Web Development Life Cycle
A good website need much input. This process is thus divided under various heads or stages that are called as development life-cycle. It is essential to help the web developers to align themselves to the tasks at hand and to give the maximum quality achievable. The whole development process of a website can be grouped into various life cycles of Analysis, Design and Development, Content, Coding and Testing, SEO and Maintenance.
Planning and Analysis
This is the first and the most important step of web development life cycle. It includes the understanding and determining the purpose of the website. It consists of gathering information like the target audience, type of technology to be used by the designer etc.
Analysis of a website includes the decisions taken by the web developer regarding the website content and functionality. It contains detailed analysis of the content of the website in terms of information covered, processing required etc.
Conducting a complete analysis process is time consuming and requires large input. It needs many different methods to gather information. That is why that method must be adopted that will give you the most precise information and at the lowest possible cost.
Design and Development
This is the stage after the determination of the purpose of your website’s existence; where the prototype of the website’s layout and content organization is prepared. An attractive and user friendly framework is chosen depending upon the requirements of the client and the best possible way to direct them.
Various design elements are needed to define the various components of a website. These include Title, Heading, Horizontal rules, Paragraphs, Lists, Page Length, Highlighting of important information and inclusion of e-mail or other contact details etc. Design and development is an evolving process, with the client making changes or suggestions.
Content
This stage includes writing and updating of fresh and relevant content. Content writers write rich and engaging content that are industry specific, grammatically correct and search engine modified that are suited to the template and design of the site. This content can be simple text to images, videos and audios as well.
Coding and Testing
After the content is added to the site’s pages, it is now programmers’ work to add the required features and functionalities. The web developer must ensure not to alter the overall look and feel of the site.
A well planned testing procedure should be carried out to make sure there is no problem faced by the client in the future. It should also call for a live testing to ensure that all links are working fine.
SEO and Promotion
After the site is developed, it needs to be promoted. Search Engine Optimization is a technique which enables the site, on the basis of its most relevant keywords, to be on the top of the search engine pages. The technique lets the site get more visible and more popular on the search engines and on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Maintenance and Updating
A website needs to be updated and maintained regularly to keep it fresh and interesting. Search engines like Google reward those sites which update and add fresh and relevant content on a regular basis by placing them higher on their pages. Sometimes just updating is enough and sometimes whole reworking may be required. Site’s activity must be constantly monitored utilizing Google’s webmaster tools to determine any area that may need improvement.