Web Development Lifecycle of Services
Web Development, the Workflow of Smart Business
Web development is the complete process of designing, coding, publishing, promoting and maintaining your web site. It’s important to understand these different areas of the process in order to create a focused plan that is best for your web site. Some of these tasks include:
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Whether starting a new site or refocusing to improve upon an existing web project, Western Skies is here to assist you in completing a plan that focuses on the proper segments of Web Development. We will work as part of your team on various aspects of your web project to achieve your development goals. No matter what the scope or complexity of your project we have a diverse talent pool.
Breakdown of Web Development Workflow
Let us work with you to see where focus is required and develop a plan that is right for your business goals. Below you will see a breakdown of how we divide up the aspect found in Web Development.
Business & Existing Product Analysis
We start by understanding your company, your cliental and any existing materials both web and print. This allows us to better understand your mission and goals. It also allows us the ability to start discussing requirements found by the analysis and put in place a preliminary but organized workflow. Important parts to this opening segment include:
- Client interview,
- Research of competitors and customers,
- Collection of existing branding such as Logo and color pallets,
- Review of company materials such as business cards, letterhead, etc,
- Review of existing SEM, SEO, and web Promoting,
- Expected expenses and team roles.
Work Specifications Report
Once the project has been fully analyzed, a preliminary report can be developed to layout team members, expected assignments, timelines of work, technical requirements, cost options, site navigation and design comps. Larger projects may require further levels of consultation to assess additional business and technical requirements after this report narrows the desired outline.
Design & Development
After building the specification report, work on the web site is scheduled upon receipt of the signed proposal, a deposit, and any written content materials and graphics you wish to include. Layouts and navigation will be designed as Photoshop or Fireworks prototypes to give example of what the final design will resemble after coding.
Design comps, also called prototypes, can then be broken down to test for color coordination to existing printed branding. During this phase there can be a lot of suggestions and changes from the customer side which should be finalized before moving into coding and programming phase.
If requested, customer comments, feedback and approvals can be tracked by e-mail, fax or telephone. Larger projects may require client approval throughout the design phase for quality assurance.
Content Writing
Content is the meat of your site for readers and search engines. The first half of this phase often has the client providing content copy desired in the site. The second part of this phase is to take that copy and adjust the content to benefit the structure of the site in accordance to web standards and search engine optimization.
If requested we can work with professional content developers who can write industry specific and relevant content for the site. The grammatical and spelling check should be over in this phase.
Coding & Programming
The phase of coding and programming is where the site all comes together. In this phase all the design, content, research and collected materials are translated into the necessary coding languages. The goal in proper coding is to keep the end result as close to the design comps and search engine optimization while practicing ‘white-hat’ design philosophies.
Testing
Unlike software, web based applications need intensive testing, as applications will always function differently on based on bandwidths, browsers, monitors, operating systems and more. As computers evolve, these elements are continually changing and require testing both before and after the site launches.
SEM, SEO & Web Promotions
Promoting your site takes a lot of time and may involve waiting several weeks or even months to get into certain directories and search engines. Thus, it is important to start promoting as soon as possible. Western Skies has different levels of promotion that we do which breaks down into three main categories.
- Free basic promoting we offer all sites we design;
- As part of our monthly maintenance plan we offer increased SEM, SEO and Web Promotions;
- And we offer dedicated per-page marketing promotions.
Promotion of your site is one of the most valuable phases of Web Development. Without it, you will have a hard time standing out in the list of billions of web sites. With allot of companies promising things they can’t deliver it is easy to get caught up with all the hype. Truth is that web Promotions take two main things, patients and constant monitoring of both your site and the competitors.
Maintenance and Updating
Web sites will need frequent updating to keep them attractive and at the highest point possible in the search engines. Bug fixes can be done during the time of maintenance. This phase ties in closely with the previous two of Testing and Promotion. Maintenance is the process of continually keeping up with these phases in the ever changing world of the internet.
Search engines and site visitors alike don’t return to web sites that never change. Depending on the complexity of your web site and the needs within your organization will set the level of updating required. As part of this final phase and once your web site is operational, ongoing promotion, technical maintenance, content management & updating, site visit activity reports, staff training and mentoring is needed on a regular basis.