A New Website Plan Must Include a Foundation of Processes and Reviews for a Great Outcome

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When building a website there must be a an orderly plan to follow to completion of the project. This plan involves more that just the web designer/developer. The following activities have been recommended to use to insure a great website.


Keyword research. Identifying strategically important keywords is crucial not only for search engine optimization, but also for developing the thematic structure of site content.

Sitemap. A sitemap identifies each page of the new site and where it appears in the site’s navigational structure.

Wireframe. A wireframe is like an interactive construction blueprint that allows users to see what the site will roughly look like and how the navigation works. It allows a firm to tweak design and content placement before actual design and content development begin.

Content. Once site pages have been locked down in the sitemap and word counts locked down in the wireframe, writers can get to work.

Design. Designers can proceed as well at this stage.

Development. When content and design are complete, the new site can be programmed and made functional.

Pre-launch testing. Make sure everything works before going public.
Launch. A variety of tasks go into moving the new site from test mode to live mode.

Post-launch troubleshooting. Something always goes wrong, but there is nothing to worry about if you have a system in place to make corrections.

Define the Review and Approval Process

A firm must obviously approve the keyword research, sitemap, wireframe, etc., before the project can move to the next phase. But what is the procedure for internally reviewing these creative outputs, and who exactly is responsible for giving approval?

An effective review and approval process involves enough people to provide balance and thoroughness, but not so many as to create endless discussion and division. Review teams may vary somewhat depending on the item under discussion, but continuity and consistency are enhanced when team members stay connected in some degree to all project phases.

Most important of all, a firm must empower a specific individual to make final review and approval decisions. If this is not done, one of two things will happen:
Decisions won’t get made and the project will never get done.
Poor, rushed, or inconsistent decisions will be made, ruining the quality of the site.

Create a Project Schedule

To meet a launch date, work schedules must be organized carefully. Left to their own devices, writers and designers can tweak ideas forever; on the other hand, if deadlines are too tight, quality suffers.

A good schedule provides adequate time for production, review, and revisions. Common sense, evaluating talent, and understanding the corporate culture are the most important factors in scheduling. For instance, it’s reasonable to assume that a design won’t be approved without at least one round of revisions. And, if the firm tends to be very particular about branding and image, allowing for two or three rounds of revisions makes sense.

If the project has one writer handling 100 pages, one week will hardly be enough time for content. In this situation, the firm can decide in advance whether to hire additional writers or extend the timeline – a much better option than scrambling as an impossible deadline approaches.

Designate a Process Owner

A successful site project has a specific person responsible for keeping the process on track. This individual, the project manager, makes sure deadlines are tracking to be met, that changes to the schedule are made and communicated to all team members, and that unexpected problems are handled in an organized and efficient manner.

Whoever handles this role needs an understanding of the technical aspects of web development and extraordinarily strong communication skills. This is not a job for an efficient executive secretary or a brilliant technician with minimal people skills. A lot of firms that do everything else right get into serious trouble by putting the wrong person in this position.

Document the Process

Even when project management has been assigned to the ideal candidate, the process must exist in documented form, not only in the head of that individual. Why? First, if anything happens to the project manager, the entire project will be thrown into disarray; second, without a documented process, team members and company leadership will have a hard time visualizing the entire process and understanding where they fit in it; third, without a “scorecard,” assessing the performance of the project manager and making appropriate revisions to the process for the next time around become difficult.

Firms always get caught up in the fun aspects of a new website: cool designs, snappy content, amazing animation, and the like. But invariably, firms with high-performance sites have people on staff who love to plan and live to organize. If those skill sets are in short supply, stock up before building your next company site.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/09/11/a-bad-building-process-will-kill-your-new-website/