Website development is evolving. Here, technology, art, and psychology meet. Playing with these elements when creating a website can result in excellent results.
Website development stages vary from one developer to another and from one agency to another. To develop an excellent website, you have to monitor these stages from start to finish to ensure you come up with something concrete. according to Tampa Web Design.
Here are the stages to follow when developing a website.
- Research and Planning
Research is fundamental for any excellent web development process. It helps you get insight into what your audience would want. Thus, this enables you to shape your decisions during the design process.
How you plan would determine the subsequent process of your website development.
Planning effectively determines a positive outcome. Remember, different websites provide users with different functionalities. A teenage website would look different from a news site.
You will use different technologies to build a website depending on the functionality. It’s necessary to keep up with the current trends like responsive web design, material design, and flat design.
Here are some questions to ask yourself during information gathering.
- What goals do you have for the website?
- What target audience do you want to attract to your site?
- What’s the purpose of your website?
- How are the competitors doing, and how will you differentiate yourself from them?
The right questions help you in developing the right strategy for your website. Doing proper research helps you in coming up with a good website. Also, you won’t incur extra costs doing unexpected issues like changing the design.
To save yourself from the hassle of creating a website from scratch, seek professional help. Opting for a Web design and development agency in NYC if from around here would help you get a customized website. Web design agencies assist you in creating a successful website.
- Maps Out the Site Structure
A site map helps you create data that enables the client to judge how your entire site would look. The primary purpose of a sitemap is to create a user-friendly website that’s easy to navigate. You need to create a detailed wireframe. A wireframe defines a website’s look and how it will be used.
A site map shows the relationship between several pages of a website. Although it doesn’t describe the user interface, it allows you to understand what the website will look like clearly.
A wireframe is a visual representation of a user interface you will build. Usually, it doesn’t contain logos, colors, or other design elements. It’s artless and cheap production-wise.
3. Designing and Page Layout
Your website has now started taking shape. How a website looks or feels determines the failure or success of your site when it comes to attracting and retaining users. You create all the visual content, including photos, images, and videos. While working on these aspects, always keep the customers and the target audience in mind.
A website layout demonstrates the basic functionality of a website and represents the information structure. The layout gives a general understanding of the future product. Give your client time to review the layout before awaiting feedback.
4. Content Writing and Assembly
Content contributes to a massive percentage of website development. It includes every important message you want to communicate to your audience. Part of the content writing includes text editing, call to action, and writing of new texts.
Once a site is ready, you can migrate all the content there.
5. Coding
The coding stage is where you start to create the website itself. Use the graphic elements from the previous steps to develop the site. Start with the web pages, followed by other sub-pages according to the hierarchy you created in the site map.
Incorporate special features to add interactivity.
When using CMS to create the site, install theCMS plugins when needed. Implement CMS and framework to ensure the server can handle installation set up smoothly. Also, test all the web page elements designed during the layout and mock-up stages.
SEO is also a crucial aspect at this stage. Optimize the website elements like meta description, meta title, and keyword to achieve greater rankings in the search engines. A valid code is necessary for SEO.
6. Testing and Launching
The only way to know your website development process is successful is by conducting testing. Test every single link to ensure none of them is broken. Check every script, and form, and use spell-checking software to discover any typos.
Depending on your website, you may need to conduct tests like surveys, email marketing, and video calls. Sometimes you may have to get users to perform specific tasks.
Use code validators to confirm your code aligns with the current web standards.
Check and recheck your website severally, and once you ensure everything is right, use a file transfer protocol ( FTP) to upload it to a server.
After transferring the files here, conduct the final test to be sure the files have been installed perfectly.
7. Maintenance, Feedback, and Regular Updating
Website development doesn’t stop at delivering the website. Ensure everything works fine and be prepared to make changes once the need arises. You constantly need to monitor the performance and check it based on external responses and internal goals.
With a feedback system on the website, ensure that everything works fine and detects any problems the end-user faces.
Here are some questions to consider for prototype testing
- What do people love or dislike about the design?
- Is the user getting confused with any part of the design?
- What part of the website impresses them most?
Fix any problems as soon as you can. Always ensure the website is up to date to prevent bugs and any security risks. Evaluate your site’s different areas and identify the places you can improve.
Users need to change over time. You can create a roadmap for the future of the
Wrap up
Website development involves lots of steps. It’s not linear, and the process would vary from developer to developer. Feedback is a huge part of the website development process.
A web design agency can sort your needs out if you aren’t a web developer.
There you have it. If you follow the above steps carefully, you will have an excellent site with time.
