Web Design & Development

10 Steps to the Perfect Website

The process of designing and developing a website isn’t a quick one. We refuse to cut corners, and instead spend time working through every vital task. The result? A website that functions perfectly, combining stunning design, perfect UX, purposeful content, strong SEO and simple maintenance. Once you receive your website from Search Dart, you’ll see exactly why we choose to take our time.

As we’re sure you’ll appreciate, the creation of a website is a complex process, combining hundreds, if not thousands, of micro tasks, all of which come together in the end to create the website you’ve always wanted. However, in general, you can break website design and development down into 10 steps, which we’ve detailed below.

1. Goal Identification
The first vital task we complete is done in consultation with you. Quite simply, we need to know why you’re creating a website. Is it for brand visibility? Selling products? Collecting leads? Essentially, we want to know what end result would leave you happy with the website you’ve been created.

However, it’s not just about working out a website’s purpose. We also need to find out about your target customer, the products or services you’ll be selling, any existing branding you have, your overall budget, your competitors, and much more. When we’ve finished, our aim will be laser-focused on providing a website that not only looks stunning, but is also fit for purpose.

2. Website Ideation
After identifying the goals of the website, we move into the ideation phase. During this, we work alongside you to explore many different options for your website. Some will be great ideas, others will be left on the cutting room floor, but all are vital when it comes to planning a website that works perfectly to achieve your goals.

Essentially, this stage of the process is all about providing solutions – solutions to how best to represent your business, as well as how to provide solutions to those visiting your website. By spending time on this process, we ensure we’re perfectly set moving forward.

3. Sitemap and Wireframe Design
Next up, we do two things, with the first being the creation of a sitemap. This is essentially a basic plan of how your website will be populated – a list of the various pages the site will need, along with their individual purposes and any key features that need including.

Once we have the sitemap created, we can then move onto the wireframe – a rough sketch of how your website will look, showing provisional placements for key features, as well as spaces for text and other aspects the page in question might need. We then run this wireframe past you for feedback. The wireframe is the first incarnation you’ll see of your new website, and it’s incredibly exciting to watch it grow from a basic design to the end product!

4. SEO Consultation
We have SEO as the fourth stage in the process, but in reality, it will run alongside the previous three steps. Our team includes a highly regarded SEO expert, who will advise of the steps we need to take in order to make the website as SEO-friendly as possible.

The approach to SEO will be multi-pronged. We’ll make the website as fast as possible – a big factor in determining search engine rankings – plus we’ll also ensure the architecture of the site is conducive to being crawled easily. Our SEO expert will also conduct thorough keyword research at this point.

5. Content Creation
Next, we will begin working with one of the professional copywriters on our team, who will fashion all content required for your new website, from the landing page content to the contact page. The content created will fulfil two roles: it will appeal to the reader, advancing the goals of your site, and it will also appeal to search engines, helping massively with your SEO efforts.

As well as providing the initial copy for your website, our copywriting team is also able to provide ongoing services, creating blog posts, guest posts and any other content your website might need as it moves forward. We will discuss this with you at the time and provide honest opinions as to the type and scale of ongoing content you will require.

6. Website Design
When we have the content and understand exactly what the site’s purpose will be, we can start the process of website design. The goal is simple: to create a site that looks great and is intuitive to use, as well as one that ticks all your boxes in terms of use and functionality.

Our team is highly trained in website design, having designed numerous sites over a broad range of niches. We’ll use a range of techniques used in website and graphic design to bring to life the website you’ve always dreamed of for your business. Once the design is complete, we’ll share it with you, and then work with you on any tweaks you might require.

7. Website Development
Once we have a design that’s exactly to your liking, we can move on with the job of developing the site – turning the design into a real, working online entity. This requires a huge amount of technical skill, but we’re lucky enough to have a range of professionals with the expertise required to created websites of the highest quality.

We generally create sites that run on the WordPress CMS – the world’s most popular content management system – but we can also design websites of other types on request. This is something we’ll discuss with you in the initial consultation phase.

8. Testing and Tweaking
Once the website has been created, we move onto the testing phase. We’ll run it through its paces thoroughly, making sure it is technically sound and doesn’t have any hidden issues that might pop up in the future.

We’ll also take some time to test the finished site for UX, putting ourselves in the shoes of your visitors and determining whether they’re being given the exact experience they need. If we do come across anything that needs changing, we’ll do so straight away, and won’t present the website to you until we’re completely happy with the end result.

9. Website Launch
Now comes to the most exciting part of the entire process: the website launch! We’ll put the website live and closely monitor it throughout its first stuttering steps into the world, ready to react if any unexpected issues arise – something that very rarely happens.

At this point, we’ll hand over ownership of the site to you, making sure you have all the logins and passwords you need for WordPress, hosting and more.

10. Ongoing Maintenance and Additional Content
As with everything, websites require ongoing maintenance to ensure they remain in proper working order. We will be happy to come to an agreement with you regarding the ongoing maintenance of your site – you can talk to us about this at any stage of the process.

Your website will also need regular content updates as part of a complete SEO strategy, and we can also discuss the provision of ongoing content with you while the website is being designed. We want to work with you on your website and watch it grow!