Website development involves many steps. In this article, we will try to review the basic steps and tell you in detail about each stage, starting with the idea and ending with the final product.
Stage 1: Research.
The main task of this stage to understand what exactly you want to get in the end and what goals and objectives should meet the site and most importantly to determine who are the main visitors to your site.
Goals: here you need to determine why you need a site…. To increase sales, to increase your expertise, to provide a portfolio or just the presence of your company on the Internet.
Objectives: Now you should define the tasks that will help you achieve those goals. For example, uploading an online store, creating a blog with regular content updates, implementing an online booking system. The tasks should be related to the goals and specifically defined.
Target audience: groups of people who will use your resource. This stage includes TA analysis, which includes factors such as age, gender, interests, behavior, and user needs. Analyzing the audience will help you better understand what functionality and design is most appropriate for future u
Stage 2: Planning: creating a sitemap and layout.
This is one of the most important stages from it depend on the further terms and cost of site development, as well as the final result.
At the planning stage it is necessary to think through the entire structure of your site, all the pages that you will have on the site, their location, how users will find them. Also you need to think through all the functionality, which blocks on which pages will be found and how they will function.
This is a very long and painstaking stages, but in the end you will get a complete layout of your site and a full understanding of what it will be at the end of your journey.
Also at this stage it is worth deciding what stack of technologies (programming language, frameworks, CMS) will be used.
Step 3: Visual component
At this stage, the website gets even closer to its final form.
All visual content such as images, photos and videos are created at this point. Again, all the information that was gathered in the very first stage of the project is extremely important in this step. The interests of the client as well as the target audience must be considered first and foremost while working on the design. The designer at this stage creates a page template (page layout).
The main purpose of the template – to visualize the structure of the page, its content, as well as display the basic functionality. This time, unlike the layout, design elements are used.
The template contains colors, logos and images. It gives an opportunity to judge how the finished site will look like in the end result.
Stage 4: Content
The content creation process usually runs in parallel with the other stages of development and its role should not be underestimated.
In this step, you need to describe the very essence of what you want to convey to the audience of your site. This stage also includes the creation of attractive and catchy headlines, writing and editing text, compiling existing texts, etc.
It is also advisable to engage a Search Engine Optimization specialist at this stage. So that the content of your site was not only attractive to the target audience but in the future easier to find in the search.
Step 5. Development
Frontend development is the process of coding design layouts using HTML and CSS markup languages. Developers create the structure, insert graphic elements and customize the visual design. An important aspect of frontend development is the creation of adaptive design, which allows the site to display correctly on different devices and screens. Also at this stage, interactive elements are implemented using JavaScript, such as menus, forms and sliders.
Backend development is the stage where server-side logic and database are created, which provide the functionality of the site. Developers choose a programming language, such as PHP, Python or Ruby, and a framework to work more efficiently. They implement the functionality: form processing, user authorization, and database interaction.
Step 6: Testing and startup
Developers perform testing and debugging to verify that the new resource works and functionality is correct. They perform testing on different devices and browsers to make sure that the site looks and functions equally well in all conditions. If errors or malfunctions occur, the developers fix them and perform additional tests. Also at this stage, they improve the usability of the site and fix the identified problems.
Step 7 Support and enhancement
It is important to realize that a website is more of a service than a product. It is not enough to simply “deliver” it to the consumer. It is also important to be sure that everything works as planned and that users are satisfied with the final product. You also need to be ready to make changes quickly if necessary.
During support, developers respond to user feedback and make the necessary changes. The developers also continue to develop the site keeping in mind the changes in requirements and technology. They may add new features, improve existing ones, optimize performance, and secure the site. Regular updates and support help keep your project relevant and competitive.
In lieu of a conclusion:
Developing a website is quite a long and complicated process, but today there are tons of ways how to reduce the time and cost of development. The most popular option is to use the popular CMS WordPress and order a ready-made design, on many sites you can buy a ready-made design template is not expensive which will fit your business and allow you to launch the site in a couple of days, not months.