Website Development: Lifecycle and Significance

For the starters, what is a website? It is a domain consisting of numerous web pages dedicated to a specified content. I guess everybody knows that, but the thing we don’t know is the role it plays in providing a business the perfect platform to excel. It will be surprising to see a business without any online presence. Every business from small to big has a website, and if your business doesn’t have any online presence, you are losing a great opportunity to accomplish your desired business goals.

With a website, you can achieve several promotional strategies to grow your business on a global level. When you run a business, you will have customers from different regions, and therefore, you know your customers and what you can offer to them. Not everybody can reach you, and here the role of the website is crucial. The website acts as a communication medium between the vendor, and the consumer and the website contains all the necessary information regarding one’s business from the services they provide to the contact details.

Web development is the phenomenon associated with developing websites for hosting by means of internet. It is a hefty process which includes network security configuration, web content development, web designing, server-side and client-side scripting and more. There are 7 steps involved in the website development lifecycle from which a fully functional website is retrieved.

* Information gathering: 
It is the first and foremost procedure followed before getting to the development mode. The developer will consider everything from the purpose, goal and the target audience for which the website is being developed. This will help to develop a better understanding of the strategy for future management of the project. Not all websites are same, and every website possesses different functionalities. It implies that different technology is used for developing certain websites. Therefore, it is necessary for the website developers to plan all the required criteria in order to save extra resources for solving issues arising in the future.  

* Planning the sitemap and creating the wireframe: 
This is the next important step after the information gathering stage. This is the procedure where the website developer creates the framework of the website which depicts a rough idea about how the website is going to look and function. Also, it is necessary as it will give the customer an opportunity to remark on how he wants the site to look like. Talking about the sitemap, it must be created in such a way that it can describe how the website will function. A sitemap is actually used to understand the relationship between the certain areas of the website like its web pages and more.    

* Designing the page layout:
It is the stage where the website starts to take its real shape. In the designing phase, the visual contents are created like photos, images, videos and more. It is all done keeping in mind the first stage which is the target audience and goal. The designing stage is a tricky task as it is comprised of too many options and deciding the best out of it seems difficult. Moreover, the layout can be any graphic design or a graphic sketch; it all depends on the designer. The website layout is the crucial part of any website as it sports logos, images, colors and more.

* Feeding the website with proper content and assembling them at the right places:
Well, the website has to be interactive, and content is what makes it interactive. The role of content writing cannot be underestimated for developing a website as it is the only mode of communication when the user visits the website. The content of the website includes catchy headlines, writing new text, text editing, compiling and more. This is probably the most time-consuming task compared to the mentioned above three stages as writing effective content for the website is very essential to attract users. On the other hand, the content of the website can be modified according to the customer’s requirements.    

1. Coding:
This is where the actual development of the website takes place. The graphic elements designed in the designing stage are used here to create the website. The coding usually starts with the home page and then further sub pages are added according to the convenience of the developer and the sitemap. On the other hand, CMS and frameworks are implemented to ensure that the server can handle the set-up and installation processes. Then, all the created web page elements are placed in the layout and tested. The coding is done in such a manner that it can be modified in the future if needed.  

2. Application testing and launching:
After creating the website, it is necessary to check whether it fulfills the client’s need or not. That is the functionalities given to the website are tested. Every single link is tested to ensure that there are no broken links present on the website. Moreover, all its server connection is double-checked before handing it over to the client. On the other hand, the complexity of the code is also checked, modified if possible in circumstances where the code seems too long. After deploying the files, the tester again uploads the files to test it again and this procedure goes on until every member of the development team is satisfied with the working of the website. 

3. Updating and maintenance:
The website is not a product that after delivery, the development team has nothing to do with it. It is more of a service than a product, and every once in a while, a website requires maintenance. When the website is hosted on a domain, it attracts various things like bugs, spam and more and therefore, it becomes necessary to regularly update and maintain the website in order to make it function properly. On the other hand, many websites offer feedback system where the users can provide their user experience and what is good and bad and what changes can be made to make it better for users.

The website is an important aspect of every business due to cost-effectiveness as a prudently developed website provides with great benefits on costing outlines. Furthermore, a website can be accessed by anyone at anytime and anyplace which is not possible with a storefront. Website development ranges from creating plain text pages to complex applications, electronic business application, and other social network applications. An array of web development services has certainly spread all across the globe as swiftness and automation are the prime ingredients of web development’s success.