Custom Website Design & Development
I generally build client sites on WordPress, a robust, flexible, and easy to use content management system. WordPress is open-source and free, so you’ll never need to pay to use it. WordPress makes it easy for you to update your own content regularly, which is an important part of maintaining your online presence today. Gone are the days of letting your website languish for several years without updating a single word.
To keep your visitors engaged, your content needs to be updated often–whether in the form of a blog that you post to weekly or an upcoming events stream on the homepage that lets folks know what’s happening at your organization that week–it’s important that your website provides something useful and relevant or visitors won’t come back a second time.
The Process
Now whether I’m building your site from scratch or redesigning your current site, we always start at the same place: strategic planning and organizing of information. We determine your goals for the site, what you want visitors to ‘do’ on your site, and how you’ll measure the site’s success in meeting these goals. Then, I’ll work with you to determine how information will be organized on your website–pages, navigation menus, etc. You’ll end up with a document outlining the site’s structure that you can use to start gathering content for your site.
Once the information architecture is nailed down, I’ll create an initial design concept and submit it to you for review. I’ll make revisions based on your feedback or will create a new second design from scratch if necessary. Three rounds of revision (starting with the initial concept review) are included, and are generally plenty for most clients. Should you need more, you can purchase additional rounds of revision. During the design process, you’ll also be working on collecting all the images and writing the content for each page of your website.
Once you’ve approved the final design concept and have submitted the site content (text and images) to me, I’ll begin building your website (this is called development). You’ll have a link to view the progress of the site, and the development process will not disrupt visitors to your current site if you have one.
Once I’ve finished building your website, I’ll ask you to review the site and submit any feedback. I’ll also send you an invoice for the final payment. The final payment will need to be made before the website will be launched. Three rounds of revisions are included at this stage and, just as in the design phase, are plenty for most clients. At this point, I’ve implemented the design and functionality we agreed on earlier, so there shouldn’t be major changes. We’re talking fixing a typo, switching out one image for another–minor things.
When we’ve finished up with final revisions and you’ve made the final payment, I’ll launch the site–meaning I’ll move it out of the development area so that it’s visible to the public. I’ll also train you to use your new website, so that you’re able to update pages, post to your blog, and make other changes and updates to your heart’s content.
