Web

Web development process

Developing a website presents itself with an abundance of choices and approaches. Before we begin the development process we first must establish what kind of a site each client needs and how to maximize its success. The list below is a breakdown of all the factors involved in our process of web development.

Informational or E-commerce
We first must establish what kind of website the client needs developed. An informational site is a website with content of information spread throughout its pages but unlike an e-commerce site doesn't provide any sale opportunity. An e-commerce site, on the other hand is an online store where you can display items and products and have them sold through a third party processing system like Paypal. The price for an e-commerce site is usually more expensive than an informational site for it involves a much more complex system of programming and developing. Once we have established the purpose of the site, informational or commerce, we can move onto choosing an appropriate hosting server.

Hosting
Before we choose a hosting server upon which our site will live and thrive on, it's important to choose how our site will be updated once it is transferred to its owner. This means deciding whether to develop the site as static code or build the site on a content management system.

CMS - A content management system or CMS for short is a system which builds and manages your site according to the controls they offer. Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal are some examples of a CMS. These systems make it extremely easy to update your site without having to know anything about hard coding. This is the ideal choice for a site which is updated frequently and isn't being managed by a professional web programmer. It is especially relevant if a client wants to be in complete charge of making any revisions and updates in the future, without having to reach out to a web developer.

Non-CMS - In many cases it is more appropriate to hard code the site and have it directly uploaded to a hosting server. This is ideal if we want to have complete control over every aspect of the site's design and development and if the site will be managed and updated by a developer or team of developers.

Once we have decided on a cms or non-cms we can go ahead and choose a hosting server where to have our site hosted . Once a suitable host is selected we can move on to the next step of the development process which is the subject of your domain.

Domain
Choosing a proper domain name is vital to your site's health and popularity. Your domain is how you will be remembered most so become master of your domain and name it right. Always aim for the most relevant domain address you can possibly find. This will add to your brand recognition and allow visitors to remember you most easily. Another thing to consider along with the name of your domain is how to best end the adress. The most common is ".com". Depending of what type of website you are building and what your location is, is how to best determine whether you should be located at ."org", ".edu", or ".co.il". Once you have chosen an acceptable name, we go ahead and register the name for your site. Now we are ready to start our design.

Pages & Layout
Once we have reserved our site's adress and host we can begin by planning how to best layout the functions of the website. We consider the many functions of purpose of the site and start creating pages based on that. Each site needs a homepage, this is the page where the user will arrive first when reaching your site. It is important that this page be informative enough to entice the user to delve deeper into the site's many other pages but not too much that there won't be a need to delve any further. Once we have laid out all the pages we plan on building it is important to have them all organized into a heirarchy of categories. This will allow the visitor to aclimate quickly to the site's navigation and functionailities. Once the organization has been complete we begin planning the individual page layouts.

It's important to consider which information is most valuable and make sure to allocate them to the top of your pages. Secondary information can be lower down on the page requiring the user to scroll down toward them. The layout of each page can be limitless in its design and uniqueness but it's important to maintain some kind of consistentancy in the design in order to make it easy to understand how to navigate throughout. We want the visitor to remain on the page and to explore the website as opposed to being frustrated by confusion and leaving soon after arrival. Part of planning the layout is deciding where to establish the navigation menu and where to have our logo sitting. We work to be as creative as possible while yet staying within the bounds of simplicity and relevancy. Most of the time the layout will change to some degrees but we want to try to create a recognizable consistency to give our visitors ease of use. Now that we have our pages and layout we can begin designing the actual site.

Design
We design each website according to a chosen brand identity which we discuss in detail in our description of website branding. Every design is based on the brand's colors, shapes, lines, and most importantly, style. The design includes the navigation menu, background images, graphic icons and banners, font type, text and link colors, and much more. To read more about our web design process and all the factors involved, read our web design section.

Content
Once we have our main design and brand ready we can go ahead and implement our written and graphical content. This is the main body of our website where we display all our information and functions. We have all our content writen, edited, and then reviewed by the client to ensure maximum relevancy to their primary purpose. All the graphics are custom designed in accordance with their uniquely branded guidelines. Also included in creating content are any plugins and web applications the client would like to have included on their site. Some examples are contact forms, slideshows, and introductory videos. Once we have all the content implemented into their correct locations we can go ahead and begin to wrap it up.

Optimization
Before we can upload the site to the server we first make sure that all the content is sufficiently optimized to ensure it's relevancy is clear. This helps the site's SEO and ranking abilities and its overall exposure capabilities. We also optimize all page titles, descriptions, and keywords accordingly. The final step we take before uploading our site is minimize all images and file sizes. This guarantees a faster loading time for our site and ultimately keeps visitors happy and satisfied.

Launch
Once our site is completely designed, programmed, and optimized we can go ahead and upload it to its hosting account or connect our CMS to our domain and go ahead and visit the brand new live website. The next step once our site is up and running is driving traffic towards it and have it rise in popularity and good standing. Read about our marketing department and learn the steps we take to ensure that happens.