The Essential Components of a Successful Website
A website is an investment for the future. Whether you’re refreshing or starting from scratch, a revised online presence is setting an intention for growth and creating an opportunity for success. Although Reech try to be as transparent as possible on every project, it is difficult to truly showcase the volume of work that goes into creating a website. We’re here to peel back the curtain on what goes into website creation and the impacts each piece of specialism can bring to your business.
Discovery and Planning
We kick things off by diving deep into your business, objectives, and goals. This discovery phase is where the magic begins, allowing us to understand what makes your brand tick and what aims the website sets out to achieve. From these insights, we craft a functional specification—a detailed document that outlines the website’s intended features and user interactions. Think of it as our project blueprint, ensuring all teams are aligned and ready to do the business.
Structuring Your Site
Next up is the creation of a sitemap. This visual guide lays out the structure of your website, showing how different pages connect and interact. The sitemap plays a few different roles – it serves as a solid reference point for designers as well as content creators while allowing the client to have full overview before the development begins.
A well-crafted sitemap also only enhances navigation for users while helping search engines index your content effectively. It’s a crucial step that sets the stage for a seamless user experience.
Design and Collaboration
With the functional spec and sitemap in place, our talented Digital Designers and wider Creative team get to work. Using specialist software Figma, they create design system and page mockups that breathe life into the technical specification. Incorporating your brand assets, developing engaging animations, expanding your colour palette, crafting custom blocks and CTAs and designing functional elements that deliver results are all part of the process. Collaboration is key here, not just internally but externally too. We share our progress with you, the client, throughout this process, ensuring expectations are being exceeded.
Content Creation and SEO
While the Design team works their magic, our Content team is busy crafting compelling website copy that captures your brand’s unique voice. Partnering closely with the SEO Specialist, they weave in high-scoring keywords and search terms to ensure your content isn’t just engaging but also optimised for search engines. This dual focus guarantees that your pages resonate with visitors while scoring high in organic search results.
Development and User Flow
Once the design and content are approved, it’s time for our Development team to take the reigns. They take those beautiful mockups and transform them into a fully functional website, coding both front-end and back-end elements, integrating databases, and implementing bespoke features that make you stand out from the rest of your sector.
Before we consider the site complete, we conduct thorough checks on User Experience (UX) and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO). UX focuses on creating an intuitive interface that feels natural for visitors, while CRO aims to boost the percentage of users who take desired actions on your site. We ensure everything flows smoothly, nurturing customers effectively across both mobile and desktop platforms.
Testing and Optimisation
The site then enters the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase. Here, we verify that everything meets our high standards and functions seamlessly in real-world scenarios. This critical step helps us catch any issues before launch.
Once UAT is complete, our Digital team dives into the nitty gritty:
- Optimising SEO meta requirements
- Setting up tag management
- Further optimising site performance
- Installing tracking metrics like Hotjar
These steps ensure your website is not just ready to go live but also set up for long-term success with valuable insights into user behaviour.
Launch and Beyond
Finally, it’s time for those two magical words: GO LIVE! We launch your winning website into the digital world, ready to drive growth for your business.
But remember, a new website is just the beginning of your digital journey. To maximise your investment, a multi-channel marketing strategy with your website as the centrepiece is a sure-fire method for growth. PR, organic and paid social media efforts, and email campaigns are all examples of what can drive people to the desired location.
Luckily, we do it all. From industry-leading websites to full roll out strategies, we’ve created huge levels of growth for clients across all sectors. Reach out today to speak to our experts for a no commitment chat about where your business is and where you’d like it to be.
