The answer to this question is very basic.
Although, the explanation will take some time. Brew up some coffee, kick off your shoes and get fluffy in your lap…
Let us first take a couple steps back and ask a few simple questions. Would you try to build your own home if it wasn’t your profession? Would you try to assemble your own computer when you have never seen the inside of a computer tower? What about removing a bad tooth yourself just to save some money? I could go on and on but the simple answer is NO! Then why would you consider building your own website not knowing the first thing about SEO or UX yet alone Web Design & Development?
The amount of work that goes into creating a website is enormous. Even with large teams of Project Managers, Designers, Developers, Database Technicians and Support Staff, a project can take months to complete. This is why you should always hire website professionals to build you a professional website.
Depending on the size of your website, a smaller web design company like Jaytech Designs can cut the cost of your project down drastically by eliminating the use of large teams, office buildings and long drawn out timelines.
When paying a large enterprise company to build your website, we feel that you are over charged roughly 50% based on the amount of time added to the project. Usually getting bounced around to many different teams that are already overloaded working on multiple projects at any given time. At Jaytech Designs, you will never lose that initial connection that you learned to like and paid for from the start. So many times in the website industry I have seen clients get bounced around from team to team and back again. Only to wind up dealing with a front line support technician that has no idea how your site is built or runs. We also keep our client base scaled down in order to really tune in to our customers’ needs. Working with them all the way through to the end.
Let's break down a basic project so we can get an idea of how large the scope can actually be
For example, let’s say you have just opened up a new machine shop and plan to get your brand name out there to sell some of your great new products. You can try to spend the next 10 weeks of your life building your free website with software that you saw on TV but good luck with that. Most businesses trying to take this path will soon find themselves drowning in work overload and getting hit with hidden charges later down the road. Even after they are finished, they then find that the website they just built is not what they had imagined and will soon be outdated. Do they even know if it will respond correctly on mobile devices and tablets? NO… With over 50% of the US population having internet access on their mobile phones, few people even browse the internet on their computers anymore. Studies show that over 70% of all users are likely to return to your website if it is mobile friendly. Jaytech Designs will make sure that it is!
Once the project has been discussed with the client, it will be scoped out for a timeline. We try to have all projects completed within 45 days. If you need more time, no problem. The project will then go into the design phase. The first step in this phase is the creation and sketch process. This is when we would meet with you to discuss the basic layout and sitemap of your site. We will then take that knowledge and implement it into a variety of sketches that can then be translated into the digital wireframe layout. Once you have approved the wireframe layout design, we would then create a mockup of the site. The mockup is an example of what the final site will look like in regards to colors, content, image sliders, footers, menus, etc... After you have approved both the wireframes and mockups, we would then move on to phase 2, Development. The first phase of the development stage is planning. We would plan and decide on the development tools and plug-ins that will need to be used and installed before we begin creating the site. We do this based on the information we gather from the above design stage, combined with the features that have been requested by you, the client. Step two in the development process is building the site within the CMS (content management system). We would then implement features at this time such as slideshows, news feeds, and various other action items to make the site an enjoyable experience. Once the site has been built in the CMS, we would then adjust and add new lines of code where needed. We would also thoroughly test the site at this point to make sure it can be viewed in all browsers and devices. Bored yet…? We are just getting started.
Then we come to SEO and website optimization
The optimization stage of the process is one of the most important. In order for the site to function smoothly on all devices and browsers, it must first be tested and optimized. We accomplish this with a combination of various software tools and websites. The first part of the site optimization is installing and configuring the SEO (search engine optimization) plugin. That way your site will be available on all search engines and ready to begin ranking highly in no time. Once this is complete, we will create and setup your Google Analytics account. This will allow you to monitor your website traffic and more. We can also spend many hours setting up and configuring your social media accounts at this time. I go into more details here about why you always need to be up on social media
Then there is the Launch. Once the site has been developed, optimized and tested, we will begin the launch stage. During this time we will backup and upload files to and from the servers. We will also verify and document all access to the website and hosting control panel.
Now what? Well, you will need to spend about 1-4 hours a week checking on the site to make sure everything is up and working. We offer some great website support services to manage your site for you. This is just the iceberg of why you should never try to develop and support your own website.
For more web design info or tips, please visit our website at http://jaytechdesigns.com
