In today’s fast-paced, hyper-competitive online marketplace, a business website is more than just a place for commerce. It’s a 24/7 online storefront that tells your story, distinguishes you from the competition, promotes your branding, and presents your products and services. Because so much traffic starts online now, your website is often the first impression people get of your business. We have been using a system and process to build successful websites for clients since 2002. Ready to get your business online? Here’s how we’ll work with you!
At Redwood Valley Technical Solutions, we specialize in website design, building websites with a strategy that increases visibility, conversions and sales. Even better, we make you and your team a part of the process the entire way! We work with you to bring your vision and business to life online.
Let’s take a look at our 6-step website design process:
1
Website Design Checklist
Another way to think of this initial stage is as the discovery phase.
Any designer can go straight to designing, but at RVT Solutions, we do our homework first, making sure we have everything we need to get started. During this phase, you are a big part of the project because we’re going to get to know your business, your passion and your goals by reviewing the following and more:
- What you do
- What your business goals are
- What doesn’t seem to be working
- Who your target customers are, who your present visitors are, what the overlap is, and how to expand it
- Who your competitors are and what sets you apart from them
2
Website Site Map & Content
During this stage, we work with your team to take all the information and organize it in a meaningful, strategic way. In doing so, we create a site map using the content for your website and share it with you to get your feedback. This provides an outline of the pages and how they will be structured. Doing this is particularly beneficial because:
- you get a sense of how users will be navigating the site,
- you are able to prioritize the most important pages,
- you can see if any content has been left out,
- you get a sense of the remaining content that needs to be created.
This is also a time when we determine an all-important SEO strategy so that your content will have the keywords and phrases that will help the website perform well in search engines.
3
Prototype & Interface
Next up is creating a prototype or mockup design. This is a fun part of the process for everyone. Our design team gets to do what they enjoy most, and you start to see what the website is actually going to look like. Now you get to engage with the interface and put yourself in the place of your customers to get a sense of their interactions with the site. Just as the previous step does, this phase provides a chance to spot areas that need extra work.
4
Coding
Things get technical in this stage, and we’re not going to blast you with industry jargon! Here, we apply our experience and turn the design into the coding that makes the website actually work and come to life.
This is the phase where you have the least involvement since it’s so technical, but that doesn’t mean we leave you in the dark. Since it’s also usually the longest phase, what we do is keep you informed about how things are going, when we might be done, etc. Of course, you’re always free to ask us questions about the status of things.
5
Website Launch
At long last, it’s the day everyone’s been waiting for. Before we go live, though, we do one last check. In our case, this means a 42-point check to make sure there’s not a single glitch, broken link, missing piece of content, etc. Together, we’ve built a mobile responsive website that functions equally well for people using computers, tablets, and cell phones, and it’s time to share it with the world and start seeing results!
6
Ongoing Care and Support
The launch is just the end of the beginning. Once your website is live, we transition into “live” mode. Our team will create custom training videos to help you manage your website.
A website is a bit like a car in that it needs routine maintenance, updates and more - but since the Internet is constantly growing and changing, a website also needs to keep up with the changes too. We offer Care Plans that will help you do just that.
We’ll continue to be here for troubleshooting, maintenance, and updates. In addition, we’ll do regular security scans and backups in case there’s a technical need or a bad actor gets through.
Whether it’s your team or ours, adding new content, products and information is important to keep your visitors engaged and connected with your brand. Actively managing and updating your website helps search engines recognize and promote you as well. Having a plan to grow your website after you launch is imperative. We’re here to help as needed.
RVT Solutions Is Your Website Business Strategy Partner
Every day your website isn’t doing what you need it to do is a day you’re losing customers. Don’t let another day go by! Following our proven process, we work as partners with you and our team to deliver the results you want.
