While the coding process is a vital part of the website development process, it’s not the only part. Most people think that coding is the core part, but behind the scenes are other important stages of the web development process. These include stages of preliminary information gathering, planning, and post-launch maintenance.
If you’ve ever wondered how the web development process looks, this article gives you a good idea. Below are some of the main steps of the web development process.
Information Gathering
During this step, the web designer sets goals for the website and defines the website’s target audience. Every website has a target audience that makes it different from the other one. This step is one of the most important steps as it lays the foundation of the entire web development process.
Planning
The web designer creates a sitemap sketch for the website and a wireframe or mock-up of the same. During the planning stage, the web designer selects the technology stack to use from the programming language, framework, and CMS. What is mapped and decided here determines how the process will flow.
Design
From this stage, implementation begins. The designer creates relevant page layouts and reviews them. These are sent to the client who approves and gives feedback on the layouts. If there are changes to be made, the customer requests them, and the designer implements them.
Content writing and assembly
What is a website with no content? Here, new content is created depending on the number of pages on the website. The content is approved then prepared for migration. Here, you put the essence you want to communicate to your target audience and add a call to action.
Coding
This is a crucial part of website development itself. The graphic elements designed during the previous steps are used to create the actual website. The home page is the first to be created then all the sub-pages are added. This is followed using the web hierarchy previously created in the form of the sitemap. The static web page elements developed during the layout and mock-up creation are designed and tested here. Special features and interactivity is also added as well as the SEO for the website.
Testing, review, launch
Every link is tested to make sure there’s no broken one. Every form and script is checked, and spell-checking software is run to find any possible typos. Code validators are also used to check if the code follows current web standards. Check and recheck the website, ready to upload it to a server.
Maintenance and regular updating
A website is more of a service than a product. You don’t simply “deliver” a website to your clients. Always make sure everything works out fine and be prepared to make changes, if any.
Add a feedback system to the site to enable you to detect problems faced by the end-user. In such a case, the highest priority is to fix the issue as fast as possible.
Keep the website up to date using a CMS. This prevents you from bugs while decreasing security risks.
Now you have a better idea into what goes into the process, let’s get started on building your dream website!
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