The first step in designing a successful website is gathering information. Many things need to be considered when designing your site. It will reflect the image of your business in the online environment.

This first step is actually the most important, because it involves a very good knowledge of the company for which the project is being carried out. This involves a good understanding of your business goals and dreams and how the online environment can be useful to help you reach those goals.

Some things to consider are:

Purpose of the website
What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product?

Main objectives
What do you hope to achieve by building this website? Two of the most common goals are either to make money or to share information.

Target audience
Is there a specific group of people who will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to imagine the “ideal” person you want to visit your website. Consider their age, gender or interests – this will later help us determine the best design style for your site.

Content
What kind of information will your target audience search for on your site? Looking for specific information, a specific product or service, online order?

Using the information gathered from the first stage, it is time to make a plan for your project. This is where a map of the website or project is developed.

The website map is a list of all the main areas of the website, as well as sub-topics, if any. This serves as a guide to what content will be on the site and is essential for the development process in order to have a consistent and easy-to-understand navigation system for the end-user of the website – aka your client – that needs to be considered when designing the site – of yours drems. 

A good user interface makes a website easy to navigate and is the basis for it.

In the planning phase, we will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Such as CMS (content management system), e.g. WordPress, if contact forms will be required, etc.

Based on the information gathered so far, it’s time to define the look of your site.

The target audience is one of the key factors considered. A site for teens, for example, will look much different than a site for a financial institution. As part of the design phase, it is also important to incorporate elements such as company logo or colors to help strengthen your business identity in the online environment.

We will create one or more prototype templates for your site. This is usually a .jpg image of the final look. We will send an email with layouts for your site.

In this phase, communication between us and you is crucial to ensure that the final website will fit your needs and expectations. It is important to work closely with your designer, changing ideas, until you reach the final design for your website.

Then the development can begin …

Writing and compiling content usually overlap with other stages of site creation, and its role cannot be underestimated. At this step, you need to put in writing the essence you want to communicate to your audience. Writing content also involves creating titles that capture attention, writing new text, compiling existing text, etc., which requires time and effort. It is good when all the content of the site is provided before or during the coding of the site so that it can be displayed in a way that is easy to understand by your visitor / client.

The development stage is the point at which the website itself is created. At this point, the web designer will take over all the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the functional website.

This is usually done by first developing the homepage, followed by a template for the inner pages. The template is used because it contains the main navigation structure for your website. Once the template has been created, your designer will take the content and distribute it on the site, in the appropriate areas.

Elements such as CMS (content management system), such as WordPress, interactive contact forms or e-commerce shopping carts are also implemented and functional in this phase.

In the meantime, your designer should continue to make your website available to you for viewing, so that you may be informed of any additional changes or corrections you may wish to make.

On the technical side, a successful web site requires an understanding of web interface development. This involves writing valid HTML / CSS code, which respects current web standards, maximizing functionality as well as accessibility to the public.

It is tested in the next phase …

At this point, your web designer will implement the final details and test the website. It will test things like the full functionality of forms or other scripts, as well as last-minute testing for compatibility issues (viewing differences between different devices – laptop – tablet – phone – web browsers), making sure that site – your web site is optimized to be viewed correctly.

Once you give the web designer final approval, it’s time to deliver your site. A File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program is used to upload the website files to your server. After these accounts have been set up and the website uploaded to the server, it should be tested for the last time. This is just a precaution, to confirm that all files have been uploaded correctly and that the site continues to be fully functional.

Other final details include the installation of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) module. SEO is optimizing your website with elements such as title, description and keywords that help the website get higher ranking in the search engines.

There are a lot of details involved in search engine optimization, which is why this is a very important step, because even though you now have a website, you need to make sure that people can find it!

However, developing your website does not necessarily end here. One way to bring repeat visitors to your website is to provide new content or products on a regular basis. So at Websly.eu we are more than happy to continue working with you, updating the information on your website.