1. Discover

The first step is communication. I like to get to know you as a client, your product, goals, objectives and what sets you apart from your competition. This is a chance to define your brand position, your strengths and weaknesses as company, and how you plan on using your website to assist you in everyday business transactions and communication. I will assist in educating you on content strategy and how it affects your short-term and long-term goals. This step will end with an accurate proposal and timeline for your project.

2. Project Planning

With any project there are many different goals and priority of tasks to be completed. I will define the level of priority and difficulty of each task at this stage along with a projected timeline. You will also receive a list of project responsibilities, both for you the client and myself. This roadmap will help us drive the design process.

3. Define

Before we begin the design phase, we setup your domain, hosting, email and determine what platform will best fit your needs. I will also start the SEO process at this time by gaining ownership to your Google Places, Bing Business and Yahoo! Small Business listings. This phase includes a review of all of your offline marketing materials so that we are consistent in your brand message.

4. Design Concept and Proofing

This is where I finally get my hands dirty. In this phase I will take the detailed information from your customer needs, your competitive analysis, and business goals and start to develop fresh solutions and define a conceptual design. I begin with a new sitemap of your website, I then move on to wire framing and site outline. Once the foundation is set, I add in all the bells and whistles of a great design.

5. Coding and Programming

After the design concept is approved, I begin coding your website. This includes another project timeline with appropriate milestones to keep the project on task. Installation of the CMS on your hosting account, XHTML/CSS markup and the implementing of content into your page templates will occur at this time.

6. Deployment and Testing

I will setup your site on a demo server for your viewing. Cross-browser testing will occur at this time, as well as usability and functionality. Quality assurance and reviews are conducted between you and I to ensure the website is not missing any components. Visitor analytics will be installed at this time, you will receive training on how to understand and use the analytics data.

7. Public Launch and Governance of Content

After your site goes live, I continue to work with you to ensure that your pushing quality content to your site and that your content is being deployed in the best manner for your users. We also visit many different avenues of promoting your website through extensive SEO campaigns, Pay-per-click (PPC), Social Media Marketing, Offline Marketing, and blogging.