Quick Summary
A website is a digital space on the internet where you can share information about yourself or your business. It’s a tool for anyone looking to build a digital presence.
Every business whether it is big or small, is now creating a website to secure its digital presence. 81% of shoppers conduct online research before purchasing something.
But why must we plan first before starting to build a website?
Plan a Website Development Project is the secret behind every smooth website build. Without a clear website development project, you can make so many mistakes.
In this article we will learn all the steps you should follow when planning a new website.
Define the Purpose of Your Website
If you are starting a new website, first understand the primary goal of your website. Many businesses hire a website design and development company to shape goals and site structure.
- Main Objective: A business that wants to sell products needs e-commerce tools and payment options. Conversely, a service provider wants new clients so he requires strong lead generation features like clear contact forms.
- Target Audience: The website must be built specifically for the people who will visit it. This involves creating detailed user profiles that are known as personas. These profiles define the users’ interests and the problems your website must solve.
- Unique Value: There should be a visible reason for visitors that why they choose your site over competitors. Make sure this UVP is visible on your homepage.
Identify Core Features and Functional Requirements
Before building a website, it’s important to identify its key features, performance expectations and project limits to guide design and development.
- Functional requirements: These requirements control every design and development choice. The Functional Requirements Document (FRD) details what the site must do and how people will use it.
- Core features: This step defines the core functions based on user needs. The team creates a detailed plan for each feature which includes a clear description and success criteria.
- Non-Functional Requirements: Non-functional requirements describe how well the website works. These criteria cover key factors like security, page load times and overall user experience.
- Project Limits: Project scope defines the clear boundaries of the project. It explains exactly what the project will include and what it will not.
Conduct Competitor & Market Research
Market research uses consumer behavior and trends to confirm and improve the website idea. This research finds answers like:
- Is there a demand for the service?
- What is the size of the target market?
The team must also gather demographic information such as age and wealth to define opportunities for gaining customers.
When starting the market research, you must analyze competitor sites based on their design, overall website functionality and SEO content focus. Analyzing the website structure including H1 tags and URL architecture.
During the research process, you need to find the weaknesses of your competitors such as areas in which they have failed such as poor navigation or inability to be mobile.
Select the Right Tech Stack (Frontend + Backend)
A tech stack is the collection of technologies that are used to build and run the website. This includes the visible frontend, the functional backend, the database and the hosting.
- Frontend Technologies: Frontend technologies create the part of the website users interact with. They define the user experience and site loading speed. React and Angular build fast and interactive web apps.
- Backend Technologies: The backend processes the information and takes care of business logic, communication with security and database. You may work with such languages and structures as Node.js, Django (Python) or Ruby on Rails.
- CMS or Frameworks: You either get a ready made Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress or a custom framework. It depends on the complexity of your site.
Create a Sitemap and Information Architecture
The Sitemap is indicated as a blueprint to all the web pages within the site. The step forms the Information Architecture (IA) and is the arrangement of all the content. The IA makes sure visitors can quickly and easily find the information they need.
The team must organize pages so the flow feels natural to the user. If you define this structure early it helps the development team build clean navigation. It also creates a strong foundation for the entire website.
Read Also: How Web Development Companies Are Using Automation to Speed Up Projects
Develop Wireframes and UI/UX Mockups
Wireframes are basic sketches showing a page’s layout and functionality. You can say they are the skeleton of the website. Wireframes indicate where elements such as buttons and text need to be positioned without the need of colors or applicable design.
Once the layout is finished, you can create UI/UX Mockups. These add the final design elements such as colors, fonts and images. Mockups show exactly how the finished website will look.
Plan the Content Strategy and SEO Structure
Defining the content strategy means planning the text, images, and media needed for every page. A website with many pages needs a large time budget for writing and design. Planning content early helps with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO helps your website appear in top results in search results. A good web development company also sets the SEO structure and maps keywords for each page.
- Review Old Content: Check any content that will move from an existing website to the new one.
- Define Keywords: Find the main search terms that users will type and find your site.
- Map Keywords: Assign relevant keywords to each page that is listed in the sitemap.
- Plan Tasks: Decide who will write, edit and approve the final text and media.
Choose Hosting, Domain, and Security Setup
This crucial step involves setting up the technical home and identity of the website. Good hosting will result in good speed and reliability of the site. The domain name is the unique address of the site. The security should be designed at the very beginning to secure the users and data.
- Hosting: Must select a server that can handle your website traffic and needs.
- Domain: Register the chosen and brand friendly domain name (URL) early on.
- Security: Implement an SSL certificate and plan for data protection measures right after.
Set Up a Realistic Timeline and Development Milestones
A project plan needs a structured timeline so that you can guide the development team. The team must break the entire project into smaller & manageable tasks. Assigning milestones with clear deadlines track progress accurately.
Setting a realistic schedule prevents confusion and keeps the project on budget. Clear milestones such as “Wireframes Approved” or “Backend Complete,” make sure the accountability. This structure shows that the website is built in a systematic and efficient manner.
Start Development With Best Coding Practices
Once all planning documents are approved, the development team begins coding the website. Best coding practices are important in developing a high quality product that is stable. Clean code is easier to maintain and update in the future.
This includes following consistent styling guides and using proper version control. The team should write code that is well documented so other developers can understand it.
Test the Website Thoroughly Before Launch
Once you have completed your development, it is necessary to test it to ensure that all the problems are identified and corrected before it goes public. These three major areas should be checked by the team in the form of Quality Assurance (QA) process. This makes sure the website functions perfectly for every user.
- Usability: Confirm that navigation and forms are simple to use.
- Security: Test the site if security is good or not and can protect sensitive user data or not.
- Performance: Check page load times and make sure the site works easily on mobile devices.
Launch the Website and Monitor Performance
When testing is complete, the team coordinates the website launch with the hosting providers. The moment the site goes live, the process shifts to continuous monitoring. Real time tracking of performance metrics is necessary for immediate fixes.
The team must watch key metrics like page load times, uptime and user engagement. They should also encourage user feedback through forms or surveys.
Create a Maintenance and Update Plan
If you want to make a successful website, it is not just a one time build. You have to make a maintenance plan so that the website will stay fast, secure and modern with every passing time.
Create a plan in which regular checks and updates will be done. It also includes checking security with vigilant monitoring for vulnerabilities. The team can set up automated back up and recovery processes so that data will be secure.
Conclusion
Effective planning is the beginning of building a successful site. By taking all these steps, you can easily create a good and successful site of your own and your clients with no risk. This methodology also ensures high quality and effective web development solutions.
If you want to build your next high performing website, Rainstream technologies can assist you. The company deals with the delivery of custom web development services.
FAQs
Q: How much does it cost to build a website?
Ans: A new website will be based on the complexity of your site. What are the custom features that your site will require and what will be its maintenance requirements.
Q: How long does it take to develop a new website?
Ans: Development time depends on the project’s scope. For example, simple sites take weeks while complex sites may take six months or more.
