across mobile devices.
Before the final launch, you can also expect a few other loose ends to be tied up, such as:
- Setting up analytics and SEO tools.
- Making the site publicly accessible.
- Monitoring the site closely for any immediate issues.
7. The Maintenance Phase
You probably thought you were done once you moved in and flipped the switch on your website, but work on your website is like your house. It will never be done. You’ll need to mow the yard, put a new coat of paint on every now and then, and fix any problems that pop up unexpectedly.
Post-launch, your website will enter the maintenance phase, so it will stay updated and secure. This phase includes:
- Continuously update content, plugins, and features. Do you plan on publishing blog posts regularly? Do you have a new product that you want to tell the world about?
- Monitor site performance and user feedback. Based on customer feedback, should you make adjustments to your website?
- Adjusting SEO and marketing strategies. Your marketing and goals will evolve as your business grows, and your website should, too. Evaluate what’s working and what isn’t and update it. Your website should
- Performing periodic security checks and updates. It’s essential to keep your website updated so it doesn’t become vulnerable to hackers.
The Short Story…
Like homes, each one is unique and different. Your project might require different phases or look slightly different from what I’ve listed here. The key to developing your website is proper planning, knowing your customers, and creating content that speaks to your audience. And don’t forget to leave some room to grow. Your website should be able to grow and evolve with your business over time.
Do you need help designing marketing that grabs your customers' attention and engages them?
Give us a holler and schedule a complimentary 30-minute Discovery call, we’d love to help you reach your customers and sell more products.