Scope

Firstly, it’s good to identify what the project will and will not include. There are a lot of associated tasks and we need to see whether these are necessary and if there is a budget for them. Tasks like creating a Facebook page or other social media accounts, or whether we need to do any branding or print design work.

We also talk about what your expectations are in terms of the outcomes of the website. From here we can agree on an itemised quote for your job.

Analysis

We look at your business and the type of services or products that you provide. We then develop a plan for the content on your site. What pages you are likely to have, and what sort of content will be on these pages.

This leads on to looking at what your keywords are likely be. It’s always good at this stage to look at how much competition there is for these keywords, and how likely it is that we will rank well in search engines for them – or whether it’s likely we will need to do more work in order to get the site ranking higher.

We also talk about what you want your site to look like. We look at your current brand and start developing an idea of what your website should look and feel like. Do you need a sleek, professional looking website, or a fun and colourful site?

Design

We start by collecting all the necessary items – your high resolution logo, branding and marketing material, imagery and any other items you have that will help us create a design that fits with your current brand.

It’s also great at this stage if all the content is written. In many cases the content is not finalised, but the closer it is to a finished proof, the better we can create the design to tell your story effectively.

And now we can start to have some fun with the project, creating concept designs, and working with the client to develop a concept into a finalised prototype.

Development

An effective design process will mean that development can be done solely by the website designer and without a lot of input from the client.

This will include developing the functionality of the website based on what was discussed and approved during the design process. It will likely include developing tools for the client to update the content of the site (A content management system).

Here we will also add all the content and images throughout the site.

Testing and Implementation

At this stage we will review the site with the client and train them on updating the system.

Once the client is happy with the website, and happy they are able to update the content easily, we will put the site live. There is a process here to go through to ensure it is all working as expected. We will also add tracking codes to keep an eye on the traffic that comes to the website.

Post Launch

It’s always interesting to revisit the website a month after it has been launched, looking at the traffic that has come to the site and seeing what areas have worked well.