You need a website. Sure, you could use one of those build it yourself services… but there is more than design to proper web development… much, much more… What about making sure your site looks good on Mac and PC? What about tablets or phones or other mobile devices? How do you know that your site will function on ALL modern browsers? And what the heck does S.E.O. mean? You see, there are advantages to hiring a professional web developer with proper design and coding knowledge.
OUR PROCESS
Planning: We sit down with you to discuss YOUR goals. This will translate to what type of website you need and what features it should have. Maybe you want to start selling your homemade cookies on the web and need a site that offers you the ability to post your own pictures and adjust prices all with ease. And you don’t want to have to pay additional fees, just because you have an eCommerce site instead of basic one that you can make with do it yourself services.
Research: You probably have a good idea of what you want after the first consultation. But what about all of the OPTIONS you don’t know about? A professional web developer will know all kinds of new trends and tricks. Some of which we may be able to put into your site. You will be presented with several examples of great websites similar to your idea. Each will show you potential design and features that you may want us to incorporate into your dream. But a word of warning… keep it simple. You don’t want to disorient your potential customers.
Architecture: This is the point where we figure out what parts your website needs to have and how they should connect to one another. You wouldn’t start to build a house without having a plan right? We’ll do this by drawing out a “blueprint” or “road map” of how your site will be setup.
Visual Design: Once you have approved your website’s blueprint, we’ll submit to you some design options of how your site could look. Please feel free to give your input here. This is after all, your website. We will be here to help guide you in the latest trends, but if you want a website that looks like it was made in the 90’s, that is ABSOLUTELY fine. Fonts, colors, sizes, layout of pages, and pictures, it all gets drawn here… literally. The samples you’ll see are suggestions.
Template: At this point we have all the information that we need to begin coding your website. We’ll start with a template page. This page will show you all of the design features, previously agreed upon in a real web browser. Seeing how your site WILL look to your visitors, may prompt for additional or last minute changes. Or not… If you like what you see, we can begin building the rest of your website’s pages according to the blueprint we created previously. You have to provide the content, pictures, text etc.
Development and Testing: Your work is done here. We do all the necessary code to complete your website’s pages, look and feel. We also test your website in the major browsers and across multiple platforms and devices. Your website, will look good and function properly, no matter what your users use to view it. We also program all of the necessary “hidden code” for Search Engine Optimization and other web standards.
Launch: Fully tested and optimized your website is ready to go live. Once live your site must be properly indexed and submitted to search engines. But don’t worry, we handle that too.
Maintenance and Updates: Websites are organic, that is, they can evolve in style to change with the times and sometimes they can even get sick. Let’s say your site gets hacked, hey it even happens to the big sites; what would you do? Well, routine maintenance and updates are part of our service to help prevent that sort of thing. And if something does happen, we’ll know what to do.
As you can see, there is a lot more to web development than just building a website. Do you still think you want to do it alone? That’s okay… we’re here to help.
