How We Build It: Website Process with Cypress North
This month, I sat down with Matt Mombrea, Chief Technical Officer at Cypress North to discuss the process of building a website for a client. We walk through every step, its importance, and how it edges us closer to a successful website.
Off To The Races with the Discovery Phase
Before we do anything, we take the time to get to know our clients’ business, industry, brand, and what capabilities they need on their website. We send each client a tailored questionnaire about who they are as a company and what they hope to accomplish with us. Then, we will have a discovery meeting with them to discuss their answers to our questions and discuss any further questions that may have popped up based on their answers. We love doing these meetings because it really clues us into exactly what the client wants, and allows us to see their personalities and culture a little bit more.
After our discovery meeting, our team goes to town on our positioning document, putting the client’s ideas into our own words, and making sure we fully understand the direction they want to go with their website. Our designers also get a chance to show their vision for what the website will look like (though it will be a while before their design will fully come to fruition!)
Stop, Collaborate & Listen
Now it’s time for our marketing team to come in and work their magic! Based on keyword and market research, they build a sitemap to show how the navigation will be set up on the website. This sitemap will give them a good framework for what marketing goals they will track, whether it’s purchases, form fills, or button clicks.
After the main navigation structure has been created, wireframes for the site are built. This will not be the pretty final version that our clients are dreaming about, but rather a basic outline of where things will be placed on the site. Excluding actual design elements like video, images, and copy, really helps our clients to focus on the layout of the website, rather than on the aesthetic “look” of it.
Design Time
Finally, what we've all been waiting for! After our client has signed off on the wireframe, our design team gets to work on turning the website design into a work of art. We only like to present one final design to our client, one that we know is our absolute best design. We choose not to give our clients options because the initial design direction and website effectiveness can be derailed very quickly. We, of course, are more than willing to make changes to the design if the client asks us to!
After the design has been approved, our development team can start on the beta site. This is where they can work out all of the coding kinks, and make sure that the user experience and behind-the-scenes functions are working before the website goes live.
Ready For Launch
Once we have perfected our beta site, and have gotten all assets from our client, it is time to set the website live! On the day of the launch, our entire team has eyes on the website, making sure that everything is going smoothly. We also go through our marketing checklist of items to ensure your site doesn’t plummet in search engine rankings.
Building a website is not a simple or quick process, and it involves so many talented people within our agency. There is so much more to talk about when it comes to building a website, so make sure you listen to this month’s episode to learn more!
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About The Agency Scoop
Each episode, we tackle a specific topic with another friend from Cypress North or pull in leaders from other companies. We’ll chat about what’s helping our agency grow, how we work with clients, things that bring us joy, and even the challenges we face. Please subscribe on your favorite podcast player to follow along!
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