Nuts and Bolts of the Web Development Process

Typically, the web development process is a collaboration between our business and yours:

I. Identify goals of website, ideal design requirements, and minimum design requirements.

• What are the key products and services of your business?
• What terms are you targeting in search engines? What locality? Search terms should correspond to your key products and services.
• How can you convey your business's expertise?
• What are your competitors doing on their websites, and should you provide similar functionality? How can you stand out?
• How can you maximize sales conversions with the information provided on your website?
• How many pages do you want on the site (should correspond search terms)
• What functionality do you want? (i.e. site search; director; ability to edit site; database work; shopping cart)
• Do you have a vision for the style of the site?

II. Determine what is possible within your company's budget, and identify existing resources.

• Does some information already exist? (i.e. desire to use similar style to existing marketing materials such as brochures, logos, information dispensed to customers, information dispensed in-house.)
• We can perform graphic design, or we can work with your designer and implement the coding of the site.
• What are the tools necessary to accomplish the features you desire? (E.g., shopping art, CMS, database, etc.)
• How many hours would it take to develop each feature you desire? Can some of the work be done in-house (e.g. content development and editing done in-house, and formatting and graphic design done by Lakenetwork?)

Ideally, at this point you can identify tools that can help you achieve your desired features within budget, but if not, you can pare down the features on the site.

III. Initial design mockup of home page and typical sub page design (if different)

Lakenetwork typically provides one mockup of the home page based on the requirements identified by your business. In some cases, several different design ideas could be presented at once. This depends on the sophistication required by the project and budget considerations. Typically this is an iterative process, where changes to the design mockup are implemented by Lakenetwork based on feedback from a representative of your business.

IV. Coding of site skeleton

We recommend that we develop in pure CSS but depending on the project requirements, this can add time to a project. We can implement pure CSS projects in Joomla (if all third-party components are also compliant), Wordpress, PHP, and so on.

V. Content coding

If the site is developed using a CMS (Content Management System) such as Joomla or Wordpress, your business can easily add or modify content.

However, we recommend that we perform the initial formatting and layout of information and that we edit pictures to illustrate the content on your pages (if applicable).

VI. Testing

At the end of a project, we test all links, and if the project is a shopping cart, we test shopping cart transactions. We also test all custom developed database functionality.

VII. SEO

Basic optimization is performed at this stage of the project. Depending on your budget, we can perform keyword research and/or analysis to a small or large extent.

VIII. Training (if applicable)

IX. Maintenance period & promotion

With a web hosting contract, Lakenetwork typically provides up to an hour per month of maintenance. (Hours do not accrue from month to month.) Terms are negotiable depending on your business's needs.

We recommend that you develop new content on a regular basis for the site, using a CMS and/or a blog to help improve your site's topical authority. We also recommend promoting new content items in social media outlets such as Facebook, keeping in mind that the applicability of social media to your marketing needs depends on your business.