Exploring The Journey Of Developing A Website: What To Expect

Information Gathering Phase

The first phase in developing a successful website is to gather all the information. Many things are to be taken into consideration when your website is being designed and developed.

This is the first phase of the task and probably the most important phase, as you need to set the groundwork for everything. This is the phase where the web development agency needs to know about your company, your target audience, and your business goals.

This phase should consider the following:

• Project Overview: Outline the general overview of the project, the people in the organization, the organization overview, and what makes you different from other organizations.
• Goal: What is your main motive to accomplish by building the website? Common goals are either making money or sharing information.
• Target Audience: Who will help the organization to achieve its goal? It is helpful to figure out the ideal audience you want to visit your website.
• Content: What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your website? Are they looking for information, a particular product, or online ordering?

This is the most important part of the website design and development process. If the questions mentioned above are not clear, then the whole project will take off in the wrong direction.

Planning Phase

In this phase of website development, the developers create the data flow that allows customers to see what the entire site will look like.

Using the information gathered from the previous phase, the sitemap is being created.

The sitemap allows you to understand what the inner shape of the website will look like but doesn’t describe the user interface. Many a time, before you start your work on developing or on the design you need to take approval from the customer that everything is fine and you can begin with the next phase of development. In this phase, a wireframe is created. A wireframe is a visual representation of the user interface. A wireframe does not contain any design elements like logos, colors, etc., but acts as a production design of the page layout.

During the planning phase, web designers will help you to decide which tools and technologies should be executed. Technologies like which Framework, CMS (Content Management System), and Programming language they are going to use.

Tools that you can use for site mapping and wireframing are:

• Balsamiq.
• Moqups.
• Axure.
• Webflow.
• Mindnode.
• Pen/pencil and paper

Designing Phase

During this phase, your website takes shape. All the visual content, images, and videos are added in this step. All the information gathered in phase one plays an important role in determining the look and design of the website.

The target audience is a key factor that should be taken into consideration. It is important to remember that adding the company’s logo or colors to the site will strengthen the identity of your business website.

In this phase, the customers can review the design layout of the website and share their feedback. Communication between you and the designer is important to meet the needs of the website. It will be great if you closely work with the designer and share his thoughts and views with him until you are satisfied with the website design.

The Content Developing Phase

The content developing phase can overlap with the design phase, and can be started just after sitemaps are being accepted. When you are in this phase, it is important to write effective content so that you can communicate with the audience of your website.

This phase contains the following:

• Gather or collect content
• Research
• Outline unique page content for your website
• Purchase or photoshoot new images
• Identify and gather information for graphic elements

A copy of the file or document can be arranged that contains all the copies for the website, organized according to the Sitemaps. Once a file or document is approved, the designing team can add a copy of the file to your website or if you are using a content management system then you can add your own content.

Coding Phase

The coding phase is a phase where your website is being constructed, and where your design comes to life. Generally, the home page is created first, and after that, all the subpages are added to the internet site. Elements such as CMS (Content Management System) and theoretical accounts are executed to assure that the server can take care of installation steadily.

Make sure that your designer work continues to shape up your website so that it is available to you for viewing and you can advise him on what all changes are to be executed.

If you are using a CMS then you can add a CMS plugin to your internet site. The other major element of the website is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is a procedure of improving the website ranking so that it ranks on top of the search engine. Ensure that you add a valid code when working on SEO.

Site Testing Phase

Before the site is launched, it should be thoroughly examined by your design and development team and finally reviewed internally. Testing a website is necessary because all the topics should be rectified before the website goes live. There is nothing worse than a website that is not functioning right. In this phase, the website is being reviewed on multiple browsers and multiple devices to visualize where the breaks occur.

Some Website Testing tools that you use are:

• Maveryx
• Ranorex Studio
• SEO Spider

Launch Phase

Now, this is the favorite part of the website design process. After the website is thoroughly tested, it’s time to launch the website.

Don’t expect that everything will go perfectly. There may be some elements that have to be fixed. Web development and designing is an ongoing process where your website needs constant maintenance.

Expect to make instant changes to your website like broken links, making adjustments, and editing documents. The web is an unstable medium because it keeps on changing daily.

This phase includes the following points:

• Upload the website file to the server where the launch will be done.
• Retest all the files to ensure that everything is working properly.
• Redirect your present website to a new website.
• Send words to all your stakeholders, investors, directors, and employees -via emails or social media posts.

Enjoy your new gleaming website and Celebrations all around.

Maintenance Phase

The development of your website may not be over yet. One way to bring back an audience to your website is by adding new content, and new products at a regular interval of time. Your web designer will be more than happy to continue working with you. Many a time, web development company offers website maintenance cost at a reasonable cost, based on how much you are willing to spend on your website to make changes.

The feedback system appended on the website allows you to detect issues and problems from the audience's point of view. In such cases, you need to fix the problem as soon as possible. If you are not able to fix the problem quickly, then there are chances that your targeted audience prefers another website rather than preferring your website.

If you are using a CMS for your website, then you will be able to edit or update the content of your website by yourself which can prevent your website from bugs and decrease the security risk.

Another maintenance thing that you can keep an eye on our regular site backups, adding or installing plugins, WordPress updates, and much more.