Big Kiwi Web Development Process

The first step in designing a successful web site is the gathering of information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.

This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for. It involves a good understanding of what the business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.

During our first meeting, we will start off by asking a lot of questions. The answers you give will help us understand your business and your needs in a web site.

Certain things to consider are:

Purpose

What is the purpose of the site?

Do you want to provide information, promote a service, or sell a product?

Goals

What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information.

Target Audience

Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the "ideal" person you want to visit your web site. Consider their age, sex or interests - this will later help determine the best design style for your site.

Your USP

What is your Unique Selling Point? When compared to other companies in your industry, why should prospective customers buy your products and services? What is it that sets you apart from your competition?

Content

What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service, online ordering?

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Using the information gathered from phase one, it is time to put together a plan for your web site. This is the point where a site map is developed.

The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics, if applicable. This serves as a guide to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. The end-user of the web site (aka your customer) must be kept in mind when designing your site. These are, after all, the people who will be learning about your services or buying your product. A good user interface will make it easy to navigate your web site, and the site map is the basis for this.

During the planning phase, your web designer will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as interactive forms, ecommerce, flash, etc. are discussed when planning your web site.

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Drawing from the information gathered up to this point, it's time to determine the look and feel of your site.

Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. As part of the design phase, it is also important to incorporate elements such as the company logo or colors to help strengthen the identity of your company on the web site.

Your web designer will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. This is typically a .jpg image of what the final design will look like. Often times you will be sent an email with the mock-ups for your web site (further in to the process, we will take it a step further by giving you access to a secure area of our web site, meant for customers to view work in progress).

Your designer will always allow you to view your project throughout the design and development stages. The most important reason for this is that it gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.

In this phase, communication between both you and your designer is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. It is important that you work closely with your designer, exchanging ideas, until you arrive at the final design for your web site.

Then development can begin . . .

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The developmental stage is the point where the web site itself is created. At this time, your web designer will take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the actual, functional site.

This is typically done by first developing the home page, followed by a shell for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Once the shell has been created, your designer will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

Elements such as interactive contact forms, flash animations or ecommerce shopping carts are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well.

This entire time, your designer should continue to make your in-progress web site available to you for viewing, so that you can suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.

On the technical front, a successful web site requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid XHTML / CSS code that complies to current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.

This is tested in the next phase.

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At this point, your web designer will attend to the final details and test your web site. They will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well as final testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your web site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.

Your web designer is well versed in current standards for web site design and development. The basic technologies currently used are XHTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). As part of testing, your designer should check to be sure that all of the code written for your web site validates. Valid code means that your site meets the current web development standards. This is helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility as mentioned above.

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Once you give your web designer final approval, it is time to deliver the site. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the web site files to your server, which has already been configured for your domain name and web hosting. Once uploaded, the site will be put through one last run-through. This is just precautionary, to confirm that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional.

This marks the official launch of your site, as it is now viewable to the public.

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Having a site isn't enough. Having a beautiful site isn't even enough if you're not capturing the website traffic your business deserves. Crafting an engaging, lead-generating web site is how we provide our clients with successful Internet marketing solutions. We work far behind the scenes to make that happen.

Maintenance and Support

Websites need good, relevant content in order to be successful at SEO. The better your content is, the more likely it will be to show up in search engines and naturally attract links to your site. Additionally, fresh content is a major factor that plays a role in search engine rankings.

Many firms have the need to make frequent website changes but don't have the resources to have a full time webmaster on staff. We can fulfill that role with our monthly maintenance package. For a set fee per month, you get dedicated hours from our team each month - and a reduced rate for hours exceeding your monthly limit.

With each update or change done, we perform a website integrity check on portions of the website that were directly affected by the update or change. These integrity checks include but aren't limited to:

• Spell Checking
• Browser Compatibility Checking
• Broken Link Checking

Web Content Writing Services

If needed, we can also provide copywriting services to assist you in your web content writing needs. We have skilled writers on staff who can develop a range of articles and blog posts relevant to your business.

SEO (getting on Google's first page organically)

Where ten years ago, TV, Yellow Pages and print media provided the ultimate combination for marketing products and brands, search engines lead the way today. SEO (Search Engine Optmization) ensures visibility in organic results on the first page of leading search engines including Google, Bing and Yahoo!

Unless already performed as part of your website package, our team of SEO experts can:

• Analyse all factors influencing your website's search engine visibility
• Consider the key elements that influence performance and results
• Determine the most effective optimization strategy
• Maximise your website's ranking potential with our software
• Periodically review your website's performance via statistical analysis
• Adjust or update the process to ensure continued results

SEM (Online Marketing)

SEM drives the most qualified visitors to your website via your industry's most competitive and relevant keywords. Quality web traffic means a higher conversion rate from enquiry to customer.

Every entity is unique and we customise our client's online marketing around their industry, market and customer behaviour. We consider your business objectives, marketing goals and budget to deliver the most effective, cost-efficient solution.

Call us today to make an appointment.

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