When you are giving thought to creating a website, not only do you worry about the content or design but also about maintaining a developed website. If you are wondering if is it possible to achieve all the fundamentals of web development in one go? No, all it requires is a step-by-step process to start with by considering both user needs and business persona into an account.
The website development process isn’t easy as it seems, it is an image of the company portrayed to customers. It requires a highly optimized and functioning design that eases access and enhances the experience for end- users. With the growing interest in digital platforms, having an aptly designed website aids in bringing the business to new heights.
What is Website Development?
Website development is a process that involves multiple executions of ideas and implementation phases. The fundamentals of the website developing process are analysis, design, development, testing & review, deployment, and maintenance. Creating a website has two main stages, one is developing a functional website that embarks the structure of the business. Another is designing a website that enhances the ability of the business application and meets the needs of the end users.
A well-designed website not only attracts visitors but also aids in understanding the business, brand, and services provided by the company without any complications. Every minute detail presented on the website helps towards meeting the defined goal by the company.
So, how do you achieve it? By focusing on every possible detail of the business or a company, you need to initiate the step-by-step process to build the website.
What Are the Steps for Developing a Website?
Before heading the steps for developing a website, any website developer should be aware of the Website Development Timeline. The website timelineis a strategy to be thought through before initiating the website build such as the cost of developing the website and the duration. This can be well planned if the size and scope of the website are pre-known or discussed.
There are several project management tools available in the market to track the implementation of the process to meet the deadline beforehand. Once the scope of the website is made organized, then you can follow the steps to build the website.
7 Easy Steps for Developing a Website
1. Research and Analysis
For any process to start, research and analysis with respect to the website is needed. Identifying a goal and gathering as much as information available are two important parts of any research.
Few main queries that have to be answered while setting a goal are- Who is the target audience? What does the website offer? The primary goal of the website is its informational, navigational, or transactional identity. If the company is service based. What is the broad spectrum of services available for all kinds of users? Last but not least, who are the competitors of the website? It is always recommended to have a broad vision toward the competitor to have the inspiration to provide the best results.
These are a few important queries one should consider before planning any website. An estimated time to complete the research and analysis would vary from 1 to 2 weeks or more based on the size of the website. This will help you build the website in the right direction.
2. Planning
After all the necessary information has been gathered, it’s time for planning sitemaps and wireframes. At this stage of creation, the developer allows the user or customers to witness the flow of information gathered from the previous stage.
A Sitemap allows you to connect all the main platforms of your website. Such website representation allows you to understand the internal structure of the business. It also allows you to know how well different pages are connected and most importantly it provides easy navigation through the site.
A Wireframe is a visual description of a site that allows users to view features and services of the website in a better-communicated way. This representation involves login, subscription, live chat, etc.
An estimated time to complete the process is 3 to 6 weeks based on how well the interface is portrayed.
3. Design
Designing the website is a key phase of website building that aids you in your business success. Any design is created to attract the users therefore it has to be designed based on the target audience of the business.
However, if appropriate research is done at stage 1, this phase becomes easy to accomplish. For example, the website design for e-commerce is completely different from the website created for any medical facility. A website theme, layout, color, images, videos, and everything plays an equally important role in making the website interesting and taking the website to heights without any design mistakes.
This stage comprises 3 crucial things- page layout, review of the design, and approval cycle by the management. Therefore, the estimated time to accomplish this stage of web development is 5 to 12 weeks based on the graphical representation and user interface that has to be delivered.
4. Development
Until this step, all the visual or graphical representations of the website will be taken care of. In the development process, most work will be carried out by developers on creating the programmable code to run the website smoothly.
At the initial processing stage, the home page and landing pages were created first and the rest of the pages were added later as per the structure of the sitemap. Therefore, the estimated time to complete the process may vary up to 15-20 weeks.
5. Content Management
Once you are aware of your design and development of the website, next comes content management. Content management holds a great part of your business success because what you portray in the form of content is what reaches the customers. How well you can organize the content or how well you can deliver the message to the customers without complicating and compromising the quality of content are the two main keys to successful content development.
Content writing involves how creative your writing could be, starting with headlines, proofreading, paragraphs, visual entities, and many more. Nowadays to stay at the top, proper SEO has to be included in your work. Having knowledge of all the SERPs and updates related to your business is mandatory.
To have an overall concept of understanding and create quality content for the initial process may take 5-10 weeks. However, content updation has to be carried on a routine without letting it stop. If updating the site is stopped, it directly affects the metrics of the site.
6. Testing
Testing is a crucial part of the website development process, until now everything has been made ready to run the website hassle-free. In the Testing process, every page, and every code of the website is tested before launching the website. Every form, script, and programmed code will be tested under various scenarios or devices to make sure the website runs flawlessly.
Key things to focus on while testing:
- Largest contentful Paint- Calculates the time a page takes to load (2.5 sec or lower)
- First Input Delay- The time taken by a user to make his first interaction with the website (100ms or lower)
- Cumulative Layout shift- Shifts in the layout when viewed on different devices such as desktop and mobile devices (0.1 or lower)
7. Maintenance
What is the most important role of a website? Is it just one time delivering the service to its user? No, it has to be constantly updated and maintained to achieve its goal. You need to make sure the website runs fine and cope with the update of the market on your platform.
To maintain the website, one best ways is to have a feedback system so that problems faced by the users can directly be addressed quickly. Creating a support team to handle any queries related to the service provided by the website or business build customer and brand relationship.
If the website is not well maintained, you may lose your potential customers. Therefore, not only developing or designing but also maintaining the website plays a key role in bringing the website live.
Once you completely comprehend the website creation process, you need to focus on making the website run. Web developers are responsible for creating an easy and functional website with a creative user interface. In the next section, you will be able to understand three types of development that is required to make your website function.
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