Are you apprehensive to start your new website project? What’s holding you back?
Maybe you’ve had a negative experience designing and building websites with a web company before and want to avoid repeating it. Or perhaps you’re new to the process and don’t know where to begin.
A lack of transparency and communication can create doubt and cause a delay in starting your new website project.
Most web companies simply follow your brief, delivering exactly what you request. At Pod, we go beyond that. We explore creative possibilities and push the boundaries to deliver something that truly stands out and drives conversions for your business.
We’re here to answer your questions about building websites and help you feel confident to take the next step!
Let’s break down the stages of a web design and development project here at Pod Digital.
Our process at a glance…
6. Functionality & Integrations
1. Onboarding & Research
Once you come on board with Pod Digital for your new website project, we’ll arrange an internal meeting between our sales team and your designated web account manager. This ensures a smooth handover, allowing the team to be fully briefed and all key information to be shared seamlessly.
At this stage, you’ll be introduced to your web account manager, who will be your main point of contact. They’ll answer any questions and gather any additional details needed before we get started. This ensures everyone is aligned and our strategy is cohesive from the outset.
Understanding your business is essential to effectively communicate your brand values and tone to your users. We also take the time to analyse your competitors’ websites and study your target audience’s behaviours. After all, if your customers are looking at them, we should be too!
Armed with insights from our onboarding meeting and competitor analysis, we have the tools to design a website that will both meet your needs and stand out amongst your competitors.
2. Concept Creation
Now, we begin conceptualising your project. This stage involves brainstorming within our team, exploring ideas and discussing potential concepts.
What sets us apart is an exercise we’ve branded the ‘Size of the Prize’. This is where our SEO team will outline keywords and potential new pages for your website. By targeting key terms, we can drive more traffic to the site and ensure easy navigation.
We’ll sketch wireframes to map out the blueprint of the site and start to visualise the sections on each page. Our creative team carefully critiques and refines these to ensure they align with your requirements while prioritising a seamless user journey.
At this stage, the designs remain fairly simple, with the primary focus on interactivity and user experience.
Once we’re confident in the wireframe designs, we’ll schedule a meeting to present them to you and get your initial feedback. We welcome changes at this point, as finalising the site’s structure early on is key to a smooth design and development process. We’ll work with you to design a website that you love, engages users and drives conversions.
3. Refining Designs
With the wireframes in place, it’s time to start website designing and bringing your ideas to life. We’ll experiment with on-brand colours, imagery and fonts to make it feel like your own.
Whether you have a clear vision or aren’t sure where to start, we’ll take the lead. Our creative web designers bring fresh ideas and inspiration to design a website that stands out and delivers results.
Next, we’ll book a call to walk you through your refined website designs and gather your feedback. Just like in the concept stage, we’re happy to make any changes to ensure you’re completely satisfied. Since adjustments are much easier at this stage than during development, we’ll work together to get everything just right.
4. Website Development
Now that your designs have been approved, we can begin building your website. To ensure a seamless development process, we will set up a private, secure staging environment where we can construct and refine the website before launch.
In this phase, we will start building each section from the designs. We typically build our websites on WordPress, using PHP code and CSS for sleek, responsive styling. Every section is built to ensure optimal performance across all screen sizes and compatibility with different web browsers.
As these sections come together, your website starts taking shape, turning the vision into reality. There won’t be much for you to see just yet, as we work hard behind the scenes, preparing everything to present back to you.
5. Page Building
With the sections of the website now in place, we move on to the next step, populating each page with these sections, effectively bringing the website to life. This is a crucial stage where the website’s structure truly begins to take shape.
We will start by uploading your website content, which can either be written by yourself or our content team. An experienced content writer will ensure website content is strategically crafted to rank higher in search engines while optimising for AI-driven search experiences. This will boost visibility and engagement of your new site.
As Jane Wardle, Content Director at Pod Digital says, “We can be the expert voice to your expert knowledge.” It’s not just about having expertise, it’s about delivering it in a way that resonates with search engines and real audiences. We ensure your insights are found, understood and valued.
We’ll source and embed images, videos, infographics and other visual elements to capture the user’s attention. This helps convey information quickly and breaks up the content for improved readability.
Additionally, this stage involves optimising these media files for fast loading times without compromising quality, making sure the website is both visually engaging and functional for the user.
6. Functionality & Integrations
At this stage, we’ll focus on adding more complex functionality and integrations to your website.
Many businesses require custom features such as CRM or stock management system integrations to streamline internal processes and automate systems. If needed, we can also integrate booking systems to simplify scheduling and appointments, which has been a popular request in the past.
If you’re considering email marketing, integrating your email platform with your website can help capture customer data and market to these contacts directly.
Additionally, we can improve your website with a range of other interactive elements, such as animations and transitions to engage visitors and drive conversions. These are all developed at this stage of the build process.
7. Testing Phase
Your website is almost ready for review, but before we hand it over, we conduct thorough testing to ensure everything is working seamlessly. This includes testing the contact forms, the checkout process (if applicable) and any other additional functionality.
During this phase, we identify any areas that need refinement and resolve any issues. This ensures a seamless experience before it reaches you.
8. Final Feedback
Now that we’ve built the website and completed testing, it’s time for the exciting part — you’ll get to explore and navigate your brand-new site. We’ll send you a link to access it, along with a spreadsheet for your feedback.
Take your time to review the site and share any comments. Your feedback is essential to ensure you’re happy with the final product and that we’ve met your expectations. If needed, we’re happy to schedule a call to discuss any feedback or changes in more detail.
There may be some back and forth at this stage to address any questions or resolve issues that arise. However, rest assured, these will be handled quickly and efficiently to prevent any delays in the launch.
Once all final changes have been made and you’re satisfied with the website, we can agree on a date and time for the official launch.
9. Website Launch
It’s time to launch your new website!
Typically, we’ll gain access to your domain and discuss hosting at the start of the project to ensure everything is set up early on. We also offer our own hosting packages and can provide guidance if needed.
We’ll handle as much of the launch process as possible before making any changes to the live site (if applicable) to minimise downtime and ensure a smooth transition. After the launch, we’ll complete post-launch checks, including testing contact forms, checkout processes (if applicable) and all functionality once again.
Once your website is live, we offer a training session to ensure you’re fully equipped to manage your new website with confidence. However, if you prefer, we can offer a web retainer to manage the site for you. This includes handling updates and suggesting improvements to keep it fresh and up-to-date.
Analytics tools are added to the website upon launch to give you visibility of your new website’s performance from day one. This is regardless of whether you have agreed to any other marketing with us.
10. Marketing Strategy
It’s now time to think about how you’ll drive traffic to your website and start generating revenue. A range of digital marketing strategies can help boost visibility and increase conversions. Consider SEO, PPC, paid social or email marketing to get your site off the ground.
Contact us today