Steps for Website Development Process

by Anna K. on Apr 7, 2023

You have decided to begin a website development project. Where do you start? There are various approaches to building a website. But there is a single way to establish an effective one.

What Does the Process of Developing a Website Include?

The process of building a website is not limited to code and design. It is a multi-step system that involves a lot of people (designers, writers, developers, testers, and project managers) and is formed by a series of interdependent steps that influence the outcome to different extent. The fundamental phases of the process are typically hidden behind the scenes, even though they might determine whether the work goes in the proper direction.

Let’s go over the development lifecycle and each of the website development phases step-by-step.

Website Development Lifecycle

Do not go straight into website design. To avoid your web page becoming a complete failure with no impact on a business, handle the process correctly. First and foremost, gather the necessary information and determine how to use it later in the process.

Here are the seven key steps to develop a website from start to finish. Depending on the project, some steps may overlap or be executed in a different order.

Step #1. Discovery & Gathering Information

The development process, like any other project, begins with discovery and data analysis. It is not the most glamorous phase, but it is the most crucial. During this phase, you will define the goals, audience, competitors, and approaches to maximize sales. To set off the web development project in the right direction, the expectations you have for a website should be clarified and categorized. What will the website be about? Who will it be addressed to? How will the achieved results be evaluated? What are the platforms’ success criteria? Even two websites with the same subject but distinct audiences may look different. Comprehensive market research and data analysis protect you from spending extra resources on unexpected challenges that might arise in the future if you do not learn the industry and the customers in advance.

Step #2. Planning & Wireframe Creation

Making a plan is an excellent way to get started with the actual work. Before you move into the design and development of a website, create a future structure and hierarchy for it. Plan the conversion route, which is how you encourage website visitors to take the action you want them to take. Consider building a story as you scroll through the page, whether to show the value of the services you provide or the products you sell. The goal is to convince the visitors what you offer is worth their time and money. Wireframing guarantees that you are thinking through the user journey clearly. It gives a better picture of how a future website will look. The project can start with a rough wireframe in a notebook to get the ideas out there, and then continue in digitized form on a computer with existing concepts and ready-made components.

Step #3. Website Design

It is vital that your website is both functional and visually appealing. Previously gathered data helps in determining the structure of the platform and the specific aspects it will address. You should establish a theme that adheres to the existing brand throughout the entire process of website development, from start to finish. The emphasis is on the interface’s usability. The major guides for a visual design are the target audience and branding components (logos, typography, colors).

Step #4. Content Plan

Telling your company’s story through captivating images, videos, and text can be tricky. Not every user will read every word on your website. But Google will. You have to meet the requirements of both your customers and search engines. Act as if you are talking to a friend rather than a potential client. Hiring a professional writer at this phase is invaluable. The quality is measured not only by how the website looks and feels but also by the quality of the content it represents. Everything from product/service descriptions and CTAs to images and video scripts should be persuasive, catchy, and SEO-optimized.

SEO in the website development processes influences higher positions a platform holds on the results page of a search engine.

Step #5. Website Development

A developer takes previously proposed ideas and designs and codes them to make a web page live. The actual website building process begins here. The platform is built with programming languages and technologies. The idea evolves into a fully functional platform. Typically, the home page is created first. The remaining elements (sub-pages) are added one by one, according to the previously stated hierarchy. Specific features are the last ones to add.

Step #6. Testing & Quality Assurance

Testing is one of the most essential phases of website development process. QA engineers test all technical aspects and browser compatibility, comparing actual functionalities to expected ones. Are there any differences? Does the web page serve its purpose? The process involves planning the testing, executing test cases, analyzing the differences, and fixing bugs. It is always better and cheaper to fix the website before launching it than to launch something that does not function correctly, especially in terms of security and mobile-friendly design. Finally, regression testing is performed.

One of the last steps to developing a website is making it public.

Step #7. Website Launch

Once you have tested the website, it is ready to be presented to the rest of the world. Revealing all the hard work that has been done is probably the scariest part for the team. You cannot launch a website without a defined strategy, the right timing, and the credibility of a previously established brand. Everyone on a team has to be coordinated with one another to meet the deadline before the launch date.

Step #8. Monitoring and Updating

The website creation process does not end once the page is delivered. It is critical to continue monitoring the product to see what happens after the start. Are there any potential deficiencies or bugs? Is there anything that can be undertaken to increase the platform’s effectiveness? During the post-launch phase, developers and analysts run through checklists to validate the website from technical as well as data integrity perspectives. Updating the page continuously contributes to its accuracy and quality, especially in security upgrades and bug fixes.You cannot complete all of this entirely on your own. You may need to assemble several teams (e.g., a UX team, a QA team) to work on each of the stages of website development process. Your page is the core of your online marketing activity. It might significantly help in converting your visitors into loyal customers. As a result, the better the website, the more likely it is to achieve the result.