There are many considerations that you should be aware of before you can begin with your website design and development project. It is vital that you address or establish the components described in the following items first before finalizing the design, style and content of your website. These considerations include:
- Defining the goals of your website
The way your website is designed and your content planned and established would depend largely on the goals you intended for your website. Each particular website should have a specific goal: from increasing the online visibility of your products or services to serving as an online storefront or sales channel for your business – and it should be clear to you which goal you should focus on.
- Defining the target audience of your website
Once you’ve defined your goal, you should then establish who your target audiences are. You should know the specific consumer demographic who would be interested in what your business and brand can offer and how your products or services can specifically meet their needs.
- Defining how you would interact with your website visitors
You should also plan on how you would like to interact with your target audience in terms of content and features that you will include in your website. These features are included as ways of helping your visitors get the information or content that they need and that your website can supply. You should also plan how you can get the contact information of your website visitors like including tools that you can use to allow them to subscribe to a newsletter or mailing list.
- Choosing the Domain Name you will use for your website
The domain name of your website is your address in the Internet and the primary way for people to find and get to your site. Just like keyword research, choosing the right domain name that is not only easy to remember, but can also represent what your website contains in just a few words. Register your chosen domain to a reliable registry service and make considerations in making your registration private to protect your personal information from spammers and identity thieves.
- Choosing the right hosting services for your website
Once you’ve registered a domain, it is now time to select where your website files will be physically stored. The cost for hosting depends on the type of servers, bandwidth, storage capacities, and features included. Choose a hosting package that will be in line with the purpose of your website (ex: online store facilities if you want to sell through your website) and get it from a reliable and reputable hosting provider.
The Phases of a Web Design and Development Project
Website design and development projects are accomplished through various phases. It would be to your greatest advantage to have your website built by going through each of these phases to ensure that every important aspect is addressed and established. Without going into the minute detail, the following provides an overview to each of these developmental phases.
- Gathering Information
Much of the information you need for your design and development project was discussed earlier in the preliminary considerations like the goals of your website and target audiences among others. It would also be wise at his point to already maintain a list and actual materials that you would like to add as your content, so you don’t have to scramble in search of materials halfway through the development stage.
- Planning
Just like in any business endeavor, planning is an important and integral part in web development, particularly in planning for the web pages that you would like to include in your website. Creating a site map can be a great tool during the planning process as you can make a list of the topics, categories, sub-topics, special sections and other elements that you would like included in your content. You should also plan which features and other website technologies you would like to be integrated with your site.
- Design
The design stage will determine how your website will eventually look and feel to your intended visitors. This includes determining the layout, fonts, colors, graphical elements, and other visual aspects of your website. Web designers should prepare prototype designs and variations that you should choose and finalize before the actual code is developed.
- Development
While the web design can be likened to an architectural plan, the developmental stage can be likened to the actual construction work. This is where the actual website structure is created using HTML/CSS codes including themes, templates, and plugins that can be integrated with your website to make your actual website appear like what you have approved in the web design mock-ups.
- Testing
During the testing stage, all features and functionalities in your website should be tested to ensure that all codes and scripts are working as they were meant to be. This includes testing links, navigation features, forms, and other functionalities that your website should have. On top of this, your website should also be tested using different web browsers to verify if they can be viewed properly by any user. If you have a responsive web design that automatically adjusts itself depending on the viewing device used, it should also be tested using different gadgets like tablets or smartphones.
- Maintenance
Once your website is up and running, the next stage is to keep proper maintenance of your website. This includes updating your content on a regular basis and checking for errors in information among others. Maintenance also includes backing up your database and content on a regular basis as contingency for any mishaps that your website may encounter in the future. It is up to you if you want an in-house team to handle the maintenance of your website or outsource these activities to an external provider.
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