What Should Be Your Checklist To Get Best Website Services

One website, coming up!

The world of website services is a daunting one for the uninitiated. What do we delineate in our project scope and requirements? What features should be present and what kind of functionality should the website have? What kind of timelines do we accept from the service provider? How long is too long for a deliverable? These and many more questions keep floating around the minds of first-timers who are out to solicit website services. If you’re among that crowd, we understand your troubled mindset. Let’s take a look at the essentials to clear your mind.

Project Scope and requirements:

 What will the website be used for? Disseminating news? Social networking? eCommerce transactions? Something else? This will help determine the type of website to be created. The next step involves details such as what is the product or service or purpose of the business? How does the website help? What is the website expected to do for the end user? Who is the end user? Does the site have to be monetised? How can the site be monetised? So on and so forth. Every single detail such as how many pages, how many tabs, what goes on the sitemap, etc. is decided at this stage.

Design:

The look and feel of the website is decided at this stage. The layout, the colours, basically the stylesheet of the entire website is decided here. Typically, a brand has its own brand guidelines where things such as fonts, typeface and colours are predetermined. These elements are to be used as per the brand guidelines on the website. If they do not exist for your brand, we highly recommend getting one made. However, if you’re pressed for time and want to refrain from investing in a brand guideline just yet, at least demand that the agency you have employed prepares a stylesheet for you on the basis of which the website will be designed. At this stage, the architecture of the website is decided. It is sketched on the software to prepare a framework and a basic screen blueprint.

Development or Implementation:

This is where the website goes from barebones to having a proper structure. It is completed with all the functionality up and running, all the databases integrated, all the coding done and all the design aspects in place. This is the stage where the website is actually built. The authoring, including the standardised code and the proprietary software are all developed and implemented at this stage. The backend development of the website is what essentially takes place here.

Testing:

A CMS platform is used to test the mock-up site. This stage is crucial in eliminating all the bugs that can be seen during test runs. The things to note here are whether all the functionality is running as it should. Are all the features presenting themselves as they should? What is the delay or time lag in the page loading? Basically, this stage is where the deliverable is thoroughly checked before delivery. Any and all bugs found in the system are taken care of at this stage.

Deployment:

This is when the site goes live. It always has a soft launch that is closely monitored and tested. Then the official launch takes place. During the soft launch real time issues that may occur during the running of the site are seen. Deployment is the stage where the site is handed over to the client. It is the stage after all the testing is done and the bugs have been removed and a successful run has been recorded. Deployment entails the end user seeing the site and general public being able to visit the site. It is a delivery stage.

Maintenance:

Every website, no matter how well designed requires upkeep and maintenance. Typically, the first year of maintenance and hosting is free. However, as time passes by, new features are required and they can be added under the maintenance contract. However, a complete overhaul or redesign is not covered by the maintenance contract. As the name suggests it is for maintenance only. Keeping security certificates updated, features functioning and other functionality glitch free is what is expected at the maintenance stage.