A Quick Guide to Website Development Lifecycle

Website Development
5 min read

Website development is a complex process that combines many essential factors like the development lifecycle, architecture, quality designs i.e. UI/UX, and many more. In this blog, we are going to look at the website development lifecycle and the processes involved in the development of a website. 

Even though we know coding is a critical part of website development, when we look at the bigger picture, there are other important factors as well. Information gathering, strategic planning, and post-launch maintenance are the other equally important factors. A website development lifecycle can be followed by 8 different stages! 

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Here are the 8 steps of the Website Development Lifecycle

Website Development Lifecycle

Before diving into the process you need to create a website timeline so that the development process can be more streamlined in a more efficient way. Here is what you need to do. In the website development timeline, you can add tasks and establish milestones for your website. It is the best way to track the progress of the project and the chances of missing deadlines are minimal. 

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Gather Information

In this step, the goal is to research & analyze the idea, define the purpose and set the target audience. It is also important to have a look at the future trends so that when the time comes the website would gross at the top rankings. 

Informative websites differ from educational websites and business websites look different from entertainment websites. 

Plan the Workflow & Strategies

Workflow & Strategies

At this stage of the website development cycle, the developer creates the data that allows a customer to judge how the entire site will look like. 

The sitemap should describe the relations between the main areas of your website. Such representation could help understand how usable the final product will be. It can show you the “relationship” between the different pages of a website, so you can judge how easy it will be for the end-user to find the required information or service if he starts from the main page. The main reason behind the sitemap creation is to build a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate website.

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Design Web Structure

Creating the website layout is the first objective of the designer. It can be a graphic sketch or an actual graphic design. The goal of this layout is to represent the information structure, visualize the content, and demonstrate the navigation controls & basic functionalities. 

Add Effective Content

This phase comes after the design part is over. Content is the king of websites, it’s not the designs or the development. Effective content with the help of appropriate keywords can boost the website to top rankings. On every page or section, several products and services needed to be on the web. 

Initiate Development

Now, the coding phase should start. It is now the programmers’ turn to make things unique and effective. Unlike traditional design, developers need to understand the UI and the code shouldn’t interfere with the look and feel of the website or application. This requires the developer to understand the website design and navigation. If your site is dynamic, your code should use templates. Designers and developers may need to meet frequently to understand their designs and ensure the user experience matches the interface and functionality.

Testing & Launch

Testing is probably the most routine part of this process. To ensure there are no broken links, every single link that is developed should be tested. You should check the navigation buttons, forms, and every script, and should run spell-checking software to find possible errors. Use code validators to check if your code follows the current web standards. 

After the testing, part is over and a bug-free website is ready the website should be launched. Now you need to upload it to a server. Once you deploy all the files, you should run the website for one final time to make sure everything is working fine and installed correctly. 

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SEO & SMO

Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization. Two essential factors of modern-day websites to ensure top rankings. Keyword analysis and competitor analysis alongside enhanced metadata and tags of the website help improve its ranking. Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing is normally ongoing process as the strategies of the search engine may change quite often. 

Maintenance and Updation

Websites need to be updated fairly often to keep them up-to-date and relevant. In such cases, the analysis has to be run again and all other lifecycle steps are repeated. Bug fixes can be made during the maintenance period. Once a website is up and running, it will require regular promotion, technical maintenance, content management, updates, website visit activity reporting, and staff training and mentoring, depending on the complexity of the website and the needs of your organization. 

As part of this, it’s sensible to use tools to monitor your website’s performance. This allows you to look out for issues and get alerts about nascent problems so you can fix them ASAP. The best observability software in this space can automate a lot of the site monitoring and maintenance, leaving you free to focus on other aspects of your operations.

Get in Touch

Wrapping Up!

You need to always keep in mind that website development is not all about coding and it doesn’t stop after a successful launch. Each phase has equal importance starting from the information gathering to maintenance & updating. Profound and in-depth research can do wonders for your website. 

Let’s connect and explore more effective ideas to build your website today! 

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