The new website design process is exciting, creative, and collaborative! You have a story to tell, and a brand to represent. Our job is to make that happen for you. “Your visibility is our responsibility.” It goes much deeper than simply being visible, though. Once found, you need to tell your story effectively and dynamically, and guide your viewers to a call-to-action. This process involves many disciplines, both creative and structured, and relational and technical.
You can rely on your point of contact to be in constant communication with you. Your involvement is critical! In order to best represent your company and values, we need your partnership. You’ll be asked a lot of questions about who you are and the story you want to tell.
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So… How long does a new website take?
While every agency and freelancer has their own process and timeline, ours is broken down like so:
Week 1: Content Gathering & Market Research
The first week of a new design is spent going through your existing content, doing market research, and coming up with a strategy for user experience, design impression and conversion. We’ll look at your existing website, additional content you provide, and what competitors in your area are doing. During this process our development team will be setting up a new website to build on, and your point of contact will be gathering all relevant credentials and information.
Week 2: Setup Basic First Look for Design
Our design team will use the content provided to build an initial home page draft. Your point of contact will setup a first look to go over what we did and why, and obtain your feedback to send back to the team. The design is a collaborative effort between you and our team: We want to represent your brand well while adhering to contemporary design standards and user experience best practices.
Weeks 3-4: Perform Back-End SEO Development
During weeks 3 and 4, our design team will make modifications according to your feedback while our content & development teams work on back-end SEO such as meta descriptions, keyword setup, and incorporating Google elements. This process is extensive and detailed and while you may not see much change on the front end, we spend a solid two weeks getting the site SEO-ready!
Week 5: Collaborative Proof-Read & Edit
During this week you have the opportunity to go in-depth through the website and give us detailed feedback and suggestions. This is when we have final approval on the website design. Together, we’ll go through each page and paragraph to make sure that the content is solid and everything is performing as expected.
Week 6: Approval to Launch & Client Training
The final week is when we obtain your permission to launch the new website as well as provide any training you’d like. Depending on your level of involvement, we’ll teach you how to make any kinds of updates you’d like to handle in-house. Once the website is live on your new domain, we’ll go through and clean-up on your new server and ensure that everything is performing well.
What you can expect from us during a new website buildout.
Timeline. The process of a new website launch, from start to finish, often takes 4-6 weeks for standard “marketing” sites. The timeline is always dependent on GreenHaven Interactive’s and the client’s abilities to work together to fulfill tasks and expectations on both ends. Because you are a unique company with a special story to tell, your project may take shorter or longer. We value flexibility within structure to meet expectations and deadlines, while still accounting for variations that can alter the project timeline. Timelines for sites that include special functionality such as eCommerce, Membership Management, private content sections and other customization beyond standard marketing usually take longer.
Communication. The most important element of completing a new website project is good communication. We do our best to represent your brand, and tell your story, and that necessitates open communication and mutual understanding. We will be continuously available to you and ask the same, for good partnership in your project. Your feedback is essential to accurate representation.
