The website development process has been developed over the years, making it easier and more streamlined than ever before to create your website today.
There are many approaches to building a successful online presence, but if you’re new to the world of e-commerce or haven’t yet taken the leap into web design yourself, it can be hard to know where to start.
Honestly speaking, the process of building a website from start to finish can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the game. That’s why this post will discuss the essential steps in the entire website development process and how they apply to different types of businesses.
Whether you hire the top website development company or do it yourself, following these seven easy steps will help you build your business website the right way and get it ready to launch.
So let’s take a look at each step individually.
Step 1- Website Analysis
This is perhaps one of the most critical steps in our website development process. In fact, it’s probably just as important as building a site from scratch—if not more so. Why? Well, because even if you have a gorgeous design in place and amazing content to work with, it doesn’t matter unless your site is optimized for search engines and its visitors!
The first thing companies do after meeting with a client (and agreeing on their goals) is to analyze their existing website and determine what needs to be updated, removed, or added.
Then they back to their team and start brainstorming ways to incorporate those changes into a new design that looks beautiful and ranks high in search results.
Step 2- Project Planning
Project planning can be time-consuming and require expert skills, but it’s one of the most crucial parts of website development. Without a clear plan for how you’ll reach your goals, there’s a very good chance that your final product will be underwhelming or even useless.
Skipping project planning is a surefire way to get your project into trouble from day one. Start with these five steps if you want your result to exceed expectations.
1) Create business requirements:
Getting down to brass tacks at the beginning of any new website development process is essential. To have any hope of achieving business goals, website owners need to have a firm grasp on what they need out of their finished site. This usually comes in written form as an official set of requirements based on feedback from stakeholders.
2) Set priorities:
In today’s business world, website owners have numerous opportunities arising every day; figuring out which of those opportunities has higher priority means having real conversations about priorities from day one.
Setting priorities involves evaluating both future potential (What could we accomplish if everything went according to plan?) and present reality (What do we need now?).
3) Identify potential solutions:
Everyone wants the best website ever, but no two websites are exactly alike; because of variation between clients and applications, there isn’t such thing as the best website.
Instead, you should use brainstorming sessions to identify potential solutions for each requirement identified during step one. Writing down options and then ranking them against criteria developed during step two is a great way to narrow things down.
4) Make decisions:
Once you’ve narrowed things down, it’s time to make some decisions. Remember, effective communication from day one makes all decisions easier later on!
It doesn’t matter whether it was a casual discussion over lunch or an intense presentation by a high-powered consultant team. All stakeholders need to agree on which solution makes sense for meeting their needs in the future.
5) Start wireframing/prototyping:
Wireframing and prototyping happen simultaneously, sometimes back-to-back; once everyone agrees on a decision from step four, it’s time to turn it into something concrete.
Start simple with static wireframes before moving onto more advanced tools like HTML5 or Flash—the idea here is to test functionality rather than making beautiful pixels. And remember that not all problems call for fancy software packages; sometimes, just writing down how you think visitors will behave will suffice.
Step 3- Web Designing
The essential step in creating a website is designing it. This involves setting up a visual layout, including images and text. The design process needs constant testing and feedback from users who interact with your website.
Web designers add links to each page of your site, allowing users to navigate easily between different sections and back and forth between individual pages. During brainstorming sessions, web designers work with clients to create a cohesive look for their website’s homepage and each additional page that appears on the site.
Web designers use graphics software or a whiteboard to draw possible layouts for homepages and then narrow them down until they have one that works best for both parties involved.
Designers often make rough sketches of their proposed layout so that clients can give input and let them know if certain aspects should be changed or left out altogether.
After reaching a consensus regarding what should go into your website’s design, web designers can begin working on mockups (wireframes) to show you what exactly will appear on every page.
Step 4- Web Development
Now that you’ve got a clear idea of what kind of website you want, it’s time to move on to developing your website.
No matter what type of website you want to create, one thing is sure—you need two things before you can even begin creating your website design mockup or wireframe in Photoshop or Fireworks: An HTML Template and Some Content.
These elements will form the base from which you will work during each stage of web development; without them, there’s no point in moving forward with developing your website.
At its core, website design involves determining where all of your content will appear on the screen; that’s why choosing an HTML template—one whose layout and structure is already predetermined by CSS code—is so essential for creating websites.
Once you’ve chosen a website template and started building out your website’s framework in HTML (and possibly some additional coding languages like CSS or JavaScript), it’s time to turn those templates into real, live websites.
To do that, you have to develop your website, bringing together all of its parts – including copywriting, photos, graphics, and layouts – into a fully-functioning web presence.
You can always hire the top-rated web developers in India to get a highly-functional website at a very affordable price.
Step 5- Testing and Launching
During testing, an initial website is built, tested, and analyzed to ensure it has no bugs. If a site is a buggy or full of mistakes and errors, it is not ready for launch.
Once a site is tested and confirmed as functional and error-free by developers, it can be launched in a beta version to see how users interact with it on live servers (instead of just being tested on local computer servers). Any issues that arise at this stage are fixed before going live.
The final step involves getting all necessary traffic sources to point toward your new website; then, you’re officially live!
Keep in mind that once a website goes live, it will undergo continuous development to accommodate any changes that arise over time.
Step 6- Search Engine Optimization
SEO, or search engine optimization, has become a significant aspect of website development in recent years. The process involves professional web designers and developers researching keywords and keyword combinations that target highly-trafficked areas of interest.
By doing so, they can increase traffic to their clients’ websites through organic searches while decreasing their dependence on paid advertisements (like Google AdWords).
Step 7- Managing Your Website
Once you’ve completed your website development process and have a product that’s ready to go live, it’s time to start managing your site. This includes updating your site with new content and monitoring where people visit your site and how long they spend there.
All of these stats can give you insights into how effectively you’re marketing yourself and what needs more work. Moreover, tracking them over time will tell you if traffic is increasing or decreasing—and why. A variety of free tools like Google Analytics make all of these tasks simple.
Read Also: Top 10 Project Management Tools for Software Development in 2022
Wrapping Up!
The process of developing a website can be fairly complex but as long as you follow these seven easy steps, you should create a website that aligns with your brand goals. And even if you’re working with a web development outsourcing company, these steps can help ensure both parties are on the same page during the website design and development process. By taking each step seriously and following them closely, you can rest assured that your website will reflect your business values accurately.
Thank You!
