My Work Process

Let’s get to know each other and discuss the main details of your project. Whether you need a brand new website from scratch, a refresher to your existing website, or some other online business related service, we’ll determine the scope of your project so that I can provide a firm price for the work.

We will also use this time to discuss what resources you already have in place, such as branding (logo, brand colors, website fonts), website content (images, text), and website design (how the elements will be laid out on the page).

Your website will probably need quite a bit of content! If you’re already working with a copywriter and/or photographer to develop your website content, that’s great. I’ll take what they generate and build an awesome website out of it.

If you’re going to be generating your own content, we’ll work together to brainstorm exactly what you’ll need. This is highly dependent on the type of business you run, but I’m here to make sure your website speaks clearly to those who visit it, and I’ll help you figure out all the necessary components you’ll want to include on your website.

Website design encompasses a number of factors. Of course you want your website to look amazing and to reflect your brand. In addition, if we consider accessibility and the user experience from the beginning, we can make sure that your website is easy for everyone who visits it to use and get all of the information they need.

The design of your website will be dependent on the content you need to include. I’ll be sure to lay out all the images and text in a user-friendly way. And, of course, your website will look just as good on a tablet or mobile phone as it does on a large desktop computer monitor.

If you’ve already been working with a designer who is creating your website design for you, that’s great. I’ll adjust my pricing accordingly and work with them to get all the necessary files I need to build your website from their design.

Once your website design is complete, it’s my job to take all of that beautiful work and turn it into a website!

You don’t really need to know this, but I build all of my websites on WordPress. It’s a robust platform that can be used for almost anything you can think of putting online. It powers over 40% of the internet currently, including websites for The Rolling Stones, Time Magazine, and NASA.

Although I love to continue hosting websites after I’ve build them and managing their content and security, I also believe it’s important that my clients be able to easily make changes to their websites as needed. I will build your website with tools that ensure ease of use for you as well as high performance and fast loading times!

Of course, building your website isn’t the end of the process. There are details that need to be taken care of, and I’m here to make that process simple. I’ll set up whatever is needed for the following systems, and we can discuss any additional needs that you might have for your specific website.

• Website backups
• Website security
• Website policies, terms, and conditions
• Google Analytics
• Website form submissions

Some of these may be set up under my accounts, but for others I may help you create your own accounts and add me as an authorized user.

We’re almost there! Once your website is built, and all the security is in place, and everything is working just as expected, it’s time to make sure everyone ELSE can find and use your lovely website. I’ll ensure that it is uploaded to secure hosting and make changes to any settings that need adjusting. I’ll help you get your website recognized by Google and other search engines.

Once your website is live on the internet, that’s not the end of the story. All websites require maintenance over time to make sure that they stay secure, and that all content stays relevant. In addition, technology isn’t fail-proof, so websites require monitoring to make sure that nothing has broken since it was built – or to fix it as soon as possible if anything goes wrong. Some of these steps can be automated, and some are best done manually.

I prefer to host and maintain all of the websites that I build, and we can discuss a maintenance package for your website when we discuss the rest of your contract. If you decide that you would prefer to host and maintain the website yourself, we will discuss which licenses you’ll need to purchase for your website to work properly, and I’ll send you on your way with a website owner’s manual that details all the maintenance work you will need to do going forward.