As with any new project, proper planning and execution is vital to its success. I have seen many companies take on the task of designing and developing a new website, only to see them fail miserably. There are many reasons some companies fail, but more commonly it is because of factors such as scope creep, misjudging the workload, bad communication or under delivery. This is almost always as a result of bad planning at the start of the project.

Sound Idea has completed many successful website projects such as Mazista Tiles, TAL, Johnson Tiles, Body Stress Release and our own Sound Idea website, to name but a few. During the last few years, we have documented the recipe for success and the natural path a new website project should follow to avoid assumptions, scope creep or miscommunication.

Phase 1: Preparation and Planning
The first phase is by far the most important as this is where the website is born. Get an idea of what sort of websites the client likes by asking them to send links of their top 5 favourite websites. This way, when the initial design mock-up is started, there is already a good general idea of what the client envisions for their website. The client should be guided towards the most modern trends and away from old and outdated designs.  Keep in mind that the client is not the expert and that the suggested designs should be used as guidelines only. Gather as much information in this phase as possible. Find out what the most important information is to add to their home page. Plan the top menu bar names, the footer information and even the call to actions and child pages.
Find out if the client has any special requirements for their website. Do they need a form on the contact page? Do they want rotating or static home page images? Do they need a forum, live chat or comment section? Ask as many questions as you can to prevent scope creep at a later stage of the project.

Phase 2: Design
This is the fun part! Get the company’s brand manual from the client which contains corporate fonts, colours and logos. The web designer can get creative and make the first Photoshop mock-up. The top menu names and important information discussed in phase 1 should form part of this design. It is usually good to give the client 2 – 3 home page options to choose from. Once the client decides on a home page, the rest of the website should be based on that. Design the content page/s template containing the child page or call to actions. A full wireframe can be compiled after the home page and content page has been approved. The wireframe is a basic layout of important pages of the website. There is no need to layout ALL pages here, as the general layout ideas are usually consistent throughout the website.

Phase 3: Development
In phase 3 the wireframe should be signed off and finalised so that the web designer can start building the templates in HTML. The developers take over most of the work after that, as the HTML template needs to be pulled into the CMS. A lot of programming and coding needs to go into website functionality and any special requirements the client might have. The developers also make sure that the website is displaying correctly and that any coding flaws are ironed out.

Phase 4: Content
A website really takes shape when the content starts being adding, this is like the icing on the cake. The content editors handle this part. This is when content pages are added and linked to menus. The test is spellchecked and added to pages, along with relevant images. The SEO is done on each page as it is added. News feeds, Twitter feeds or articles are added and the linking of text and images finishes off this phase.

Phase 5: Testing
Testing is extremely important, and the client as well as the development team should participate in this. The website needs to be tested on different devices to make sure it is responsive and fits to each container properly. The website also needs to be tested on all browsers and any bugs should be sorted out in this time. Once the client is 100% happy with the website, the launch procedure can start.

Phase 6: Launching
In order to launch the new website, the URL name needs to be updated and pointed to the server that will host the website. As soon as this update has been made, the developers need to be informed so they can start the process. Name server changes can take up to 48 hours to start fully working. This period is called propagation, and is the time when your website starts to update all its new information to the web.  During this time, a final check should be done on the live website by the team, to make sure the display has not changed and that everything works as it should.
After the website launch traffic needs to be directed to it as soon as possible via social media networks.  It will take a while before it will be seen as “credible” again by Google. It is normal for a new website to experience a significant drop in visitors for the first 2 – 3 months after launch.

Throughout these 6 phases, there should be constant communication between the client, project manager and team members. These steps are used as a checklist from beginning to end of each web development project, and has become fail-proof for us at Sound Idea.  Through the many years of experience and endless web development projects which we have been a part of, we have learned that good planning makes for good results.