Comprehensive Website Development Guide - Prismetric

Website Development Guide: Website Types, Development Process & Cost

website development guide

Digital technologies are crossing borders and revolutionizing economies. They have transformed the way people work and organize things. Web development and digitalization have tapped into a more comprehensive technology revolution and have given a new way of looking at businesses.

Website development is a procedure for building or developing a website available on browsers. With the changing times, a top web development company plays a crucial role in helping businesses reach their core audience. Here, we have mapped out a detailed step-by-step guide to the website development process along with some insight into the website types.

What is Website Development?

Website development is the process of building, publishing, and maintaining websites and web apps from scratch that works seamlessly over the internet. The website can be a one-page static website or a full-fledged dynamic website with built-in CMS. Irrespective of the website development complexity, the website development team involves- CTO, project manager, team leader, web developer, web designer, QA & tester, and solution architect where each having different roles and responsibilities.

Custom website development goes through a specific process from coding, database implementation, UI designing, website hosting, and continuous maintenance. Broadly, website development is classified into three layers- frontend development, backend development, and full-stack development which we will discuss in the next section in detail.

Types of Websites

Nowadays, every other business is looking for quick, reliable, and cost-effective solutions for building websites to reach their customers. Another aspect that businesses must focus on is knowing the details of web app architecture. Ensuring this will help the business firms to reach their consumers and render them a better user experience

Types of websites

Out of many, here are a few different types of websites based on their functions and how they are presented.

eCommerce Website

An eCommerce website is simply a platform from which users can directly buy products. It is a facilitating platform that lets you set up an online store and manage its sales, marketing, and operations. Most big brands and plenty of small ones have an eCommerce website. An excellent way for brands to grow, gain new insights and acquire loyal customers is to have an attractive eCommerce website built by the best eCommerce developers.

Business website

A website that is dedicated to representing a specific business is known as a business website. It usually displays the type of services or products the business has to offer. A business looks more legitimate and professional with a professional website on the web.

Entertainment website

The entertainment website is an informative website that focuses on building high-quality content that is entertaining to the target audience. It should be well-designed so that users can easily navigate and get frequent updates so that users keep coming back for more information. Entertainment websites have a tendency to place an added emphasis on user experience.

Blogs

Blogs are usually run by an individual or a small group providing regularly updated content to the user. They are written in a conversational or informal style. Blogs can be created for a company or business to educate its users. It doesn’t require technical knowledge and is relatively easy for an untrained person to set up and maintain it.

Portfolio website

A portfolio website provides information and showcases the past work of an individual or company. The purpose of a portfolio website is to display compelling content and provide essential information in a way that leads to getting more clients. Usually, photographers, artists, and designers choose to have a creative portfolio website that showcases their past, present, and future projects.

Media website

Media websites collect the latest stories and other reporting news from across the globe or a specified area, depending on the website. This category includes websites like The New York Times, the Washington Post, Inc., etc.

Brochure website

These websites are exclusively for businesses that need an online presence but don’t want to invest a lot in their online presence. It includes just a few pages that present the primary contact and business information.

Non-profit website

A non-profit website is a platform to make donations quick and feasible. It is the easiest way to reach out to a large audience of potential donors that are ready to donate. It can also be used as a means to spread awareness about the cause that the non-profit organization is working for and encourage more people to join hands with them in whichever way possible.

Educational website

Educational websites have seen a boost in popularity among students in the past couple of years. With education at stake, it is constantly evolving and growing to provide students with quality education in this pandemic. These websites offer online courses and educational materials along with quizzes to visitors.

Web portal

A Portal is a web-based platform that brings together information from different sources like search engines, online forums, and emails into a single user interface. It presents users with the most relevant information in a uniform way. The basic concept of a portal is personalized access based on an assigned user role.

Community forum

An online community forum is a platform hosted by an organization or brand, where users can ask questions, assemble, discuss interests, and receive support. It serves as a place for people with similar goals and interests to connect.

Types of Web Development

Website development requires developers with different expertise to get build various parts finely. For instance, some developers excel at UI/UX design while some are coding superheroes that engineer the functionalities well. Take a look at various types of web development.

Front-end Development

The front end is the user-facing part of the website with which users interact and is also famously known as the client side of the application. The graphics designing and visual representation of the website require design gurus that craft unmatched user experience through responsive and high-performant UI leveraging CSS, HTML, Bootstrap, and JavaScript.

Back-end Development

The backend is the backbone of the website that hides the underlying ugly reality of the website that makes the website performs glitch-free. The users cannot see and interact with this part of the website. It involves creating server-side wherein backend developers put a laser focus on backend logic creation, database management, architecture development, servers, and APIs integration. PHP, Java, Python, and Node.JS are leveraged for robust backend development.

Full Stack Development

Full-stack development involves the development of both- frontend and backend, which require full-stack developers who are adept at UI/UX designing, functionalities engineering, database management, and server hosting. However, it’s difficult to find full-stack developers that can deal with all the technologies and tools involved in the website development lifecycle.

Website Development Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now that you have a clear understanding of the different types of websites, here are the essential features, steps, and tools involved in the process of website development.Steps-to-hire-dedicated-developers

would ensure a successful website development with minimum escalations which, in turn, will help your business stay ahead of your competitors.

Step 1 – Information Gathering

The initial step of the web app development process is to gather information. A lot of things have to be considered when the feel and look of your website are created.

This step involves a basic understanding of the business or company it is being created for and how the web presence can be utilized to help the business reach its goals. It is vital to understand specific needs and objectives in the website from a business viewpoint.

Purpose

What is the purpose of the website you want to build? Is it to promote a service or sell a product or just simply provide information?

GoalsWhat are you hoping to achieve through this website? The two main aspects of it are either you want to make money or just share information.

Target Audience

Which group of people are you trying to attract your website to and how can that help you reach your goals? Picturing the ideal person you want to reach is quite helpful. Considering the interests, age, and gender of the targeted audience help in determining the design perspective of your website.

Content

Now, when you have determined the target audience, what type of content will they look for on your website? Attracting more users with impressive content is thoughtful.

Step 2 – Planning

Before you dive into the technicalities of the website, outlining a well-thought blueprint is crucial as it will guide you along the way. Referring to the aspects in the first step, you can put together a plan for your website design and development.

This is the phase where you can create a roadmap for website development. Certain factors should be considered while planning your website, such as:

Domain and hosting

In order to run a website and build an online presence, you need a domain and a web hosting service. The domain name acts like a postal address to your website, while web hosting is a virtual space that allows users to create and store the content. Some of the standard web domain and host providers are:

  • Blue host
  • Dreamhost
  • Hostinger
  • Greengeeks
  • A2hosting
  • Hostgater
  • Hostwinds

Graphics

The website’s visual representation helps outline and guide website viewers’ focus on the web page’s critical content. A visually strong graphic design plays a massive role in catching users’ attention and enhancing their experience. The user interface and user experience create user-friendly elements that enable the users to understand complex websites and technical products.

Tech stack

The tech stack is simply the web technologies used to build websites such as programming languages, frameworks, software, patterns, tools, servers, solutions, libraries, and other web developing tools. Choosing the right tech stack for your website may seem complicated, especially for a business owner from a non-technical background. The five main points to consider before choosing the tech stack for your website are scalability, the scope of the project, time to market, security, and personal requirements.

Features

The features included in the websites are the most compelling aspect of planning a website development. Some of the trending features you can consider using in your website are:

  • Live chats
  • Testimonials
  • Case studies
  • Blogs
  • Geographic information
  • Images of your team
  • Subscription offers
  • About us section
  • Contact information
  • Search functionality
  • Social media links

Budget

After establishing the purpose of the website, it is important to consider the budget aspect of your website. The different components of the website are web design, coding, wireframes, templates, website architecture, migration planning, content management, etc. It is essential for you to map out the budget with your goals and consider the technical aspects of your website.

Step 3 – Web Designing

The designing step is critical in the web development process as it defines the look and feels of the website. One of the key factors to take under consideration while choosing designs for your website is the targeted audience.

For instance, if your targeted audience is teenagers, then the website designs will be more vivid, but if it is for a financial institute, it will be very different and more professional.

It is also important to add elements such as the company logo and colors as it can strengthen your business’s identity and attract more users. There are a bunch of popular web design tools that are commonly used for designing a website such as:

  • Figma
  • Adobe XD
  • Sketch
  • Illustrator
  • Photoshop

Step 4 – Web Development

This is the stage where the actual work of making a website functional begins. At this phase, the individual design and graphic elements from the prototype are taken and put together. This process is done by developing a website home page, followed by other interior web pages.

The homepage serves as a theme for other content and informative pages of your website. It also contains the main navigational structure that guides the user through the website.

Elements and functions such as animations, videos, interactive contact forms, shopping carts, galleries, information, and many other customized features are embedded during this phase.

On the technical front, the website also requires front-end development. To make a website unique and successful, writing a valid code is vital. This code should comply with the current web standards and focus on maximizing functionality along with accessibility for a larger audience.

Broadly, these are the front-end technologies you can choose from:

  • React
  • Angular
  • Bootstrap
  • Vue
  • HTML
  • CSS

The experienced web development service providers work on creating a solid backend for the website. It provides your website with a database to work on functionalities with integration to the server.

A robust database is the core of any website as it indulges in faster storage, retrieval, and data processing. You can choose many options such as JAVA, Node.js, PHP,  Flutter Web  and ASP.NET to develop a sustainable website. These are the commonly used back-end frameworks for website development:

  • Laravel (PHP)
  • Spring (Java)
  • Ruby on Rails (Ruby)
  • Express (Node.js)
  • Koa (Node.js)
  • Django (Python)
  • Flask (Python)
  • Blazor (C#)

Step 5 -Testing and Delivery

This is the phase where we attend to the final details and test the website. It includes testing the functionality of forms and other scripts as well as testing for compatibility of the website between different web browsers.

The testing and delivery stage ensure that your website is fully optimized to be viewed feasibly among recent web browser versions such as Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.

The web testing stage includes functionality testing, usability testing, compatibility testing, web UI testing, performance testing, and security testing. By performing these tests, you can ensure that your website will be accepted by end-users and run smoothly.

Step 6 – Maintenance

Maintaining the website post-launch is very crucial to hold your online presence. Though this is not a core phase in the web development process, it is a very important one and you as a business should avail of this to ensure a smooth working website for a prolonged period of time.

The only way to bring visitors again and again to your website is by providing freshly updated content on regular basis. Also, there need to be regular updates with respect to the latest technology and web app development trends that applies to your industry.

You can utilize software like CMS to develop a database-driven website. This gives you the ability to edit the content areas of your website and the administrative area where you can use an online text editor to keep updating your website from time to time.

How Long Does It Take To Build A Website?

Websites that look simple at first glimpse can also take an abundant amount of time to be developed. Time to develop a website depends on the technical skills of the hired developers, the type of website, and the features you wish to integrate in your website.

A typical customized website might take at least 14 weeks to be developed from start to launch. But as the number of features and the other factors affecting the time of website development play a role the time varies. The guide to build a website mapped out a clear overview of the stages a website goes through:

  • Discovery phase
  • Design phase
  • Development phase
  • Modification & Testing phase
  • Launch and migration

How Much Does a Website Cost?

The cost of a website design and development depends on whether you are choosing a website builder or a professional website development service provider.

The method you choose to develop your website has a huge impact on how much the website costs. Usually, it ranges between USD 1000 to 10000 depending on the features you choose in the website. Furthermore, it can cost you a bit higher if you choose a web designer or developer from the first world countries. Here is a list of items that would cost you directly or indirectly.

  • Domain
  • Hosting
  • SSL certificate
  • Template and themes
  • Content
  • Marketing and SEO (if sought for)

Still, if you are unsure about getting an accurate cost estimate, refer to this guide to know the factors impacting website development cost in detail followed by the tips to reduce website development cost.

Successful Web development is key to Progress

Among 7.83 billion people globally, 4.66 billion people are active internet users, so we can say that the internet is a vast platform to advertise your business. The continuous increase of internet users and technology innovations creates new opportunities and benefits for boosting your business online.

Thus, the online presence of your business is almost mandatory today. In other words, successful web development is the ultimate solution. The new technologies have revamped the way people shop and avail services. Following the step-by-step web development guide for website development, you’d be able to get a feature-rich, business-objective-oriented, and user-centric website for your personal or professional use.

Thus, the online presence of your business is almost mandatory today. In other words, successful web development is the ultimate solution. Hire web developers to mark your presence on the World Wide Web and sustain the tough competition with ease.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I convert an idea into a full-fledged website?

Converting an idea into a website requires proper research, impeccable coding, appealing UI/UX design, rigorous testing, and post-maintenance.

Which phase is very important in website development?

All the phases of the website development process are equally important from research and coding to testing and maintenance.

How much does it cost to build a website?

The website development cost typically ranges between USD 1000 to 10000 depending on the number of features and UI/UX design complexity.

How long company takes to develop a website?

The website development takes between 1 month to 3 months based on the website’s complexity and comprehensiveness.

Is launching the MVP version of the website first- a good idea?

Yes, building an MVP is a good idea as it helps you gain users’ feedback without spending a lot of money and time. The feedback helps in validating the app idea and enhancing the website in sync with users’ expectations.

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