Website Development Process - Step by

Step Analysis!
It is often said that the website development process revolves around
coding and only coding. I beg to differ. There are numerous steps in
developing a web application. We, in this article, will step by step
analyze the holistic seven-stage approach of Web development life
cycle.

“If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.” –
Steve Jobs

You want to develop a commercial website or a web application. You hire a

web development company . You let them know your requirements and they
provide you with estimates. After a few months of hard work, you have an
appealing website in front of your eyes which over time attracts huge web
traffic and becomes a powerhouse for revenue generation. Ecstatic? You
should be!

But website development is not that simple and doesn’t happen in the blink
of an eye. The complete web development process is time-consuming and
is a result of long hours of behind the scenes commitment by business
analysts, designers, developers and testers.

If you are to hire a software development team to help you develop a web
application, you should be aware of the complete process behind the
application development.

Read more : 5 most common custom software development problems

In this article, we have listed down a holistic seven-stage approach of Web
development life cycle.

The 7 steps of developing a website :

1. Understanding client requirements

2. Research and developing a Business requirement document

3. Planning

4. Designing

5. Development

6. Testing and Deployment

7. Maintenance

Let’s break these down point by point:

[1] Understanding client’s requirement

The most crucial part of any web development process is understanding

what the client wants. All the other subsequent steps are dependant on this
step. If you don’t get this step right, chances are you won’t get the software
right either. Let me explain this with a story :
USER STORY -

A client comes and tells you that he needs to build some furniture. And the
requirements for the piece of furniture is - It’s an item used to sit on, has
two arm handles and should be comfortable.

You process the requirements and without further questioning, you present
him with a chair!

The client in dismay calls out “This is not even close to what we wanted”.
We wanted a couch! This is a chair!

But… it perfectly matched the requirements! So, what went wrong?

You assuming that the client requirements were discussed in entirety and
not further questioning him or jotting down the requirements on pen and
paper is what went wrong.

The first step of a website development process should always start

with requirement gathering. The purpose of the web application, the
goals, the application’s target audience - discussing all these with
the client to understand the requirements are of utmost importance.
Let’s understand these one by one:

[a] Purpose of developing the website should be very clear. Whether you
want to promote your service, sell products online or just provide
information of your online business is of crucial knowledge to a web
development company.

[b] End goals are a must. What is the vision behind the website and what
goals the client thinks it will achieve is important.
[c] Target audience helps in understanding the user flow. Different age
cohorts will respond to different UI/UX. So, it’s important to know what
group of the audience we are targeting before a product is developed .

In the initial stages of the requirement discussion, BinaryFolks sets up

frequent detailed meetings with the clients to get a complete picture of the
requirements. Also, keep in mind, the more fleshed out this stage will be,
the more precise the cost and time estimation will be.

[2] Drafting a Business Requirement document (BRD)

Once the requirements have been gathered at a high level, it needs to be

documented. Any good business analyst always strives to gain an overall
understanding of the business requirement and then translate it to a BRD
that would be used as a reference for the development process.

BRD should always be precise, easy to understand and unambiguous. This

is the document that developers will refer to when they will start the web
application development, so, it must contain sufficient details and
breakdowns wherever necessary.

This Business requirement document will be the holy grail for the software
development company as well as the client. Make it a point to consider all
possible deliverables and constraints.

This particular step of the website development process also helps in

avoiding cost and time overruns. All development must adhere to this
document and any new modifications will require extra effort, both in terms
of money and time.
[3] Planning

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Now that you know what exactly needs to be developed and have a detailed
BRD of the same, the next phase is project planning. Before the first line of
code is written, it is of utmost importance to determine the tasks and
manage the allocation of resources involved in the web application
development.

This phase mainly comprises of :

[a] Wireframing

[b] Defining site architecture

[c] Selecting the technical stack

[d] Milestone bifurcation

[e] Deciding on resources and estimates

The fundamental step of planning must start with wireframing and defining
site architecture. One wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint, right? So,
we should also not start designing or developing web applications without a
wireframe and sitemap.

A Sitemap is a hierarchical list of all the website pages and it helps the
development team to build on. The designers and developers get a
complete picture of not only the structure but also the overall distribution of
pages in the site. Without a sitemap, your site will be unorganized.
A wireframe is a way to visualize website design at the structural level and
is super important to identify usability issues early on. It also helps in
visualizing the complete user journey and choose appropriate UI
components. This is the foundation of your website and if you don’t have a
strong foundation, everything that you do on top of it will crumble.

Proper integrated planning focuses on everything required for successful

completion of the project. Project planning helps in better utilization of the
company’s resources and makes sure that the time allotted for each phase
is used optimally.

[4] Design

A good design is not only about aesthetics, but it’s also about user
interaction. The design of your website is more critical for conversions than
you think.

Once the wireframing and site architecture is in place, the designers start
working towards visual elements.

In this step, designers start working on the visual brand. You can actually
visualize how your website will look. The layout, the screens, buttons,
headers and footers, navigation, photos, videos, and other visual elements
are all added in this step of the website development process.

As discussed earlier, the designers need to keep the application’s target

audience in mind and design websites according to the taste and preference
of the target audience.The website layout (including color, logos images
etc) needs to be discussed with the client and tailor-made according to his
preferences and target audience’s taste.
[5] Development

Now that we have added flesh to the skeleton, it’s time for the skeleton to
function. At this stage, the developers start coding and transforms your
static webpage into working software.

Software development coding has two parts :

Front end development: It is referred to as the “client-side” development.

This is what users see and interact with on the browser. The user-
interaction is of prime importance here.

The front end developers don’t actually design the website but they are
responsible for bringing the design to life. They take the static elements and
transform them into fully functioning interactive websites.

Back end development: The portion of the website that is not visible to
users. The backend communicates with the front-end and sends information
to and fro so that users can interact with the website features.

The backend software developers make sure that all the business logic and
data storage is properly implemented. Database creation and integration,
API development and integration, Security checks, etc are all part of
backend development.

[6] Testing and Deployment

Any software should always be thoroughly tested before deploying it in

production so that your production environment is not threatened by bugs.
So, having a proper, streamlined testing process is crucial.
A web application must be thoroughly tested before making it live. Testing
is basically done to make sure there are no bugs or broken links and to
make sure the web application is ready for launch.

User acceptance, Beta testing, Functional and Performance Testing, White

Box or Black box Testing are some of the many testing methods software
development companies implement to test their work to eliminate bugs that
might compromise product quality.

Once there is a go-ahead from the testers, the code is pushed to

production. Make sure to meticulously re-test on production as well.

Always have a staging server backup so that if production is severely

broken after deployment, they can use the backup to restore production.

At BinaryFolks, we carry out rigorous testing after every milestone. This is

because, if the bugs are caught early, it is easier and less complicated to fix
them rather than fixing them when the whole application is working. This
considerably helps reduce software development costs too.

[7] Maintenance

The web development process doesn’t end with deployment. Software

maintenance has a huge role to play in the complete web development
process.

The purpose of software maintenance is modifying and updating software

applications to correct bugs, enhance capacity and add features to improve
the performance of the system.
Any updates, modifications, bug fixes, patches and developing additional
features in order to increase the performance of existing software is
incorporated in software maintenance.

Ensure that if anything comes up, your software team fixes it right away.
Any wrong information or outdated content leads to loss of potential client.
BinaryFolks offer 90 days free bug support.

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7-Step Website Development Process [+ The

Tools That Will Streamline Your Journey]
Interested in learning about the website development process? Look no further than our master
guide, with top steps, platforms, methodologies & more!
Dark Mode

Web development is a skill that takes years of higher education, training

programs and practice to master.
It’s no surprise that most business owners don’t know where to start when
approaching the web development process.

That’s why we’re here to take you through the seven steps of the website
development process.

Why listen to us? Because at Digital Silk we have a team of in-house,

seasoned web development professionals.

Individually, they each bring a unique set of skills to the table, and together we
have worked on countless custom web development projects both in the
United States and internationally.

In this article, we’ll break down the seven steps, plus share tools that can help
you streamline planning, collaboration, project management and more.

What Is Website Development?

Website development is a broad term associated with the process of building and
maintaining websites.

At its core, website development refers to web markup and coding, which are
enabled by languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. However, it also includes
other aspects such as content management system (CMS) management,
eCommerce integrations and migrations, security configurations and more.

The Website Development Process In

7 Steps
From planning to launch, we’ve broken the website development process into
seven key steps to follow. But before we start, we’ve put the steps into a
flowchart to help with visualization:
1. Define Your Project
The first step in the website development process is to define the goals for your
project.

These typically include:

 Business details: Define your offering, purpose, unique value proposition,

mission, vision, stakeholders etc.
 Business goals: Set clear, measurable deliverables for your website to
develop the most effective strategy, including the KPIs you’ll use to
measure performance.
 Target audience: Define your target audience and research their
preferences, likes and dislikes, study their online habits and more to get to
know them and their expectations.
 Competition: Research your competition, analyze strengths and
weaknesses and develop a plan to position your brand on the market.
Take a look at rideshare brand Lyft’s unique value proposition as a high-quality
example of defining a project’s key values and differentiators from the
competition:

[Source: Lyft]
2. Plan Your Website
Next, the planning process. Define your website’s layout, from landing pages to
product pages, key conversion points and more. Here, you’ll need to create:

 A sitemap: A sitemap is a bird’s eye view of your site that determines the list
of pages, their placement and relationship to each other on the website. It
includes both user-facing elements and those intended for web crawlers
(such as Google). A site map helps define and organize your web content,
allowing your strategist and designer to go deeper into planning the look,
feel and functionality for each page.
 A wireframe: A wireframe is the layout of each individual page of your site. It
outlines and the elements and content, from headlines to CTAs and
subscription boxes. The wireframe should cover both desktop and mobile
versions.
This stage of website development will help you plan your conversion funnel
and user journey for each page of your website.
Find more web development terms in our complete glossary.

3. Design Your Website

Next, move to the user interface (UI) design stage to introduce your branding and
complete the look and feel of your website.

Define each branding element, from your color palette, logo and iconography to
the images and videos you’ll use.

These branding elements should remain consistent across all channels, from
your website to your social media pages, marketing materials, newsletters and
more.

Consistent branding helps create a memorable visual identity for your brand,
which increases recognizability and promotes trust.

For example, we all associate Nike with bright colors, vivid imagery, bold
typography and of course, the Nike swoosh.

[Source: Nike]
4. Create Content
Step 4 of the process is to plan and create your content. Depending on your
target audience, content creation may include, (but is not limited to):
  Landing pages
 Product/service descriptions
 Testimonials
 Case studies
 Blog posts
 Videos
 Images
 Newsletters
 White papers
 Social media posts
Create your content based on your target audience. Research where they spend
their time and define what type of content they’re most likely to interact and
connect with.

Use strategic keyword optimization throughout your content to answer the search
intent of your potential customers and encourage purchasing decisions.

From home decor and shopping reels to engagement questions and funny
videos, Target is a perfect example of content tailored towards a target
audience.
[Source: Target via Instagram]
5. Develop Your Website
Once you have defined your goals, planned your design, created your branding
elements and devised a content plan, it’s time for development.

You’ll need backend and frontend developers to build your website, using
industry best practices and detailed specification documents.

From the platform you choose to different features and functionalities, your
website should be built with the ability to scale to match your growth potential.

Experts in this field, like our Digital Silk developers, use research-backed insights
to develop your website based on several different factors, including your
industry, your offering, your target audience and more.

6. Test Your Website

Before you push your website live, don’t forget to test it.
Your developers should check the functionality of all the elements on your
website. The aim is to detect any issues such as broken links and compatibility
with different devices to ensure everything works properly.

Use validators to check if the code follows the standards, test the site’s speed
and ensure it’s responsive on all devices.

Once manual and automated testing is complete, your website is ready to go into
a live server and launch.

7. Maintain Your Website

Congratulations, your site is live! But the work doesn’t end there. As your
business grows, you may need to increase the number of pages, add more
functionalities, update features and more.

Regular maintenance includes:

 Editing existing content

 Adding content
 Fixing bugs and issues
 Dosing site backups
 Installing plugins
Modern web design trends are constantly changing, and new technology
provides opportunities for advanced features and functionalities. Hiring
a professional web design agency can ensure your brand is never left in the
dust by the competition.

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