Website Development Process: From Idea to Launch

As a business owner, you recognize the importance of having a good website but you’re not sure where to start. When it comes to the website development process, the right team can make the difference between a successful asset and a costly liability.

To help marketers and companies create websites that are engaging, powerful, and responsive, AWEBCO has created a clear process that is easy to follow for everyone involved. As you see the stages of our website development process unfold, you’ll quickly find how we can help you create a lasting impression on people who discover your brand.

1. Project Brief

To kickstart the web development process, we’ll send a project brief for you to fill out about your wants, needs, and goals. This will be how we gather your company details and essential contact information for future communications.

The brief will then ask questions about what type of website you need, whether it’s an eCommerce site or one that lists your services. The type of website you’re building plays a major role in the planning process and ensures the site has all the features it needs.

From there, you’ll also be able to mention your project budget and a timeline you require for its completion.

2. Scope Meeting

You can only learn so much from a written document like a project brief, which is why we also schedule a scope meeting to discuss your website needs in further detail. Depending on your location and personal needs, we can schedule these meetings to be in person, over the phone, or on a Zoom call.

Whenever possible, we like to have an in-person conversation or through a video call as it makes it much easier to go over everything. But we also adapt to other situations with clients based on their specific needs.

Regardless of how we conduct the scope meeting, it provides an opportunity to go over our website development process checklist and confirm we have all the info necessary to provide a clear proposal for the project.

3. Plan & Proposal

After all of the details have been gathered, the next step is for our team to put together a clear plan of action for your website. We’ll consider your budget and the timeframe you’re looking at as we determine exactly how we can help you achieve your goals.

As the plan comes together, we’ll include everything in a proposal for you to review. The proposal will give you an overview of our step-by-step website development process and will include a pricing quote for the job. In the proposal, we’ll list the various pages that will be included on your website such as the homepage, about page, service pages, products, contact info, and others.

4. Proposal Agreement

Once you’ve received the proposed plan for your website, you’ll want to review it closely to ensure it fits your brand and the objectives that are important to you. If you feel comfortable with the suggested proposal, you’ll simply need to sign and return it to us.

At the point where the agreement is in place, any further additional additions will need to be discussed as a separate project to prevent the initial plan from going out of scope. It is very important that you read through the proposal carefully to ensure it covers everything you want to accomplish.

5. 50% Deposit Due

When you are ready to move forward and have signed the proposal, 50% of the website cost will be due upfront. This amount is required before work starts on the website and is used to ensure both parties are committed to the project. Payments can be made with a debit/credit card through an innovative and easy-to-use payment dashboard.

6. Submit Your Content

Thanks to the planning stage of the website development process, we’ll already know what pages we are going to create. As those pages are put together, it will be your responsibility to provide us with the content that will be shared across the site.

Content includes key aspects such as images, graphics, videos, and copywriting. You’ll want to share details about your company and your industry on your homepage. While your product or service pages will have more specific descriptions of what you have to offer people that visit your website.

7. Content Creation

If you don’t have a talented writer on your team or photographs that can be used, AWEBCO can also assist you with the website content development process. Your content plays one of the most crucial roles in helping it rank on Google and other search engines so more people can find your site.

As an example, relevant written content is essential for including keywords that people are searching for within your industry. While photos and graphics will be helpful in capturing attention and breaking up the text on each page.

Anytime you can also include video on your website, it can be a tremendous benefit for your website and improve the likelihood that you’ll climb the search rankings on sites like Google.

Since written content, photos, and videos are not generally part of the original scope of work, there can be additional charges for these.

8. Website Design

Before the content is completed, we’ll begin the website design and development process. Our team will use factors such as your logo, your brand, your industry, and other details to create a design that is customized to your business.

This initial design will only include the homepage so you can see how it will look and feel to navigate the page. Other parts of the website such as product pages, the about section, and contact page will be based on the same design to ensure consistency and the best branding practices.

Our design concepts are based around user experience, your target audience, our site map, and your company goals for the website. Every website we create is 100% unique and not designed on a template like many others.

9. Design Revisions & Approval

You’ll get access to an initial draft of your homepage that you can scan and review to make sure it fits your desired style. On the page, you can click on areas you want to change or improve with an option to add any specific notes for the designer.

You can mention what you do like, which will help them use more on other pages. On the other hand, you can leave comments about things you don’t like so they can be fixed to fit your needs.

As soon as you are happy with the design, you’ll be able to approve the concept and move forward to the next stages of the website development process. It’s vital that you take a close look and confirm your homepage is the way you want before giving it the “thumbs up”. Any additional changes after your approval will require billing for additional design time at an hourly rate.

10. Website Development

Your approval of the design makes it possible for our team to move into the development stage of your site. This process follows a strict procedure of putting together everything from the backend to what is visibly seen on each page. It is generally the most time-intensive part of the entire project as there is a lot of technical work going on behind the scenes.

11. Content Installation

Throughout the process of developing your website, we will begin to plug in the pieces of content you have provided us. As pages are created, we’ll add the product descriptions, details about your team, and the best ways site visitors can contact you.

Another important part of this step is including an effective call-to-action (CTA) on each page, which will help people know the next action they should take. These CTAs can be subscription buttons for a monthly newsletter, links to your blog, downloadable content, and more.

12. Content Revisions & Approval

Now, you get to do a complete run-through of your site to review every page, picture, and product. As you go through the content, you’ll want to add comments on any changes or adjustments you’d like to make. It’s also a good idea to review the pages for typos or other incorrect information that needs to be fixed.

When you are completely satisfied with the result and feel everything is in order, you can give your final approval.

13. Approval to Launch

The ‘Approval to Launch’ agreement form states that you are 100% pleased with the website design, the content, and its overall functionality. This is the final step in the editing and review process before we move toward making your site public.

14. Pay Remaining 50%

Before your website is finalized and published online, the remaining 50% balance will be due. The payment is required at the point when you are happy with the website and have no additional inquiries before our team moves on to its own final analysis.

15. Website Development Process Checklist

AWEBCO has created a checklist that we follow for each and every site we design. It ensures that we never miss a step and that everything is fully functional before your website is shared with the world.

The basics of our website development process checklist include:

• On-page SEO: Checking for proper page structure, heading, meta titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, and the integration of relevant analytics.
• WordPress Plugins: Some of the most common plugins we use for our websites include broken link monitors, website speed & caching, SEO, site security, forms, and others you may have requested.
• Website Launch Standards: Developed 404 Error pages, thank you pages, social media links, SSL setup, .htaccess modifications, anti-spam captchas, and more.
• Daily Backups: It is essential to run daily backups to ensure your website never loses any information and can easily be rebooted if needed.
• Security Scans: Regular site scans look for viruses, spamware, and other issues that may be trying to steal your information or your customers’ information.
• Uptime Monitoring: This statistic tracks the overall amount of time that your website is up and running. It will notify us anytime the website servers go down.

16. Search Engine Submission

Every marketer and SEO expert understands the importance of having a website that ranks on Google and other search engines. To expedite this process, we submit your website manually to Google and Bing so that your site is indexed as quickly as possible. This makes it more likely that your website will begin to show up in their search results faster.

17. Website Launch

Easily the most exciting step in the process of developing a website is launch day. Your website will officially be published online and become viewable to people all over the world.

While site traffic doesn’t always come immediately, there are a handful of steps you can take to promote your new website. Sharing about the launch on social media, posting press releases, and adding your site to local listing pages are only a few of the tactics you can use to let people know it is up and running.

18. Regularly Update Website

While many business owners simply leave their site alone once it has been published, you should never settle for inaction when it comes to your website. Instead, put an emphasis on frequently sharing new and exciting content with your followers and visitors.

It’s a great idea to update your website regularly with new content such as blog posts, additional service pages, new products, and promotions you are currently offering. The more authoritative your content is, the more opportunities you’ll have to rank for additional keyword terms that are relevant to your brand and your industry.

Making occasional additions and tweaks to your site can also keep it fresh and avoid visitors getting bored of seeing the same thing every time they come to your homepage.

19. Support Portal for Issues

While you will have access to add content yourself whenever you’d like, AWEBCO also provides access to a support portal whenever you need assistance. The portal is user-friendly and gives you the chance to request updates or additions to the website as needed.

Support tickets are handled quickly to ensure the website always looks the way you want it to and runs smoothly.

20. Reporting Dashboard

No website development process would be complete without proper reporting and analytics. As a business owner who is investing in an asset like a website, you deserve to know how it is performing.

With a fully functional reporting dashboard, AWEBCO gives you the ability to track changes, support tickets, traffic analytics, and other relevant details. You can easily access this information by logging into your account at any time.

Enjoy a Smooth Website Development Process from Start to Finish

A website is the most vital asset for a company’s online presence. It helps your business stand out from the competition and provides your potential customers with all the information and assistance they need.

You can know you’re working with a reliable web design company when they follow a step-by-step website development process. AWEBCO has successfully created hundreds of websites thanks to the clearly defined procedure we follow every time.

Reach out to our team today to get started on your new website!