At our web design company, we follow a proven process to turn your online vision into a stunning reality. We’ve broken down the process into several phases, each designed to ensure your website looks and functions exactly how you want it to. Although every client has a unique starting point that affects the web design process, we’ll keep you informed of any changes during our consultation, and we’ll provide a proposal and estimate that outlines everything you need to know.
You will have the opportunity to be most involved in the Discovery, Design, and Deployment phases, and we’ll rely on your feedback when it comes to wording and images for your website pages during the Implementation phase unless we have agreed on something else.
Discovery Phase
Here’s where we get to know each other a little bit better.
To prepare ourselves, we gather and organize as much information as possible about your type of business. It would be very helpful to us if you have filled out our Website Questionnaire prior to this step.
We discuss your organization, products, and services, business goals, customer demographics, competition, etc. After that, we further explore your business, brand, industry competitors, any current sites you may have, and your analytics data to plan the solution for you. We ask specific questions to learn about your story, the people that comprise your business, your values and goals, and where you want to be upon the website’s completion. We then dive into your ideal client, their problems, and your services, packages, and buying process.
We analyze, research, and define the plan. Then we describe our solution with a new site architecture map and wireframes of key pages. It contains placement of contact forms, testimonial and image sliders, FAQs, event and news lists, calendars, and so on. You work with us to refine our solution, with two rounds of revisions available.
We provide you with a written proposal for our solution and a fixed-priced estimate. The proposal lists everything that will be included and sets a firm delivery date.
Design Phase
Once we’ve come up with a plan for your site, it’s time to turn that plan into mockups.
You provide us with any available assets like logos, colors, brand guidelines, and photography. We gather assets from your current website, namely fonts, icons, stock photography, and text content.
We will work with you to define the branding through domain name, logo, homepage banner, and preferred color set, should those not yet be available.
We create layout grids, color styles, type styles, icon styles, and theme assets. Then we design mockups of the key pages, menu systems, and any necessary interactivity. You work with us to refine our design, with two rounds of revisions available.
Implementation Phase
That’s where the rubber finally hits the road.
Before we start making any changes to your existing website, we back up all files and databases. With this backup in hand, we can always restore a working version of the webpage. (This doesn’t apply to a brand-new website.)
For a new website, we secure the chosen domain name on your behalf from a reputable website hosting company. In case you already have a working website that we are going to replace, we will not make any changes at this point. Instead, we will create the website on the side and repoint the domain name to the new website when it is ready to deploy. There are a few steps in between that depend on the domain name being switched over. Those steps defer until after the deployment.
We open the web hosting account with the agreed-upon features on your behalf and connect it with the domain name.
As soon as the new website is registered, we install the SSL certificates and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) signatures. This protects the website and ensures email deliverability.
At a minimum, we create an email account for info@yourdomain.com and also forward it to the agreed-upon personal email address.
With the domain name and email address set up, we create your Google Master account as well as the business listings and social accounts. For the business listings: Google My Business, Microsoft Bing Places, and Yelp. For the social accounts: Facebook Business Page and Instagram. We take ownership on your behalf should any of these already exist. Finally, we verify the business listings so you can make modifications to them at any time.
We create invisible Google reCAPTCHA key pairs for versions 2 and 3. These protect all forms and inputs on the website against spammers.
With WordPress being the Content Management System (CMS), the majority of the work happens here. We install the WordPress instance in a controlled development environment. It’s derived from one of our templates with all plugins installed and partially configured. Then we enter all your specific information and configure the plugins with your domain name. For a new website, it will show a generic Coming Soon page.
With the help of the WordPress plugin Google Site Kit, we create Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console, Microsoft Webmaster Tools, and Microsoft Clarity accounts. They are all tied to the Google Master account.
We first create empty pages according to the layout we defined in the design phase. Then those pages are made accessible in the menu bar and the sitemap page. Finally, we fill the pages with the appropriate information, media, and functionality. While we are working on a brand-new website, only a Coming Soon page is visible to any visitors; existing websites stay untouched.
For the eCommerce plan, we install the WooCommerce plugin and configure it together with the payment options. Depending on the agreement, we will load some or all of the products.
With all web pages finalized, we go back and carefully define the meta description, keyphrase, and keywords for each of them.
We test the finished website on various devices with different screen sizes and with several browsers.
We demonstrate the website by running through all detail pages and functionality during a virtual meeting.
We incorporate the modifications gathered from the feedback at the demonstration. Depending on the impact of the changes, we might set up another demonstration. We offer a total of two rounds of revisions.
Deployment Phase
We’re nearly there.
We are switching out the Coming Soon page with the proper Home page. In case you have an existing website, this is the time we point the domain name to the new website.
The site index generates automatically and the search engines update it regularly. Having said that, we register them anyway with Google Search Console and Microsoft Webmaster Tools to expedite this process.
We train you during a virtual meeting on how to use WordPress. We go over the WordPress login, how to make modest changes to the content, upload images, and use any of our custom post types. We also introduce you to WordPress plugins like contact forms, newsletter mailings, and opening hours. For the eCommerce plan, we show you how to run your shop with WooCommerce. No matter how complex your new website seems, anyone can edit and manage it after the training, even the least technical person on your team.
Our Online Documentation for initial training and ongoing reference is always available to you. It is a living document that we regularly update by adding or correcting information.
We will deliver all user ids and passwords created on your behalf at the end of the project in a secure manner.