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When running a website for business or personal branding, it must be designed and developed efficiently and kept free from bugs and errors. Also, it must fill up all the project requirements and goals.
In this context, a website development checklist provides a perfect overview of your website development project from first to last. You probably need a checklist to create a website for your business. You are at the right place, then!
This article will teach concise information about the web development checklist, including its definitions and importance. So, no more ado; let’s get started!
What Is a Website Development Checklist?
A website development checklist is a document that helps web designers and developers address all necessary tasks and considerations for the web development process throughout each stage.
It covers critical areas of the website development process like research, planning, usability, adherence to standards, content, and accessibility.
This type of checklist allows web developers to make the tasks clear and organized by keeping them on top of things like coding, programming, testing, designing prototypes, and more.
Difference Between Website Development Checklist vs Website Launch Checklist
People often need clarification on whether there is any difference between a website development checklist and a website launch checklist. Let’s clarify!
A web development checklist includes information gathering, planning, design, content writing and assembly, coding, testing, review, launch, and maintenance.
On the other hand, a website launch checklist includes setting up the homepage, permalinks, timezones, value proposition, project quality, and more.
Why Is a Web Development Checklist Important?
A website development checklist is important for clients and service providers as it helps them identify all necessary tasks and considerations for the web development project.
Basically, a web development project includes multiple tasks, from planning and research to website design, development, launch, and maintenance. In this context, a checklist holds overall chronological views on the project task list.
It helps them ensure all the tasks have been completed thoroughly and check out potential issues and errors before deployment.
Website Development Process Checklist
In the above, you learned succinct ideas about the web development checklist and its importance. Here, you will get a first-to-last description of the website development process checklist and its requirements. Let’s take a look!
Website Planning
The first stage in the website development process checklist is planning and research. It contains various tasks, including project requirements, timeline creation, project scope, and goals. Let’s check them out!
Identify project requirements
When planning for a website development process, first, you must identify your website’s project requirements, ensuring that your website represents your business’s proper face and brand. There are some things to consider in this phase—
- Identify your area of interest.
- Perceive target audience demographics.
- Fix your budget for the project.
- Fix desired website features
- Analyse ROI (Return On Investment)
Create a project timeline
Overall, website design and development tasks take different times depending on the website types, scope, and others. So, you need to create a project timeline for your website development process. Here are brief project timeline ideas for you—
- Strategy and planning timeline: (How many days or weeks need)
- Design timeline
- Development and programming timeline
- Content writing and assembly timeline
- Beta testing and review timeline
- Site Launch timeline
Define project scope
Project scope in the website development process checklist is a document made by web development companies to deliver to their clients in order to clarify the initial ideas and scope of the project. It include—
- Project summary
- Project scope
- Project costs
- Key assumptions, etc.
Determine project goals
The final step of website development planning is to determine project goals. Setting goals helps you implement the project in the right direction and achieve desired business accomplishments by identifying the right target audience.
Website Design
When the blueprint is ready, the design task in the web development checklist is to start. You should design your website on the basis of multiple factors, maintaining brand elements. Here is a brief guidance on the website design process checklist.
Create wireframes and mockups
In this phase, you have to create wireframes through the appropriate design template, making its structure relevant to stakeholders. Also, you need to create a mockup to showcase how the finished product is likely to look.
Choose typography and color scheme
Typography and colors are one of the best parts of website design tasks because choosing the right color and typography will increase brand recognition and website success. It includes—
- Text Color
- Background color
- Headings color
- Links color
- Navigation color
- Logo color
- Banner color
Design a responsive layout
A responsive layout is necessary to launch a successful website. You must create a user-friendly layout for your website based on screen size, platform, and orientation.
Obtain client approval on design elements
Client approval is essential when designing a website. Here are some facts to consider to obtain client approval on design elements.
- Set affordable expectations and milestones.
- Perceive what’s important to each stakeholder.
- Involve your client from the start.
- Implement feedback.
- Explain why you did what you did.
Website Content
No doubt, content is king in today’s world due to its key role in making the first impression on visitors. You have to include relevant and engaging content on the website according to its niche and genre. Here are some facts you must consider.
Write and edit copy
Every webpage needs written texts and content to describe various facts and purposes. You should write and edit your website content to rank your website page at the top of Google’s SERP.
Optimize images and multimedia content
It’s true that an image says thousands of words. A website without relevant images and multimedia cannot stand out. You must optimize attractive images and videos on your website to attract visitors and convince them.
Ensure content accessibility and readability
When the content writing and image optimization tasks are complete, you must ensure the content has a good readability and accessibility to the users. Otherwise, it will be worthless.
Develop a site architecture
The next step is developing a site architecture. It includes the hierarchical structure of the website pages. It helps search engine crawlers understand the linking between different pages, and users get information.
Website Front-End / UI
Website Front-end refers to the technical implementation of the website’s user interface. You have to build Front-End/UI in your website, maintaining its fast speed, functionality, and performance. Also, it should be responsive to all types of devices, like computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.
Website Back-End
The back-End refers to all the data stored at the website’s backside, which is not visible to users. You need to create a back-end by giving exact protocols. It protects the website from data leakage, breaches, and all kinds of issues, including major cyber attacks.
Create Hosting Account and Database
To develop a site architecture, you need to create a hosting account and database. A web hosting account enables you to publish the website on the internet. On the other hand, a database will store different types of data to build several blocks of your website.
Website Development
The development process is the most important task to keep a website flawless, stable, and updated. This phase contains various activities, including HTML structure creation, CSS style, SEO practices, and more. Here we go!
Create the HTML structure
In the website development process, HTML is an important part. HTML refers to the standard markup language used to create web pages and to tell the browser how to display the content on the page.
Build the CSS styling
CSS is a style sheet language used to present documents written in a markup language. There are three methods the CSS styling used by website developers– Local Style, Page-Level Style, and External Style.
Develop the JavaScript functionality
JavaScript functionality is another important task in the web development process. It’s a text-based programming language used both on the client side and server side to make webpages interactive. Web developers use Javascript on web pages to engage users.
Ensure cross-browser compatibility
Cross-browser compatibility, which is also known as cross-browser support, refers to the ability of a website to support multiple browsers. When you take a web development service, website developers will ensure cross-browser compatibility to allow your website to render from all browsers.
Conduct code reviews and testing
Web developers will ensure conducting a code review is a process to catch potential issues, security problems, and bugs before they are introduced to the codebase. Testing refers to finding bugs in your code, whereas code review uses human reviewers to find bugs.
Implement SEO best practices
SEO is mandatory to run your website as it brings your website to the top of Google’s SERP to reach a large number of users. When you take a web development service from a professional agency, they will ensure SEO implementation to your website.
Performance & Page Load Speed
Page load speed is all about how much time it takes to load a page and show up on the screen. Page load time starts when a user initiates a page transition by clicking a link or typing a URL.
It plays an important role in your website’s high performance. So, it’s an essential part of the web development process checklist.
Third-Party Integrations
Third-party integration refers to the attachment of an application programming interface (API) from one application to another. In the website development process, API is used for many purposes, such as payment gateways, social logins, and more.
Deployment
Website deployment basically refers to putting your website on the internet so that people can use it all over the world. The web deployment process contains some important tasks. Let’s get them.
Select a hosting provider
A web hosting service is essential to make your website available through the World Wide Web. When developing a website, it’s necessary to select a well-built hosting provider to ensure your website of a great connection to the internet.
Set up a staging environment
Setting up a staging environment in your website refers to the last step before it is visible on the live site. It ensures that all new changes deployed from previous environments are working as intended before hitting the live website. It also allows for eliminating bugs and issues.
Deploy the website to production
Website deployment to production means deploying new changes to the website, typically code, from source control to an environment, like staging, development, or live. It makes your website available to users by moving code from a local computer to a public host.
Perform final testing and quality assurance
Quality assurance is a task in the website development process which is used to test the functionality of the website. Web developers use this process to find design and development errors while testing the user interface (UI) and gauging user experience (UX).
Ensure website security and accessibility
A website must be secure and accessible to users from all devices. When you hire a professional website development agency, they will ensure your website’s security and accessibility to keep it user-friendly and attractive.
Setup SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate refers to a bit of code on your website server that ensures security for online communications. It provides an encrypted connection when a web browser contacts your secured website.
Back-Up
Backup is another important part of web development tasks. A website backup service automatically protects your website pages, databases, files, and emails. It also ensures accurate data storage for your website.
Website Quality Testing
Website quality testing is one of the website’s best practices for checklists, as it includes the process of auditing a website to detect quality issues and bugs. It has three types of tasks, such as coding quality test, content quality test, and visual content quality test.
Code Quality Testing
Code quality testing measures the common factors of a website, like a maintainability, testability, readability, security, and more. Web developers use code quality tools to observe the code and mark the common issues and mistakes.
Content Quality Testing
Content quality testing refers to a method used to identify whether your content performs well or not. In this phase, you can check if your content makes sense to users and gives enough context to assist them.
Visual Content Quality Testing
Visual content is another important part of the web development checklist. Web developers use visual content quality testing methods to check out the webpage content is in the perfect shape, size, and position. It also ensures the content appears on a variety of devices and browsers.
Maintenance
The final stage is website maintenance. It includes various tasks, such as website content updates, performance monitoring, fixing bugs and errors, and implementing new features and functionality. Let’s see them.
Update website content
When completing website design and development tasks, it’s necessary to update new and perfect content. In this phase, you need to review your current content and design, optimize SEO, add powerful multimedia elements, and more to keep your website advanced.
Monitor website performance
Website performance monitoring is essential as it refers to the measurement of a website’s ability to respond efficiently to end-user interactions. Professional website development service providers use top website performance monitoring tools, such as—
Conduct regular security checks and updates
A website needs regular security checks and updates to keep hackers and cyber thieves away from sensitive information access. A web development agency includes a proactive security strategy that protects your website from malware, attacks, and other IT infrastructures.
Fix bugs and errors
Bug fixing is important to keep your website errorless and flawless. When your website does not work as expected, web developers check the code to identify why any errors occurred. They maintain some processes for that, like Reproduce, Root Cause, Resolve, Regression, and Retrospect.
Implement new features and improvements as needed
Websites frequently require adding new features and improvements to include new services or products. In this process, professional web developers are your best choice as they will add the latest features and improvements to your website efficiently based on your needs and desires.
FAQs
What do you need to start a website?
To start a website, you need some important elements, such as website hosting and domain name, website design and development, and content and SEO optimization tasks. It will be easy if you take a website design and development service.
What makes a good website checklist?
There are some important facts that make a good website checklist, such as good planning, identifying project requirements and goals, and including a unique and attractive design and development practice.
How to plan a web development project?
To plan a good web development project, you need to identify website type, requirements, project goals, benefits, and budgets, while also getting help from a professional web development company.
How to launch a website?
To launch a website, you need to design and develop a website according to your business needs and implement relevant content.
How to test a website before launch?
To test a website before launching, you have to ensure some tasks, such as cross-browser compatibility, responsiveness test, functionality test, checking broken lists, and security assurance.
Final Thoughts
A checklist plays an essential role in creating and launching a website properly. It clarifies all the necessary elements and tasks for the website development process. In this article, you learned in-depth information and knowledge about the website development process checklist.
Now you can easily identify why a checklist for website development is important and why you should hire website developers for your business site. RankUpper is your best choice in this context. So, contact us if you need help with your website.
