A study reveals that nearly 76% of consumers prefer scrutinising the company’s website before visiting its physical location. Another study shows that almost 75% of users judge the company’s credibility based on its design.
A well-crafted website is a substantial contributor to organisational success. It is your online storefront, brochure, and communication hub all rolled into one. It is not just a digital placeholder but a powerful tool for engaging customers, enhancing brand visibility and driving business growth.
Hence, whether you’re a startup looking to create a smart website for your business or an established company aiming to redesign your website, this guide will equip you with essential information related to steps, best practices, and strategies to create a successful site that aligns with your goals and delights your audience.
We’ll also discuss the benefits of having a functional website and the critical factors related to the development cost. Let’s begin.
What is Website Development?
Website development is the entire process of bringing your website to life. It involves planning what your website will do and who it will reach, then designing an attractive and user-friendly interface.
Developers use specific languages [Common ones include HTML (structure and content), CSS (styling), and JavaScript (interactivity)] to code the website’s functionality, ensuring it works smoothly behind the scenes while also creating high-quality content to keep visitors engaged.
Static or Dynamic: Which One Do You Choose?
Based on your business website type, you have to make another pivotal choice between Static and Dynamic websites. This choice mainly depends on the website’s purpose, scale, budget, content management needs, interactivity requirements, and future scalability. For example, a static website may suffice for a simple online presence with static content. However, a dynamic website is more appropriate if you require dynamic features, user accounts, eCommerce capabilities, or frequent content updates. |
Website development can be a simple process for basic websites or quite complex for feature-rich applications. This process requires expertise in programming languages, web design principles, SEO best practices, and usability standards to ensure a seamless and engaging experience for website visitors.
Choosing The Development Path: Website Builder v/s Website Developer
Developing a website for your company requires you to make several important decisions. One such deciding factor is selecting the development path.
When building your business website, you’ll face a crucial decision: using a website builder or hiring a website developer. Both options have pros and cons, and the best choice depends on your specific needs and budget.
The following are the benefits of using a website builder versus hiring a website developer:
Website Development from Scratch: Step-by-Step Process
Whether you want to create your business website from scratch or consider your website redesigning, it is crucial to understand the process involved with it.
Developing a website involves several steps, from planning and designing to coding and deployment. Let us understand the step-by-step process for website development from scratch:
Step 1: Define Your Goals and Target Audience
Before diving into code, take a pause and think about what you want your website to achieve? Are you aiming to generate leads, sell products online, or simply establish a brand presence? Identifying your goals will steer the entire development process.
Who are you trying to reach with your website? Understanding your target audience’s demographics, online behavior, and expectations will influence the website’s design, content, and functionality.
Step 2: Select Domain and Hosting Provider
When building a website, selecting a domain name and hosting provider are crucial first steps. These two elements work together to establish your website’s online presence. Choose the domain name and hosting provider based on following explanation:
Domain Name
Think of your domain name as your website’s address on the internet. It’s what users type in their browser bar to reach your site.
Ideally, your domain name should be:
- Memorable and Brand-Relevant: Choose a name that reflects your business or website’s purpose and is easy to remember for visitors.
- Relatively Short and Easy to Type: Avoid hyphens or numbers as they can make it harder for users to recall and type correctly.
- Available with a Common Extension: The most popular extension is “.com,” but depending on your target audience, “.org” or “.net” might also be suitable.
Hosting Provider
A hosting provider stores the website’s files and makes your site accessible to visitors through the internet. It’s like renting space on a giant server computer.
There are different types of hosting plans to consider:
- Shared Hosting: Affordable option where your website shares server resources with other websites. Suitable for low-traffic websites.
- Virtual Private Server (VPS): Offers more dedicated resources than shared hosting, ideal for websites with moderate traffic or requiring more control.
- Dedicated Hosting: Provides the highest level of control and resources, suitable for high-traffic websites or those with complex needs.
Step 3: Choose the Development Platform
Choosing the right development platform is a critical decision in the website development process, as it impacts the functionality, flexibility, scalability, and ease of maintenance of your website.
This step involves evaluating and selecting the most suitable platform or technology stack based on the website’s requirements, functionality, scalability needs, and budget constraints.
Which Type of Website are You Going to Create?
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Common development platforms include Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress and Joomla, Drupal, which offer user-friendly interfaces and pre-built functionalities ideal for content-heavy websites.
eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento are tailored for online stores, providing features like product listings, shopping carts, and payment gateways.
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Custom development using programming languages (e.g., PHP, Python, JavaScript) and frameworks (e.g., Laravel, Django, React) offers maximum flexibility and customization but requires technical expertise.
Website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly are suitable for simple sites with drag-and-drop interfaces.
Choosing the right development platform ensures efficient development, seamless functionality, and a user-friendly experience tailored to the website’s objectives and target audience.
Step 4: Design User Friendly Interface
Next step is driving the focus on your website design. The design of your website significantly impacts user experience and perception. Hence, try to figure out how your users will navigate the website and focus on making a UI/UX design that provides them ease and convenience.
Follow these design principles for a user-friendly interface:
- Responsive Design: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and accessible across devices.
- Intuitive Navigation: Use clear menus, breadcrumbs, and calls-to-action (CTAs) for easy navigation.
- Visual Appeal: Use high-quality images, consistent branding, and appealing colour schemes.
- Readability: Choose readable fonts, appropriate font sizes, and sufficient contrast for text readability.
- Accessibility: Comply with accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG) for users with disabilities.
Step 5: Craft High Quality Content
Crafting high-quality content is the backbone of any successful website. This includes informative and engaging written copy that speaks directly to your target audience’s needs. Think clear, concise, and persuasive language that not only informs but also converts visitors into leads or customers.
Thus, a well-written content should include:
- Website Copy: Clear, concise, and persuasive written content that informs, engages, and converts visitors.
- Visual Content: Images, infographics, and videos can enhance user experience and break up text-heavy sections.
By focusing on informative text and engaging visuals, you’ll create valuable content that keeps visitors interested and returning for more.
Step 6: The Development Phase
The development phase in website development is where the actual creation of the website takes place based on the designs and requirements established in the previous stages. It encompasses several key tasks and activities that bring the website from concept to reality.
The primary activities involve in the development phase are:
- Front-End Development: Front-end developers focus on the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) aspects of the website. They translate the visual design into code using technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
This includes creating responsive layouts, styling elements, adding interactive features, and ensuring cross-browser compatibility. - Back-End Development: Back-end developers work on the server-side of the website, handling data storage, processing, and logic.
They use programming languages like PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, or Node.js and frameworks such as Laravel, Django, Rails, Spring, or Express.js to build the back-end infrastructure.
This includes implementing database management systems, user authentication, server-side scripting, APIs, and integrating third-party services or systems.
By meticulously building and testing your website during the development phase, you lay the foundation for a successful launch.
Step 7: Testing and Quality Assurance
Launching a website with bugs and glitches can be disastrous. Testing and quality assurance (QA) are crucial phases in website development. Testing involves hands-on exploration by testers to identify issues like broken links or malfunctioning forms. It encompasses various areas like:
- Functional testing to ensure features work as intended,
- Usability testing for user-friendliness,
- Performance testing for speed and responsiveness,
- Compatibility testing across devices and browsers,
- Security testing for vulnerabilities, and
- Accessibility testing for compliance with accessibility standards.
QA takes a broader view, ensuring the website meets pre-defined quality standards. This includes planning testing strategies, creating detailed test cases, and tracking any problems.
Through rigorous testing and QA, developers and QA professionals ensure the website meets quality benchmarks, performs optimally, and delivers a positive user experience.
Step 8: Launching and Deployment
Once done with all the above steps and sorted out the issues that arose during the testing phase, it is time to launch your website to the world.
The launch involves transferring the website from the development environment to the live production environment, which typically involves configuring web servers, domain settings, database connections, and other technical aspects.
After a final round of checks to ensure everything functions as intended, you can finally flip the switch and make your website live.
Pro Tip: Before launching your website to the world, building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a strategic move. An MVP focuses on the core functionalities that deliver the most value to your target audience. This allows for a quicker launch, saving resources and reducing the risk of building features that might not resonate with users. |
Step 9: Post-Launch Maintenance
Launching your website is seemingly the last step in a website development project, however, the task doesn’t end here. After you launch your website, you must start taking care of it by probing the post-launch maintenance work.
Post-launch maintenance ensures that the website continues to perform optimally, remains secure, and delivers a positive user experience over time.
This phase involves regular monitoring, updates, and ongoing improvements to address issues, enhance functionality, and keep the website aligned with evolving technologies and user expectations.
By conducting post-launch maintenance, you can sustain your website’s effectiveness, reliability, and relevance, contributing to long-term success and user satisfaction.
| Following this step-by-step process ensures a systematic approach to website development, resulting in a functional, visually appealing, and user-friendly website from scratch. |
Benefits of Website Development for Business
A well-crafted website is not just a digital brochure; it’s a powerful tool that can generate leads, improve customer engagement, and drive your business towards success.
Let us now see the benefits of website development for your business:
1. Increased Brand Awareness and Credibility
Your website acts as your online storefront, available to potential customers 24/7. A professional website establishes credibility and trust, making your business appear more legitimate and competitive.
You can effectively reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness by showcasing your products, services, and brand story.
2. Generate Leads and Grow Your Customer Base
Your website can be a powerful lead-generation tool. By including calls to action (CTAs) and contact forms, you encourage visitors to engage with your business.
Alongside, the eCommerce functionality allows you to sell products directly through your website, expanding your reach beyond physical limitations.
Additionally, the valuable content (blogs, articles, white papers) attracts visitors, establishes you as a thought leader, and nurtures leads into paying customers.
3. Improved Customer Service and Engagement
Your website can provide your customers with a wealth of information, answering frequently asked questions and offering self-service options (FAQs, knowledge base).
Live chat functionalities or chatbots can provide real-time customer support, enhancing the overall customer experience.
Online communities or forums can foster engagement with your customer base, building stronger brand loyalty.
4. Cost-Effective Marketing and Promotion
Compared to traditional marketing methods, website promotion through SEO and social media can be significantly more cost-effective.
A well-optimized website ranks higher in search results, increasing organic traffic and attracting potential customers who are already searching for products or services like yours.
Targeted online advertising campaigns can reach a highly specific audience, maximizing your return on investment (ROI).
5. Valuable Data and Analytics
Your website provides valuable data and insights into customer behavior through website analytics tools. You can track user engagement, identify popular content, and understand how visitors interact with your website.
[Also read: How to Add Google Analytics to Your WordPress Website?]
This data empowers you to make data-driven decisions to optimise your website, marketing strategies, and overall business goals.
6. Competitive Advantage and Growth Potential
In today’s digital world, a strong online presence is essential to stay competitive. A well-developed website showcases your unique offerings and differentiates you from competitors.
The scalability of websites allows your online presence to grow alongside your business. You can easily add new features, functionalities, and content to accommodate your evolving needs.
Website Development Cost
By investing in website development, you’re investing in your business’s future. The cost of your business website depends upon various factors such as, type of your website, complexity, design etc.
Based on these factors, your business requirements, customisation and your budget, your website development partner will create an estimate to give you an idea about the investment you ought to make in your project.
Your website’s cost also depends upon your site building platform. For example, the cost of Joomla website development differs from that of the cost of Magento, WordPress, and Drupal website development.
| Based on your company’s requirements and the type of website you want to make (eCommerce, blogging, business, news, educational etc.), you can connect with your development partner and enquire about the exact costing range. |
Conclusion
Website development plays a pivotal role in the success of modern businesses by providing a powerful online platform to showcase products, engage customers, drive sales, and build brand credibility.
This guide outlines the key steps and best practices for developing a successful website. By following these steps and leveraging the benefits of website development, businesses can establish a strong online presence, expand their market reach, and achieve their digital marketing goals.
However, if your website contains complex elements, consider opting for an experienced website design and development agency that can handle your project with a high degree of efficiency, expertise and professionalism.