Building a website and ensuring that it’s both appealing and user-friendly is a long and detailed process. During each of the stages of web design, the designer has to focus on all of the technical aspects, such as coding, content arrangement, image searching, wireframing, and so much more. 

When designing a website, it is essential to know that you will face roadblocks along the way that will slow down the process, especially in the final step of the web design process; testing. Below we have a list of the eight most important steps that you or your web design team need to follow in order to create the best website possible.

The Web Design Process

The modern web design process is something that will only become more and more detailed as our technology and society grow. New tools and trends will pop up every year, but what is most vital is that you know about the basics. Once you understand the basics of each of these steps, you’ll have a better understanding of the web design process as a whole. 

1. Find Your Goal

While it might seem a little bit cliche, outlining your goals before you begin the web design process really works. Identifying your goals before you even start the project does the following for you:

• It keeps your focus clear and your thoughts organized.
• It helps you more easily figure out if the web design process was a success or not.
• By setting a goal, you can lay out a better plan to achieve it.

This is the step where the designer needs to figure out all of the company’s or individual’s goals before starting anything. Some questions a designer should explore at this stage of the web design are:

• What is the reason that you want/need a website?
• What would your customer base like to see on the website?
• Will the site be used for eCommerce only or to promote other online businesses as well?
• Do you know how you set yourself apart from your competitors? What are your unique selling points?

If you only have vague responses to these questions, the entire project could be sent in the wrong direction. That is why writing clearly defined goals will help you put yourself on the right path.

The competition is one of the most important things you should research at this step in the web design process. Having a look at the websites that sell products or services similar to your own will give you an idea of how they did it. This way, you can decide what you want to do differently or what you want to improve. 

After taking notes on competitor websites, you can even add these notes to the goals that you set for an even clearer vision.

2. Learn About Scope Definition

One of the most common and complicated problems involved in web design projects is known as scope creep. After the client sets out with one goal in mind, sometimes this goal can expand, evolve, or change during the web design process. The next thing you know, the designer is not only designing and building a website but also a web app and email campaign.

This isn’t necessarily a problem for the web designers because more work means more money for them, but if the increased requirements or goals aren’t met with an increase in budget or a push in the timeline, the project can quickly become unreasonable. Make sure you don’t demand too much of your web designer or team if you yourself are the client.

3. Create Website Copy

Many people leave their website copy as the final step, but that isn’t usually the best idea. If you skip creating any written content of your website’s pages before starting on the overall design or layout, there will probably be a decent amount of redesign involved. This will only make the project take even longer to complete.

So, if you want to create a great website that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional, make sure you pay close attention to this step. First, create the content for the main pages of your website. While doing this, make sure to keep your website’s main goal and goals for any individual pages in mind.

The best way to organize your thoughts without skipping right to the content creation step is by using placeholders for content, such as:

• Blog post examples
• Menus/menu inspirations
• Contact information
• Brief content summary by section
• Individual product descriptions
• Social media links, etc.

4. Create A Sitemap And Wireframe

A sitemap is essentially the foundation for any well-designed website. This loose foundation gives web designers a clear idea of the site’s layout and structure. It also explains the links between different pages and content elements.

Once you have created your sitemap, the next step is to find design inspirations and create a mockup wireframe. Inspiration combined with a general wireframe provides a general framework for making all of the website’s content and visuals and lets you identify the potential challenges within the sitemap.

5. Content Creation And SEO

Once your website’s framework is created, the next step is to write unique content that drives traffic and clicks. Boring and repetitive content won’t keep any visitors’ attention for long. A website needs engaging content to get visitors to want to click through the pages.

Either way, getting the right keywords and phrases is crucial for the success of any website. While creating solid copy for your website, you need to make sure you incorporate strong SEO keywords.

 Also, mobile-friendly websites are more prevalent than ever. If you want your website to be customer-centric, making sure it is mobile-friendly is incredibly important.

Here are a few SEO tools that can help:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Trends
• Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider

6. Visual Elements

Now it’s time to create the visual style for the website. This step of the web design process will often be shaped by a company’s existing brand theme or style, color choices, and logos. While some things are set in stone, this is the stage of the web design process where web designers can really shine.

Visual elements are taking on a more significant role in web design now than ever before, especially when it comes to images. Not only do high-quality images give a website a more professional look and feel, but they’re also mobile-friendly and help build trust with customers/clients.

7. Testing

This step is one of the most crucial to follow before the website goes live. You need to thoroughly test each page to make sure every link is working and that the website loads quickly and correctly on all devices and web browsers. 

Specific errors could be the result of small coding mistakes, and while these can be annoying to find and fix, it’s better to get all of the bugs out before you release your website to the public. A broken website launch will only hurt your brand.

It’s a good idea to take one last look at the page meta titles and descriptions too. Even the organization of the words in the meta titles can affect how your website performs on search engines. 

8. Website Launch

Now that you’ve completed every step, it’s time for your website to go live! Now you just need to install your website on your final production server and hook up your domain name. If you’ve been developing the site locally, you can use a plugin to move it to the correct server.

Some hosts even offer migration services or recommend specific migration plugins. Listen to all of those recommendations. 

Once your website is live, now all you have to do is update it at least once a year and monitor for any errors that might pop up. While the web design process can feel lengthy and tiring, following each of these steps will significantly increase the chances that your website will be successful.
Shift Refresh is a US-based digital marketing agency that helps businesses smash their competition and emerge as a leader in their respective industries. We are ready to help your business not only grow but thrive. To learn more, call us at 1-888-467-3249 or visit our website https://www.shiftrefresh.com/.