Our 8 Step Web Development Process:

Here are the basic steps that my team and I now use to develop a website for our clients and ourselves:

Each section is divided into five parts:

• The major step:
  • Short description of the step
    • Examples
      • Recommended service and software

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1. Website Goal:
   • The goal determines everything about how we build our sites, and what elements will go into the site.
     • Sample goals might be to make a sale, get an email address for a mailing list, give information about services, or refer people to another site.
       • WordPress. Recommended.
       • Static HTML site.
       • Other Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla (add links) or Drupal.

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2. Sitemap:
   • Once you know you goal, and begin to decide on the elements you want on your site, we can then create a visual sitemap to make sure all the included pages will be on the site.
     • Example of things you would want on a Sitemap is Home Page, Landing pages for products, About Me page as well as Contact, Sitemap and Privacy pages.
       • Visual sitemaps are created using MindMap or other software, or are simple JPG images.

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3. Layout:
   • Once the goal and sitemap are done, we begin the work of the basic layout to ensure that all the site elements will fit in a visually appealing way. We can do this for simply the home page and basic layout, or for more of the pages. This step can be omitted for quickie sites.
     • The layout is the place to figure out what the navigation will look like, where the images and videos will fit, etc. It is helpful if you have other similar sites in mind.
       • The layout is generally created using gomockingbird.com.

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4. Mockup:
   • The mockup is an actual step of creating a visual representation of the site. Like the layout, this could be done as one image for a basic site, such as a personal blog, or multiple pages could be done as mockups, such as for e-commerce sites where the home page may look very different from the product pages.
     • Examples mockup would be an image file with the full look of one or more pages of your site.
       • We create .JPG image mockups.
       • Other mock ups can be done, such as PSD.

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5. Beta Site:
   • The beta site is where we actually code everything together. Navigation and major pages and elements will be installed and hopefully functional.
     • In Beta phase you may have a site that looks like it should, but some features and pages may not be installed, work, or work correctly.
       • Beta sites are coded using HTML for static sites or PHP for CMS.

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6. Final Design:
   • This is a fully functional site. It may have some changes in design if the original functionality could not be produced as designed, or for other reasons.
     • This is a finished site with everything tested and working as it should.
       • Final design sites are coded using HTML for static sites or PHP for CMS.

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7. Promotion:
   • Ideally the site is built from the ground up with SEO (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization see my other post) and conversions in mind based on the goals from step
     • Examples of ways to promote are with SEO, PPC (Pay Per Click advertising), Video Traffic, Link Building, etc.
       • Adwords
       • YouTube
       • And more!

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8. Review and Revisions:
   • We like to think of a site as a living growing thing. And, at some point, it is time to add or remove features, test other designs, as well as to add additional content. We build all sites with Google Analytics and use numbers instead of hunches to measure how well a site works in relation to the goals.
     • There are many reasons and elements to change and test, examples would be adding in content for SEO, trying out a new theme, or image to split test, etc.
       • Google Analytics.
       • Theme split tester.
       • And More!

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Steps 7 and 8 are ongoing and happening in relation to each other.