The World Wide Web nowadays is running the world due to the unlimited information that every virtual user can explore. This is the reason why many people who want to start a business prefer doing it online. However, it’s not easy to succeed in online business. Because it’s difficult to promote and market the products and services offered. With this, it’s important to have a well-designed and functional website to obtain a web presence through the help of a professional website development company. Having a business website offers a lot of ease to customers.  The coding process is not the main part of website development. Though some technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML provide the shape of the website. The most vital parts of the website development life cycle involve gathering information. Detailed planning as well as post-launch maintenance. we can help in creating functional sites.

Guide on Website Development Life Cycle

1. Gathering Information

This stage involves identifying the main goals, purpose, and target audience. When gathering information, you need to do research and discover things so that you’ll have a clear understanding of the main goals, purposes, and target audience for your website. In this way, it would be easier to develop strategies suitable for developing the website.

The function of the website depends on the target audience. With this, it’s important to use technologies appropriate to the purpose. We Make a Website that helps in implementing this stage correctly and can save you from the cost of extra resources such as adding or changing the functionality. Thus, proper planning is very significant and it also helps in gathering information a lot easier.

2. Planning

This phase of the website development company involves the creation of a sitemap and wireframe. The web developer will create the data on how the website will look like. The sitemap will be created based on the gathered information. The sitemap describes the relevance of the main areas of the website such as the relationship between the website’s different pages. This will also help the end-user to find information on the different pages.  Thus, the main objective of creating a sitemap is to provide a website that is easy to navigate and user-friendly. It also describes the inner structure of the website but not the user interface.

Once the sitemap is approved, the next step of development is the creation of a wireframe. The wireframe focuses on the user interface of the website, but there’s no design element included as it only shows the additional elements. In this phase, it’s important to use the right technology stack such as CMS, frameworks, and programming language.

3. Design

The design stage is responsible for creating the shape of the website. It includes the Page Layout, Approval Cycle, and review. At this stage, all the visual contents are created including the photos, videos, and images, but it also depends on the information gathered in the first stage. While working on the design, it’s necessary to think about the target audience and potential customers. The output of the design stage is the website development company layout which can be the actual graphic design or graphic sketch. The layout represents the structure and shows the standard functional layouts and the content. It also contains images, colors, and logos, thus giving a better understanding of the product.  After finishing the design, it’s a must to let customers review the layout. This will help in determining whether the layout is approved or not for the customer’s satisfaction.

4. Content Writing

Content writing is a significant stage in the website development life cycle. This is the best way to communicate or convey the message to your target audience, and you can also include a call to action. In implementing this stage, make sure that you are knowledgeable on how to create catchy headlines, write new text, and edit as well. The website content should be provided prior to doing the website coding.

5. Coding

This is the stage in which the actual creation of the website is undertaken, and Convert Better can help you out. All the graphic elements designed in the previous phases are used in creating the actual site. The first thing that is created is the home page followed by the sub-pages according to the hierarchy stated in the sitemap. See to it that the server can manage the set-up and installation smoothly by using CMS and Frameworks. All the static elements of the web page should be tested and other special features should be added as needed. Make sure that you have a better understanding of website development technology to complete this stage successfully.

Using CMS in creating the website would allow the installation of CMS plugins. Another important step in coding is SEO or search engine optimization which helps the website to rank on top of search engines, but it’s essential to use valid code.

6. Review, Testing, and Launch

All the links on the site should be tested to ensure that there are no broken links. Running spell-checking software can also help in finding possible typos as well as code validators to check if the code follows the web standards. Once everything is polished, it’s about time to upload the site to the server through File Transfer Protocol software, but a final test should be run to know if all the files were installed correctly.

7. Maintenance

The last stage in the website development life cycle is the maintenance of the site itself. A website focuses on the services rather than the product. That’s why it’s not enough to just deliver the website to your target users; you should also ensure that everything is working well so that everybody will be satisfied. Likewise, you should be prepared to make necessary changes as the need arises.

Through the feedback system, you’ll be able to identify the problems that are experienced by the end-users. With this, you should pay attention to fixing the problem at the soonest possible time; otherwise, your users would look for another website that they can use.

Website development doesn’t end after launching the website. The several stages of the website development life cycle will determine whether the development process is productive or not. This makes sense to hire a professional website development company to ensure that you obtain the best website for your business.

Published by: Pauline Etcuban, understands the intrinsic attributes of making excellent content that suits the needs of every business especially when it comes to online marketing. She can conceptualize and implement marketing plans, together with Convert Better, an expert in Online marketing companies and Web designers help her be a professional marketer.