So you obviously know what a website is, you’re on one in order to read this. But what’s involved in getting a website online? As a web design company we work hard to make sure the mechanics of it all doesn’t effect you as we take care of it all. But sometimes it’s good to know what’s actually happening.
Building a website is very much like building a house. Usually it won’t take as long to build, but depending on how complex the website is, it can.
Stage 1: Architecture
Before you start building, you need to know what you’re building. Stage 1 of the website design and development process requires a layout of how the website will look. Your web design company will design a layout or mock which the website will be based on. Once you’re happy with the mock they’ll continue to design the final look of the website. This is just an image, which will later be made into a live site.
Stage 2: Choosing the land
So you have the plans now where are you going to put the website? In websites there are 2 factors to consider here, they are the domain name and website host.
A domain name is what people type in their browser to go to your website eg. www.mooglemedia.com.au – a bit like the address of your house. Unlike a house though you can have as many addresses as you’d like for your website – you just have to pay for them.
The website host is the actual land that the address is linked to. It’s basically where we’ll build your website. You’ll pay varying amounts for the website host depending on the site and quality etc.
Consult your web developer if you plan to buy your own hosting as they will have certain requirements for the host to ensure they can build on it. It is often best to let your web developer take care of all the hosting for you, most are able to handle your domain names as well.
Stage 3: Construction
This is usually the longest stage of the process. The developer will take the designs, and then start building your website. If your project is quite complex you may not see anything worthwhile for a little while as the foundations need to be laid before you build on it. From there you can build the frame, before completing the home page and then going inside and doing all the other pages.
From here you can assess and make sure it is all as per the plan. If it is, then you can launch your website for all to see.
Conclusion
This is a general way we produce websites, most other web design companies will follow the same or similar structure. I hope this help you understand a little bit more the process involved with website design and development.
