Understanding the client’s goals and objectives for the website is a critical first step. As the developer, you need to have a clear understanding of why the client wants a website, what problems or needs they want it to address, and what types of results or outcomes they hope to achieve. Do they want to increase sales? Attract new customers? Build their brand awareness? Improve customer service? Their goals will inform the overall site strategy, design, and features.
You’ll need to understand the client’s target audience. Who are their ideal customers and visitors? What are their interests, pain points, demographic factors? Tailoring the content, design, and user experience of the site around the target audience will be important for achieving the client’s goals. User research like surveys, interviews, and competitor analysis can provide key insights.
Consider the client’s budget and resources. Website development involves costs for design, development, content creation, launch support, ongoing maintenance, hosting, etc. You’ll need to set appropriate expectations by providing cost estimates upfront and developing a project plan and timeline that fits within the agreed upon budget. Ongoing costs for updates and technical support should also be clear.
Understanding the client’s industry and competitors is important contextual research. What kinds of websites are most popular or effective for companies in their industry? What features and user experiences are competitors providing that the client may want to match or improve upon? Benchmarking against industry leaders and local competitors will help ensure the site is optimized for their market.
Usability and easy navigation need to be priority considerations in the design phase. Users should be able to easily and intuitively find what they need on the site. Information architecture, site maps, intuitive labeling and organization, and consistent navigation will all impact how usable the site feels. User testing during development can surface issues. Mobile responsiveness is also crucial given today’s expectations.
Content creation and optimization are important ongoing responsibilities. The site needs structured, unique and compelling copy – from product descriptions to blog posts. You’ll need a process for content auditing, creation, approval and updating. On-page optimization and off-page SEO strategies can help the site rank for relevant keywords and get found organically. Proper technical SEO setup is important as well to avoid issues.
Tracking analytics and setting key performance indicators (KPIs) upfront allows measuring success over time. Tools like Google Analytics can track metrics like traffic, conversions, bounce rate, etc. Setting benchmarks and KPIs aligned to goals – like X% increase in leads per month – provides clarity on what “success” looks like. Ongoing analytics allows adjusting strategy as needed.
Maintenance includes regular updates, backups, and security monitoring. Websites require maintenance over their lifetime – from content updates to bug fixes to installing security patches. As the developer, you need processes for patch management, backups, monitoring website health, and addressing any technical issues that arise. Support agreements should cover patching, uptime guarantees and response times for issues.
These are just some of the major factors to consider when developing a website for a client. Taking the time upfront to understand goals, audience, budget, competition and other priorities allows creating a much more strategic and effective solution that sets the client up for long term success. Ensuring clarity on ongoing responsibilities like content, analytics and maintenance is also important for proper expectations and ongoing client partnership.
Andrew Stroud