We have been building websites for over 20 years. During this time, we have refined our process to become a dependable and successful brand partner for years to come. Below, you will find our precise process for creating a website that works.

Step 1: Strategy Workshop

Before we start designing anything, we initiate a strategy session with all key stakeholders. This session allows us to gain insights into your business, your customers, and to align on project goals and outcomes.

Step 2: Site Map

Following the strategy session, we conduct research based on the discussed topics, including a thorough review of your Google Analytics data. This analysis helps us identify the pages on your site that are currently receiving the most traffic. With this information, we propose a new sitemap for your website, which provides a high-level overview of the pages and content we plan to create.

Step 3: Wireframes

Once we have received the green light on the proposed sitemap, we start laying out the website sections without any design elements. This is called a wireframe, and it is essentially like the blueprint to a house before you start construction. Now, wireframes help us plan the copy that will be used in specific areas and how we are planning to visually convey the essential information about your brand before we proceed too far with design. Depending on your website’s budget or how quickly it needs to be completed, we can omit this step, but we do recommend considering it as it offers a clear layout of the site without the influence of design.

Step 4: Design

Now comes the exciting part – we bring your site to life with a captivating design that captures attention and leaves a lasting impression. With previous steps approved, we have a solid roadmap for creating a unique design that reflects your business’s essence. This phase often brings out new perspectives and potential for your business.

Step 5: Development

After designing and gaining approval for all pages, we prepare the development assets for our web developers to start constructing the site. We build our websites using WordPress, enabling you to edit and update content without requiring coding skills.

The duration of this phase can range from 1 to 4 weeks, depending on the website’s size. Throughout this process, we conduct Quality Assurance tests to ensure the site’s appearance and performance meet the desired standards.

Step 6: Launch

Once we have the go-ahead to take the site live, we will run through our launch checklist one last time, update the DNS settings in GoDaddy, and wait for the propagation period. “Propagation” is the process by which changes to your website’s DNS (Domain Name System) settings spread across the internet, ensuring that visitors from different locations can access your site. After the live site is up, we will do another QA check to make sure everything propagated correctly. Your website is now live, and it is time to tell your friends, family, customers, and even your arch-enemies. We usually like to send out an email blast or have a fun countdown on social media leading up to the event.

Step 7: Training

In our website projects, we include a training component. We believe it’s essential to equip you with the knowledge to manage your website effectively. Therefore, we meet with a representative from your company to walk you through making changes on the website and demonstrate any custom functionalities your site requires. We also provide a folder with recorded sessions for your reference.

That wraps up our start-to-finish website project process at Alarie Design. If you’ve followed along and feel that this process aligns with your needs, please click the button below to schedule a discussion about your website.