The Importance of Planning a Website
Imagine being confronted with an 11 x 14 canvas with nothing on it. That’s essentially what happens when a website is delivered without a proper planning process.
This first step involves identifying the information architecture of the website and creating a shell that will serve as a template for internal pages. This is also where the team will begin defining the overall look and feel of the site.
The Outline
A website is a tool that businesses use to market and sell products or services. In order to be successful, a website needs to have a clear purpose and objectives, be easy for users to navigate and find what they are looking for, and provide the right level of information at the right time. This is why planning a website is so important. It allows a business to create a site that will meet all of their goals and expectations. SIG Digital conduct comprehensive keyword research, technical audits, and competitor analysis to tailor a bespoke strategy for your business. They've worked with many industries – whether you're looking for roofing website design, plumbing, or any industry!
A comprehensive planning process starts with defining the type of website that a business intends to build, its scope and scale, and the purposes it will serve. This will help the business to establish what kind of content they need, including a variety of visual assets, such as photos and videos. It will also be necessary to gather information on the audience and its preferences.
Next, the business will need to determine the budget for the project. This will include the costs of building the site as well as ongoing maintenance costs. It is also a good idea to consider the potential for future expansions, such as integration with CRM software, marketing automation tools, and social media platforms.
Once the business has determined the scope and scale of the website, they can begin to create a plan for the layout. This will include a sitemap that will allow them to organize the content into sections and pages that are easy for users to jump from one section to another.
The planning process should also include an analysis of the skills and resources needed to develop, construct, deploy, and maintain the web. A good planning process will also include a consideration of the accessibility issues that will affect the web’s intended audience, such as those with limited computer capacity or who use assistive technologies.
UX (user experience) design should be a key part of the planning process. Gapinski said that a rigorous process of testing user interface elements should be built into the development schedule. This will ensure that things like hover states and the visual and sound feedback that occurs when a user moves their cursor over an item, are consistent throughout the website.
The Design
A website’s design is what makes it stand out in the digital space. It’s important to create a user-friendly, attractive and consistent look throughout the site, as it will make it easier for visitors to navigate. This also helps to keep your brand image consistent with your current marketing efforts and other offline content.
This is a big step in the development process because it determines how a website will function and appear on both desktop and mobile devices. The design will also determine how a website will integrate with other platforms and tools that your business relies on. For example, a CRM system or email service can be integrated to help track customer data and interactions with your company.
The design phase includes creating a site map to provide a bird’s eye view of the layout and structure of pages. It will help web developers understand the relationships between pages and will encourage them to consider the structure of each page. This will ensure that all pages are properly linked and are easily accessible from a mobile device.
Web developers will then use the wireframes, designs and other information they have gathered in the planning stage to start coding and building the website. This is a time-consuming and complex task that requires extensive testing to ensure compatibility, functionality and security.
Depending on the size of the project, the team may choose to employ the use of frameworks, new libraries, coding environments and deployment tools that can speed up the build process. This will save time, effort and money in the long run, so it is worth looking into these options during the planning phase.
When designing the website, it’s a good idea to create multiple designs for clients to review and provide feedback on. This will help to ensure that the design is aligned with the client’s vision and expectations. It will also help to make the design process more collaborative and less frustrating.
The Development
Website development requires a significant amount of time and resources. A good way to prevent errors, missed deadlines and project overruns is through careful planning. This includes determining the scope of work, timeline and project costs. It also involves identifying and communicating expectations from the client. This helps minimize the risk of misunderstandings and misalignment between parties and ensures that all deliverables are met on time.
When the site outline and wireframes are approved by the client, the design phase begins. This is where the site takes shape and all visual content is created. This is an important step in the web development process because it can be very easy to make a mistake that negatively impacts the user experience and the overall success of a website.
This is why it’s so important to plan a website carefully from the outset and to keep the client informed throughout the design process. Without clear expectations, the client may be disappointed when their website doesn’t meet their initial goals or requirements. This can lead to a negative relationship between the agency and client, or it could cause the client to go with a competitor who has a better understanding of their needs.
To ensure that a website meets its intended objectives, the design process should include an analysis of competitors’ sites. This will help the team determine how to differentiate their product from theirs and find a unique approach to their client’s challenges. It is also essential to consider the cultural and demographic needs of the target audience in order to create a website that is relevant to them.
For example, a site targeting pet owners may need to include information about local pet services or vets. Similarly, a website targeted at B2B clients may need to highlight the company’s specialized capabilities.
It is essential for the design process to be flexible, so that it can accommodate changing business needs. It is also a good idea to build in some scalability to allow for future growth. This is done by designing a structure that can be easily modified to add new pages, features and functionality.
The Launch
A website requires proper content for it to function properly. This is especially important for websites that deal with products or services, as the type of goods sold may affect the website's aesthetics and the marketing strategies used to reach out to potential customers.
During the planning stage, it's important to plan out how each of the pages on a website will look and be structured. This is where a sitemap comes in handy as it helps to map out how the various pages will be linked together, which can help users easily navigate the website. This step is also a good time to make sure that all of the required third-party plugins have been installed and configured properly. This can save a lot of time in the future as it eliminates the need to repeat work and can help ensure that all of the plugins are functioning correctly.
In the development phase, a website will be built out in accordance with the design and planning steps that have been taken. This includes building out the homepage and all of the other pages that are necessary for a successful website. This is a technology-heavy process that involves writing thousands of lines of code and checking for minor to major errors. It's important to check for these errors because even one small bug can have a significant impact on the user experience and can lead to frustration.
Once the website is completed, it will be tested out for bugs and other issues before being launched. This is important because it can reveal some issues that were overlooked during the development process and will give users a better, more consistent experience when using the website.
Once everything is tested out and approved, the website will be launched and made live for the world to see. This is a big step as it will allow the business to start getting traffic and leads from their new website. As a website continues to grow, it will need regular maintenance and updates to keep it running smoothly. This can include anything from updating outdated content to adding new features as they become available.
Imagine being confronted with an 11 x 14 canvas with nothing on it. That’s essentially what happens when a website is delivered without a proper planning process. This first step involves identifying the information architecture of the website and creating a shell that will serve as a template for internal pages. This is also where…