Step 1: Project Definition

Anyone who is looking to sell his/her products or services on the Internet needs a website. The first step in planning a website launch is to identify the goals of the seller. What does he/she expect to accomplish by having a website for his/her business? Once the needs are determined, the website design should start with the initial layout along with domain registration and logo design.

Step 2: Project Scope

The designer must take steps to analyze the website owner’s competing websites and understand the audience’s’ response to visual content. So, the goal of the website developer should be that of identifying the possible outcomes of the website.

After analyzing and identifying the requirements of the website, it would be a great thing on your part to present a well-formatted project report to the website owner to let them know what your next step is, and get their approval before proceeding. Here are the most important elements you should be including in your project report:

A brief outline: Summarize your overall analysis and observations about the website requirement.

Goals: What the site has to accomplish through content and great visuals? This has to be the goal, which you must pass on to your team members so that the focus is on making a big impact with the website.

Target audiences: A website can have any number of target audiences from any niche. One easy way to classify them is to determine whether the website owner is focusing on B2B or B2C.

Advertisements: What kind of content can have a huge impact on the audience? How are the content and website design going to complement one another and influence the purchasing decision of the buyer positively? These are some factors that are to be considered in the process.

Every Web Design Project Is Different

Every web design project calls for a different scope. So, determining the scope of your project is always going to be a very critical step in the whole process. It would help you in many ways such as highlighting the various activities that are going to be involved, determining deliverables, and setting deadlines.

On the whole, this will help you determine the expectation of your client. There is the popular Gantt chart which is very commonly used by web development team leaders to keep track of what’s going on in the project at various crucial stages.

This chart, besides highlighting the important activities, also helps to outline the multiple tasks that are involved from start to finish. The results are displayed in visual formats so everyone in the team understands them better. What’s more, it also establishes a communication bridge between the team and the client so everybody hits the mark. There is also a scheduling feature which automatically schedules a task when a team member is on leave on a particular day.

Step 3: Site Architecture

The next step when creating a website is to focus on the site architecture and inner link structure. This includes the wire-frame and sitemap of web pages. The main purpose of creating a sitemap is to help you make sure that all key pages are factored in while planning the site layout. In turn, this will help identify the navigation capability of the site.

The other thing is wire-frame. It will give a neat preview of the content will look like when it’s published on a page. Overall, this is good when it comes to planning the hierarchy of the website.

Step 4: Visual Design

To make the site more appealing to users, you need great visuals. So, the visual design is something you’ll have to focus on next. How many images and videos will you be using in the Home page and other pages (if so)? Assign some space accordingly while developing the theme.

Step 5: Site Development

Some site owners may want to include podcasts, slideshows, and other animations in the home page. So, it’s important that you discuss with them and determine how the site development is going to be.

Step 6: Site Testing

Once the above things are executed, you’ll have to test the site and its applications to see if it’s good to go online. Upload the site on a production server so that only you and anyone with the link can view the site. When your clients ask for a demo, you can share the link with them. Testing will help you identify any issues related to the look and navigation of the site. Spelling errors or broken links can be fixed as well. You can also check if the site is compatible with mobile devices.

Step 7: Launch

After successful testing and changes, the site is ready to be hosted on your premium server (Green Geeks, Inmotion hosting or any other).

Step 8: Site Maintenance

Even after the site is launched, there has to be constant maintenance to keep it secure from hackers. Fresh content has to be updated on a regular basis to give the audience a reason to come back for more.