The Essentials Website Process – A Guide To Each Step of the Site Build

One of the most common questions the Essentials team is asked is simply “what are the next steps?” whenever a website milestone is achieved. Be it wrapping up the design, finalizing written content, or even wrapping up the finishing touches of the site, it’s always important to know what lies ahead to ensure everything is prepared for a perfect launch. 

In this post, we’ll go over the full process of our Essentials tier website design projects, what occurs on each step of the way, and what may cause delays.

With our Essentials website projects, we aim for a timeline of one month between our Kickoff meeting – where we meet our clients and gather all of the information needed to begin our project – and the day the website goes live. There are no hard deadlines, but our goal is still to provide our clients with a complete, great looking website in as short a time as possible. After that first meeting, we have four phases to the project that each encompass one week.

As can be seen above, the phases are as follows: 

1. Design 
2. Content Organization & Website Build 
3. Review 1 
4. Review 2 

In order to achieve completion in one month, the deliverables, responses, and reviews for each phase of the project must be delivered on time in order to keep with the timeline. 

First Phase – Design Mockups

The first phase of the Essentials process is finalizing the design for the website. Beginning during our Kickoff meeting, our designer will assist with selecting a template from our library (unless done so prior) and a logo from our library of templated logos, if needed. If a logo was provided prior to our meeting, we will use the colors and fonts used in the logo within the design to keep a consistent visual identity throughout the website. After the logo process, we then go over the colors and fonts to be used throughout the site’s design. 

Our designer will have the first set of design mockups completed and ready for revisions within two to three business days following the Kickoff meeting. With timely feedback from our clients, they’ll have a second set of mockups ready within another one to two business days.

Once a mockup is confirmed, our design team will transition the project over to the development team and send them the final design files. This process typically takes between four to six business days. 

To help keep the project moving smoothly and on schedule, there are a few things we encourage our clients to keep in mind for this stage of the process:

• Revisions are almost always possible. If additional rounds of design revisions are requested, our design team will be happy to make those updates, and the timeline may be adjusted to allow enough time to complete them thoughtfully.
• Having the logo finalized before project kickoff allows us to begin designing right away. Whether you provide an existing logo or select one from our library, our designers use it as the foundation for key elements of the website, including fonts, colors, and the overall visual direction.
• Prompt approvals help keep the project on schedule. Reviewing and confirming revisions in a timely manner allows our team to move efficiently into the next stage of the process.

During this phase, of content assistance was selected for the Essentials project, our content team would also have the website’s homepage content prepared and delivered for revisions within three business days after the Kickoff call. This is then used as the basis for the direction and feel of the content writing for the remainder of the website.

Second Phase – Website Build and Content Organization

The second phase of our Essentials process is a two-parter: we handle both the content organization and the website build within week two of our ideal timeline. 

If content assistance has not been selected, all content would need to be provided by the client at this point to ensure it is present on the site during the following review phases. We ask that all provided content be finalized and proofread by the client,  as content corrections and adjustments can significantly delay the review periods of the site build. 

If content assistance was selected, the project proceeds to the review phases without full content as the homepage, general site design, and structural elements can be reviewed and revised while our team waits on the final content for the website.

Our content team will begin writing the remaining subpages of the website after the homepage content has been finalized. Using the homepage content as reference, our writers will carry the feeling, direction, and writing style throughout the remainder of the site so all content has a consistent voice and feel. Any delay in providing feedback or confirming the homepage will delay the subsequent content writing. 

This stage of content writing typically takes two weeks to complete and will be delivered and revised during the website review phase – provided that the homepage was confirmed within a timely manner. In this case, the first review phase focuses on the site’s homepage, structure, and design elements and the second review phase can focus on content checks and launch preparations. 

Third Phase And Fourth Phase – Review Periods

After development of the website has finished, we will reach out to schedule a review of the site. These are typically less than half an hour for our clients and consist of reviewing the homepage, the general site aesthetics, and confirming details such as contact information and form fields. 

At the end of the review, we will go over how to use the BugHerd tool which we use for client feedback. This simple web tool allows anyone to click on any element of the website, attach a note of feedback, and send it to us where it’s organized into a taskboard. Our team relies on BugHerd to allow the team to easily review feedback and make comments or changes, as needed. Feedback sent through documents such as Word, email, or other methods will not be accepted as feedback. 

After the review of the staging link, we will send over a pair of emails. The first is an invitation to the BugHerd tool which asks the client to make an account in order to login and be able to access the tool on the staging link. The other email will contain the staging link and a note that website hosting charges have begun.

Upon delivery of the staging link, clients will have five days to submit their feedback through the BugHerd tool. Our team will work on all feedback sent through the tool during this five day period and will notify you once all changes have been made.

After all changes from the first round of revisions have been made, feedback will open back up for another five day period. We ask that all remaining feedback be entered as all time spent on revisions after this second five day period will be performed at our hourly rate of $250 per hour. 

Once we have finished the final revisions, we will confirm that the site is ready to launch and schedule out our Quality Assurance (QA) testing and launch preparations. 

Launch!

After our review period and QA testing is complete, we schedule the site for launch. We may be in contact with the client if any authentication codes are needed to finalize either the DNS records or Google features for the website. Once the site is live, we will notify the client and provide a login to the new website along with an offer for a complimentary WordPress training session that will go over how to navigate and use the WordPress backend. 

After that, we’re just happy to hear the site feedback and hope our clients are as proud of our work as we are!