5 Intentional Steps To Building A Great Website: There’s Not A Template For That

For this month’s blog, we’re pulling back the curtain and letting you in on our website development process. You may not be aware of each step that goes into building a website that not only looks great, but also has strong SEO and a functional user flow. Our specific approach to web design and development includes more than just good aesthetics, even though that’s an important part of it. We create beautiful websites that work with you and actively work FOR you.

Our holistic approach to website creation is broken up into five main stages: discovery, information architecture & user flow, written & visual content creation, visual design, and website development.

When we say your website should work for you, we mean it should actively take work off of your plate by answering your most frequently asked questions as soon as possible. It should also have a clear path for users to take to get them to your ultimate call to action (CTA).

This approach results in a website that is both representative of your business, your story, and your style, and also actively converts visitors into paying customers. What’s better than that?

Let’s look a little closer at the process:

Step 1: Discovery

The first step is one people often skip for convenience, but we believe it’s a foundational step in the process of building a good website. During this step, we get to know our clients & help clarify their brand message. We spend intentional time asking important questions that help our clients figure out their target audience and their brand voice. We do this because before we do anything else, we want to clarify and solidify their message.

Step 2: Information Architecture & User Flow

Since we believe a great website should work FOR a business, our next step is to identify the main calls to action and then map the site to get users to the desired destination as smoothly and quickly as possible. We do this by establishing an overall website outline, then developing flow patterns that will guide users from page to page on the site.

We like to think of a website as an employee. It should be fully functional, actively taking work off of a business owner’s plate so they don’t have to answer the same questions over and over via phone, email, or contact forms. And they can be free to focus on, well, running their business.

Step 3: Written & Visual Content Creation

After user flow, we move to writing the content for a website. We will never try to fit your business’s unique message into a premade template. Before developing any design aspects for a website, we develop the content first.

Your story and your products or services are the most important thing about your online presence, so we build everything to fit that. We get creative. This is where every bit of mapping and questioning really comes into play in order to build content that truly represents you, the client. Once we finish the written content, we create a plan for the photography, videography, or custom illustrations for the website.

Sep 4: Visual Design

Once the written and visual content are taken care of, we put all of these pieces together to create a design that is truly custom to a client’s needs. Each page is designed specifically to showcase the content and photography/illustration. All of our clients receive mockups of each page before any coding or development is done on the site itself. This saves a lot of time in the long run.

Step 5: Development

After the content, user flow, and design of the website have been approved, that’s when the site truly gets brought to life. It’s so important that a website be developed mobile-friendly and with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. Our development process is pain-free for each and every client, as we’ve already done all the legwork to ensure the site is ready to build.

Final Thoughts

We think you should have a really cool-looking website. If you’re just starting out, there’s nothing wrong with templated websites. Really. But don’t stop there!

If you want your business to truly stand out online, invest in a website that will help to grow your business and drive more conversions… a website that has a clear focus, answers the most important questions, and works for you.

We hope this helped! And as always, shoot us a message with any questions you may have.