The main stages of designing a website- Web design Vancouver

Depending on the type of project, the basic steps in designing a website can vary. Not all websites are the same: different types of management and planning are required to create a company website, an online catalog, or e-commerce. Consequently, even the implementation phases can increase or be divided in turn into web design sub-phases. If you are looking for the best agency for web design in Vancouver, you have landed at the right place. Now the time has come to understand what are the main stages of designing your new website:

Initial meeting

Initial meeting for the definition of the specific objectives of the website and of the resources that are put in place for the realization of the objectives themselves. This is one of the most important moments in the design of your website and for this, we need to ask you a few questions :

• What is the PURPOSE of the website? What results would you like to achieve with its realization?
• WHO are we trying to reach? Which target audience? Vancouver, abroad, or all over Canada?
• What are the websites from which we can take inspiration? Why have they proved to be more effective or why are they liked by our target audience? In this context… how does the competition move?
• Who are the people involved in the web design in Vancouver that construct your website and what will their role be?
• Will there be any news in progress and updates that need to be presented to users? Who will and will need to update this site? How often?
• Will the site be a part of a larger online communication strategy (which also involves social media) or is it our only means of communication?
• If we want people to contact us… do we have people qualified to respond by email or telephone?
• How important is it to be visible on search engines ?
• What budget can we allocate to the project?
• How much time do we have?

Website design Vancouver document

Planning and creation of the web design Vancouver document in which the best technical solutions and the structure to be given to the web project are established (for example the choice of using a CMS like WordPress, establishing the necessary contents, social channels, etc.). Two of the basic technical topics that we must absolutely deal with are obviously the domain name and the choice of hosting.

The importance of these two elements is often underestimated by those who enter the world of the web for the first time. The domain name and web hosting are in fact two crucial variables in the success of your project both in terms of “performance” of the site and in terms of SEO (positioning on search engines).

Discussion of this document with the client, in order to understand if all the preliminary aspects have been examined.

Graphic design and a draft of the website

Based on the information gathered and the web design Vancouver document, it’s time to determine what your site looks like site design and draft.

The audience you target is one of the key factors that you need to consider. A site aimed at a very young audience, for example, will look very different from that designed for a construction company. In this phase of the design, it is important to incorporate elements such as the logo and the colours of the company because the site reinforces the identity of your company on the web.

The spaces and boxes of the project are also decided for the various devices: Desktop PC, Tablet, Smartphone. The design of the website, in fact, must scrupulously follow the rules of responsive web design. Your web designer will create one or more drafts for your website. Typically this is a jpg image of what the final design will look like. In some cases, for particularly complex projects, it may be necessary to create a preliminary development environment on which to mount some test templates by making the required customizations.

The communication between you and your web designer is crucial to ensure that the final web site will meet your needs and your taste, it is therefore important to work closely with the web agency, exchange ideas, until you get to the final design for your website.

Website development Phase

The Web design in Vancouver or website development phase is the time when your site is actually created. Our web designers in collaboration with the developer will start from the single graphic elements included in the prototype and will use them to create the real site. Elements such as the CMS (content management system for example WordPress), the code to be used (HTML / CSS), interactive contact forms or e-commerce systems are implemented and made functional during this phase.

Usually, the first thing we create is the structure of the site, the basic template of the various pages, with the fundamental elements: the navigation structure, the footer, the socket, etc. This structure acts as a template for most of the content pages on your site: the web designer will take the content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

At the same time as this phase it is, therefore, necessary to work on the contents to be included within the site. The site map that we defined in the design phase represents the track that we will have to follow for the preparation of the texts and images.

In this phase, the website “in progress” is installed on a local server (accessible only to the web agency and the client) so that it is always available for consultation and so that any additional changes or corrections can be made before going online.

The test phase and online publication

At this point, our web designer and developers will take care of the debugging phase of your website. All elements such as the functionality of contact forms or other scripts will be tested, as well as compatibility tests (display of the differences between different web browsers) will be carried out, ensuring that your website is correctly displayed in the most recent versions of the browser and on the different devices.

Once you have given final approval it is time to publish the site.

But beware, there are many other details involved in building and optimizing your website for search engines. Taking care of Vancouver SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a very important step. If you now have a website, you need to make sure that people can find it!

This phase marks the official launch of your site, it is now visible to the public.

Formation

At the end of the work, it is essential to dedicate some time to training your staff who will take care of the insertion of new content on your site. A dynamic or updatable website gives you the possibility to directly modify the contents through access to a back-end administrative area, where it is possible to use very intuitive programs and an online text editor (similar to a mini version of Microsoft Word). You will be able to edit existing content and add new pages and content. The possibilities are endless!

Whether it is proprietary software or an open-source CMS (such as WordPress) those who explain the operation of the site (or your SEO consultant ) must know how to transmit the basic knowledge for the updating but above all the basics of SEO.

Those who create professional websites know in fact that successful web projects are often linked to a vital and frequently updated site, in which the customer is motivated and personally involved in the preparation of the contents and is able to appreciate the results.

The choice of whether to dedicate internal resources or rely on the web agency to manage the site update phase is very important in the design of your website.

In fact, some entrepreneurs prefer to have full control over their site, others prefer to rely on the us. The important thing is that the site gets results!

Final document

For more complex projects it can sometimes be useful to create a post-project document in which to insert some elements used for the design: colours used, the definition of the architecture, passwords, elements that can be used if the web project grows. This document also helps to improve and increase visibility on the internet.

Web marketing

One of the last phases while creating an attractive web design in Vancouver is the implementation of web marketing activities that help give visibility to your web project (on social networks, on search engines with an SEO campaign, Adwords campaigns, facebook marketing, etc.).

Assistance and maintenance

Once the website has been created, our online showcase, and put online, in order for this to be efficient over time, constant updating, assistance, management and maintenance from a technical point of view are required.

A constant and continuous renewal is in fact essential for reasons of security and compatibility of the site with the devices and software used by users. Maintenance interventions can be periodic (e.g. insertion or modification of functions and plugins, page and database backup services, statistical services) or they can be occasional when single problems or new opportunities arise (e.g. interventions related to server and hosting problems, evolution of the operating logic of search engines, new developments and software functions …).

Web Design Vancouver deals with assistance on WordPress websites and beyond.

A system of statistics and Web Analytics

If you want to create a professional website, you cannot fail to know how it is going.

This is why it is important to use Web Analytics, which is a  set of tools and techniques used for analyzing the data of a website.

Web Analytics is aimed primarily at collecting and measuring statistical information and subsequently at understanding user behavior across web pages: in other words where visitors come from, what they do, what content they prefer and much more.

Google Analytics is the most used service in the Web Analytics field. It is a  free statistics tool that can be used at different levels, starting from the basic level (to monitor access to the website in detail) up to much more advanced uses.