No two websites follow exactly the same design & development process however below we have outlined the key common aspects.
This is an exercise in combining the client's expertise in their products, services & market sector with our expertise in how best to present your organisation to your target audiences on-line. We would typically cover the following:
This will allow us to flesh out a brief covering aspects including 'look & feel', functions & features & site structure.
We will develop a representative page (usually the home page), presented on-line showing you our interpretation of the brief. The task is to provide clear idea of what the final site will generally look like, allowing you to provide initial feedback on the proposed approach.
In order to complete this we'd need to have identified with you the various elements that will need to be displayed. This would include:
Your comments & suggestions you feedback after having sight of the initial visual will be discussed & noted, so they can be reflected in either a modified initial visual (if required) or the developed visuals/1st proofs.
With your feedback from the initial visual/s in place these developed visuals will be an accurate representation of the final pages & associated features. In order for us to complete this stage you will have needed to supply the following:
Where you may be interested in your website performing as well as possible on search engines it is important that the final copy you supply and how it is organised into the page/section/subsection structure of the website reflects our good practice guidelines laid out in our 'Copywriting for Search Engines' section.
We recommend IStock as a good source of high quality, relatively inexpensive photos, graphics & illustrations that can be used on your website & other marketing materials. The banner below will take you to IStock, where you can search for images & add them to a Lightboxs, so they can be found later.
The second proof stage is an opportunity to incorporate any amendments identified when proofing the 1st proofs. Typically these should be relativity 'light', where care has been taken over previous stages. Where necessary subsequent proof stages can be used to 'weed out stragglers' but are really needed.
With all the content in place & the site developed to the clients satisfaction, it's time to compete the testing of any outstanding elements such as enquiry forms etc. Once this has been completed successfully the site can then be set live.
While the site will be available from it's domain name, it may take anything from a few days to a few weeks for the site to be indexed and appear in 'organic search results' of search engines. Where 'pay per click' campaigns have been set up, the site will appear in the associated sponsored results as soon as the campaign is 'turned on'.
