If you want to set your business up for success you have to start with a website. Your website is the face of your business and it is a mission-critical part of your branding strategy.
With so much competition trying to muscle out for attention, you have to put your business out there. And that is why the first step to build, grow, and scale your business is to have a website.
You need meticulous and strategic web project management to ensure web project success from day one. It might feel overwhelming at first, but the key to streamline your process is to have a checklist of what you need for your web project.
So many web developers and designers start a web project without taking the fine tuning of details seriously. And leaving out proper planning is one of the top reasons why the most ambitious web projects fail.
When creating a website, you need to be strategic with dividing time for planning and more importantly, for execution as this would save you a lot of time, money, and energy over the long haul.
As a web project manager, you need to understand the client’s requirements, get to know the brand, their target market and also competition, so you can execute a strategy that will help you deliver speedy and high-performing websites.
Get Client Information
Before you go ahead with a web project, you have to gain clarity and understanding of what the business is all about and how you want to project that in a website.
First off, you need to talk to your client and deep-dive into the brand so you will know what branding colors or voice suits the brand best. You have to build and design the website with the target audience in mind.
More so, your website’s look and feel should match the brand’s messaging. You need to focus on the target audience and branding because when you’re bombarded with a lot of ideas, it’s hard to gain clarity on your website.
It’s very important that you take your branding seriously because it will dictate the outcome of your website. Basically, your website should have all the elements synced well in precision. You need to be able to define your goals, set a timeline, and get your hands on the resources you need.
Basically, you do have to tap on the following:
Purpose
Every brand is unique. Well, it’s supposed to be to ensure you make a mark with your target market.
While most businesses fall in the same niche, like if you are into logistics, ecommerce or retail stores, or healthcare, having almost the same lineup products or services – but your branding strategy should be unique to your business.
You have to create that unique value or dubbed as unique selling proposition. Does your business have that x-factor making you pop out amid seas of competition? Why should your dream clients choose you?
You have to understand and determine the purpose or your business and website. Do you want to sell a product or service? Is your website designed for entertainment? Do you focus on providing information?
Websites have varied purposes and you have to define that right from the start.
Goals
What is the goal of your website? Do you want to create recurring income? Do you want to increase sales? Do you want to provide niche-specific information?
You have to understand what your website is built for. What do you want to achieve with your website? Basically, when you build a website, you curate content that fits your target audience or market. You build a website that will get you towards your goals.
Target Audience
Who is your ideal market? For every website, you need to create and build with your target audience in mind – always. It’s imperative that you know who your dream client is and you have a buyer persona defined from the start.
You have to know what your customers need and also their pain points because the goal of your website is to position yourself as the best solution to their pressing problems.
Customer experience is very important in a business and it starts with creating a website that resonates with your target market. Create an interactive website with content and overall branding that your customers feel connected with.
You have to define your target market because you can’t possibly be everything to everyone. If you want to sell to everyone with a pulse then you will be seen as a generalist. Your customers want to be with a brand that totally gets them from the core. So, your goal is to have a website that screams you are the specialist.
Set Up a Contract or Agreement
At this point, you also have to know the client’s budget and set up a contract or agreement with the details, timelines, and deliverables of the project; so you can avoid any issues in the future. This will also give your client peace of mind and assurance that everything will go as smooth as planned.
Once you have that covered, you can set up a proposed budget and a flexible payment plan. It is recommended to have an upfront deposit to protect your business.
Now that you have the information you need and the contract finalized, then it’s time to get to work!
Set Up Web Design
With the information you have, you can now start planning the website design. It’s best to create a prototype or a non-function website version that you can send to your client so they can have a glimpse or look on what the final website would be like.
With a layout, you can now build the structure, visualize the theme and overall look to match the brand, determine the type of content that fits the website, and get the basic functionalities working. Website design will basically include
Using a layout you can create the structure, visualize the content, and get an overview of the basic functionality. It provides a general understanding of the final website, including colors, logos, images, and the overall feel.
Once you send the prototype to your client, the client will review and send feedback. This process goes on until the client is completely sold to the design proposition.
If you are dealing with a huge website project, then you may have to tap on a creative team composed of web designs, graphic artists, writers, and the like.
Start Web Development
Get organized with all the tools, tech, resources, and information you need to get the project going. Move with purpose so you can be organized and steer clear of any problems as you go.
Build a Development Framework
You can use the popular Elementor which is free and makes it extremely easy to design amazing functional pages or you may opt to go Ruby on Rails or any content management systems of your choice.
Test Interactivity
Focus on testing interactivity before you add in the static content. More so, you can also add the forms and validation up at this point.
Populate Your Site with Content
Ensure that you have all the content, graphic, and videos ready for upload and leave no room for placeholders. At this stage, it is important to have great attention to detail and to make sure that you are meeting the mark when it comes to branding and gaining client’s nod.
Check Links and Functionality
Walk through every single page you built and make sure everything is in working order. Check that the navigation works properly, that you have social media links, that the user experience is good, and that the website works on mobile devices. If a contact form is involved, make sure that you test it.
Set Up Other Improvement
Setting up your SEO and also Google Analytics can greatly amplify the functionality of your site. To ensure the success of your website, it is recommended to use relevant keywords for your content plus tags and descriptions. In addition, you should also use great page titles.
More so, optimizing page load speed is crucial to website success and also to meet the demands and expectation of your client.
Set Milestones and Schedules
Managing a web project requires setting timelines and deliverables. Creating project milestones and schedules is imperative to ensure robust project management that helps you move forward with your goals.
Planning and setting up these events and milestones will help you see your progress and if you are meeting expectations. Setting up milestones using the Gantt chart software is extremely helpful when mapping out your website project especially when you work with a team.
You can set up daily or weekly team meeting and milestones then show your clients your progress. If you are not setting the right milestones, then the project will be at risk of delays.
Create Smooth Followups
When mapping out your website project, it’s important to be clear with schedules and deliverables. This is very important especially when working on big projects and a team. Ensure that you always have clear communication lines to avoid surprises or shockers.
Further, it is crucial to be clear when it comes to expectations. So, it is best to always keep your client in the loop of the progress and what will come next. It is important that you meet eye to eye with your clients to eliminate the guesswork.
Close the Project
Once milestones are met and the deliverables are handed over to the client, it is now time to end the project.
In this phase, you need to verify the scope of the project and ensure that commitments and promises are met in terms of the final deliverables. Ultimately, you will want to have happy and satisfied clients who have enjoyed the customer experience and the website.
Providing a great customer experience and impressive functional website that matches their brand will help bring in more clients to your business because your clients will rave and talk about it with their network and on social media.
Create an Impact and Boost ROI with a Website
A website is the lifeline of your business. And it’s not an exaggeration at all. Any business will want to hire a website development team who can take their brand to another level in the digital space. With today’s heightened competition, a successful website can make or break your business.
Without a website, your customers will have no idea you exist. That is why having a website isn’t just an option but is crucial to create a lasting and powerful impact targeting where it matters. Having a website is important to your branding and digital marketing strategy so you can drive more leads and boost your ROI in no time.
It is nice article. If we take care of the things mentioned in the article, websites can turn out to be as expected.