Strategic Web Development
the tools to power your new strategies
We take a “wide-angle” approach to web development. In planning your project, we consider—not only the cool tools we could build for you—but also how effective those tools will be at helping you reach your goals. Your site is the most important piece of your company’s marketing efforts—it is your billboard, it is your customer service rep, it is your salesman, and it is your store. Therefore (even though some of our clients have referred to our meetings as “business therapy”) we take the time to get it right.
Planning an Effective Web Site
Our process begins with an in-depth Project Orientation MeetingThis one-to-two hour meeting kicks off the process. Along with the discussion about strategy, we orient you to the process, the schedule, and our project management tools.. During this meeting we work with you to answer some large questions about your site’s context and strategy. Only once we have defined the project, its goals, our strategies, and success, can we begin the process of building an effective site.
Site Goals
- What are the goals of this project?
- Who are the audiences for this site?
- What actions do we need visitors to take?
Marketing & Branding
- Will this site reinforce the existing brand?
- How will this site reach audiences online?
- How will the content travel beyond this site?
Maintenance
- How will this site fit into the company’s larger marketing strategies?
- What size staff will be responsible for the site once it has launched?
Template Design
For clients with tight schedules & tight budgets
We use all the goal, branding, design, and strategy information collected during the Project Orientation Meeting to gather a collection of suitable pre-made site templates. Each of the templates we select will meet all of the requirements we identified for the project. We present these templates to you—along with our recommendations—for the final selection. Once a template is selected it is customized to use your company’s branding, colors, and content.
Custom Design
For clients with specific needs and big goals
The custom design process begins with the development of an optimized custom site layout and content plan—or wireframe. Then, with your company’s design requirements and goals in mind, we develop the first draft of the custom site design. Most projects progress through four draft cycles before arriving at the final site design. Your brand-new unique, and optimized, site design is then integrated with our site management tools and loaded with content.
Like fun and competence? Hire us today.
Rigorous Testing
Once the site has been designed, developed, and loaded with content, we being our testing phase. It is important to us that the site we build for you is clean, fast, and working like a well-oiled machine. Therefore, we put it through a thorough testing process prior to unveiling it to the public. We invite you and your team into the testing process as well so that we can test the site on as many different computers and devices as possible. The tests we perform in the shop include:
- Browser Testing
- SEO Testing
- Performance Testing
- Security Testing
- Custom Functionality Testing
- Mobile Testing
The Tools We Use
We want your web site to be as effective for you in two years as it is on the day it is launched. To achieve that feat, we choose the tools we use to build your site carefully—with maintenance costs, licensing, flexibility, stability, and longevity in mind.
Open Source
Whenever possible, we use non-proprietary software to develop your web site. This means that on the day we launch the site, it is entirely yoursNo fine print. It's actually yours.. You are free to host it anywhere, edit any software code, and use any developer you like. Of course, we would love for you to use our Site Care Plans and stick with us as your developers—but more than that—we want you to have the freedom of complete ownership.
Flexible Content Management
All of our web development projects include a fully-integrated point-and-click content management system (CMS) which allow you to add pages, blog posts, photos, videos, and more. For most of our projects we prefer to use the WordPress development platform. It is a hugely popular platform embraced by thousands of web hosts and millions of developers. It is supported by an army of professional programmers and offers an extensive directory of free plugins—meaning, with little additional cost, your site can grow and improve year over year.
Powerful Analytics
We love data. Data tells us when we’re succeeding and when we need to revisit our strategies. To make sure we collect as much data about the effectiveness of your site as possible, we integrate each of our sites with the most powerful visitor analytics tracking tools available today. Also, if you subscribe to one of our Site Care Plans, we will track your real-time traffic visitor information and search engine performance. We collect so much information about the performance of your site, you’d think we were obsessedWe are..
