Our Complete Web Design Process
Before I dive too deep, please know that this process applies to every website process for each platforms that we design on such as: Squarespace, Showit, Wordpress, and Shopify.
When you start your entrepreneurial journey, there’s a lot to figure out. Between having a website, payment processor, email marketing system, project management, policies, contract, and so much more!
I’ve found that by having a solid web design process, and business processes in general, it’s made our web design processes “easy peasy lemon squeezy” as some say. It relieves stress on the designers end and the client’s end. There’s clear communication, timelines, and expectations. There’s never a moment of wondering what’s going on, what should have been completed, and what the client needs to know throughout the process.
Ready for a peek at our start to finish Squarespace web design client process checklist?
FROM POTENTIAL CLIENT INQUIRY TO BOOKING A PROJECT
You inquire on our website’s contact page, right here.
Elizabeth reviews your submitted contact page form, your current website (if you have one!), and she makes any notes to prepare for the discovery call.
You will receive an email to schedule a complimentary discovery call so we can chat more about you, your business, and the goals you have for your website.
We have our discovery call either via Zoom or a phone call, Elizabeth will take detailed notes so she can prepare a custom project quote and project brochure for your business.
A secure client portal is created for you to view the project proposal. This is where deposits will be paid, contracts will be signed, and all important documents will live.
You fill out and submit the project brochure, there will be details of each service we recommend along with an area inside this brochure to request specific accommodations for payment plans, items you would like included in your service that aren’t already listed, along with an area for any additional questions that you have for Elizabeth.
Once all questions are answered and we have received your project brochure back, we will send over your custom payment plan invoice and a design contract.
A deposit is paid and design contract is signed, now a desired start date is selected from our current availability. Please note that in order to officially be on our design calendar we must receive a project deposit and a signed contract. The easiest way to get started is to schedule a discovery call by filling out our contact form and see if Wood Media is a great fit to design for you!
You will receive a customized design questionnaire from us to collect all of the necessary information for your new website and/or brand design. This will include a link to your Pinterest board to pin inspiration to for your project along with a link to either a Google Drive or Dropbox folder where you can place any brand photos, brand materials (such as logos, font files, etc) inside so your new design team (and friends!) can easily access them.
Once we’ve received all of the requested materials we are already setup for success to design an amazing new website and/or brand design for you and your business!
FROM BOOKING A PROJECT TO THE START OF THE PROJECT
We will follow up with you 1 week prior to start date to remind of Pinterest board and design questionnaire due date, if needed. If this was completed already then this email will just remind you that your website and/or brand design process with Wood Media will be starting in 1 week, WOOHOO!
If we need to obtain your domain name and current website details, Elizabeth will do this prior to your web design and/or brand design project start date. Then we have all this information and can transfer your domain if needed or put up a “coming soon or under construction” page on your current website.
Before your project’s start date you will receive an email from either Elizabeth or Beth (who is Wood Media’s website copywriter) to schedule a strategy call for your website during the first week of your design process.
DURING THE STRATEGY CALL
Beth, who is Wood Media’s copywriter, will ask any questions needed in order to dive deeper into the details provided in your website questionnaire. This questionnaire is a bit lengthy, but necessary in order for us to strategically design and write for your business. Sometimes we need additional information from you which will be gathered during this strategy call.
You don’t have to prepare anything before this call, no worries! :) Since we have your questionnaire we will simply be asking more in-depth questions pertaining to your questionnaire that are needed to create the most strategic website possible for you. That’s a big question we often times get and all we ask is that you come ready and eager to chat all about your business, your dream clients, and full of excitement for the design process!
AFTER THE STRATEGY CALL
Elizabeth and Beth will collaborate and compare any notes and research either the day of or the day after your strategy call. This is when the bulk of research, strategizing, and the creation process begins for all websites created with Wood Media. Our websites we design are not only stunning, they’re strategic and ready to convert potential leads into clients for you.
Your strategy not only includes the content that will be written about but it also includes:
Keyword research
Search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to help you increase your search engine rankings
How to make your website 100X better than your competitors website
What’s missing from competitors that would make you stand out and book a client faster is a question we ask ourselves often while researching.
What is your dream client expecting of your website
What links are they looking for
What wording are they attracted to
How can we simplify down the user experience of your website to convert leads faster
And so much more, but this is the main points broken down.
WEB DESIGN WEEK 1
We’ll begin domain transfer if necessary
Beth will have a strategy call with you, as outlined above.
Elizabeth and Beth will chat all about the strategy and design direction for your website.
This week is 100% focused on researching your business, your dream clients, your competitors, and so much more.
Start designing the home page of the website
WEB DESIGN WEEK 2
Continue designing the home page of your new website
By the end of this week we hope to send a tour video of your completely designed out home page. This will showcase the style that will be continued on with throughout the rest of your website. We find it a lot easier for our clients to see a fully put together piece of your website while keeping design time efficient.
Once we receive feedback, we will continue working on the rest of the website or send another version with design direction changes.
Continue to design the rest of the website when the design concept is approved by the client.
Link external services and programs, if needed.
If you have an e-commerce store, we will make sure to link all of your payment processors this week.
Add accessibility features, did you know that if your website isn’t ADA compliant not only will it rank lower on search engines but you could also have legal action taken against you? All websites designed by Wood Media are ADA compliant learn more here.
Ideally, send a rough draft of your website’s copywriting this week. But this can vary depending on the size of the project and research that needs to be completed.
WEB DESIGN WEEK 3
All images that are uploaded to your website are compressed to be a smaller size, this ensures that your page speeds remain fast. This is another factor to having a website rank higher on Google and other search engines with search engine optimization efforts.
Add image alt text and descriptions for search engine optimization (SEO) to each image on your new website
This is essentially describing each image so when a Google bot or a search engine bot comes through and reads your website, it knows extra details so it knows who to recommend your website to onto of the professional copywriting and SEO titles and descriptions of each page.
Final copywriting is completed and passed to the web designer by the end of the week to input into the website once the client, you, has approved the copywriting (ideally, again this is 100% dependent on the size of the project and client revision requests).
WEB DESIGN WEEK 4
Add all of the client’s new copywriting and SEO page titles and descriptions to each page of your website
Do site finishing checklist
Set up final call
WEB DESIGN WEEK 5
We always provide a 404 page, social media link (link linktree), and a blog page on top of the other 5 pages of your web design. These three pages will be created this week.
Send the final tour video of your website to you this week.
Once the web design is fully approved by you, we will launch your new website once your project is paid in full.
You will be provided with a launch graphic to post on your social media platforms prior to us launching your website so when we go live you can post right away.
We will also do a tour on the Wood Media Instagram page, linked here, showcasing your new website to our followers.
WEB DESIGN WEEK 6
This is a buffer week that we have built into the design process. This allows for additional time to communicate with you, our client, throughout the process along with having more than enough time to complete the intricate design process while making sure each detail is 100% perfect before your new website goes live.
A typical web design process may not take a total of six weeks. The main reasons why it would take this long is either communication or extra time needed for more comprehensive website development coding.
Wrapping up your project
After your website is live one of two things will happen:
If Wood Media isn’t managing and maintaining your website for you, we’ll transfer the website ownership to you.
Change your mind down the road and want us to maintain your website for you? You can always reach out and we’d be happy to maintain and manage your website for you in the future.
If Wood Media is managing and maintain your website for you, you’ll be provided with extra steps on how to submit update requests so the Wood Media team can update your site for you along with doing the regular website maintenance for you in order to maintain a highly converting website.
We appreciate you choosing to work with Wood Media so much, so you will receive a thank you surprise in the mail along with a farewell digital brochure in your client portal from us.
1 week after your web design launches…
Follow up to ask if you have any questions about your website, and ask how the first week went.
We also will be sending an email to request a review from you so we know how you enjoyed to design process with Wood Media. The clients that complete this part will receive a special incentive. :)
There you have it folks, that is our EXACT Squarespace web design client process. If you don’t have a Squarespace website, that is totally okay. We also design on Showit, Wordpress, and Shopify.
That’s the exact checklist that we go through for a client web design process. Of course, every designer’s checklist is different for specific projects and processes but this is a great starting foundation to build off of for each project since each business is so different and has different project requirements.
I hope this process checklist can do a couple things for you, depending on your why for reading this article today:
(1) I hope if you’re a potential client for Wood Media that it soothed your mind and answered some questions for you as to how a web design process works. If you have more questions, please reach out to us. We are more than happy to answer questions. Click here to reach out.
(2) If you’re a Squarespace web designer yourself and you’re looking to revamp your process, I hope inspiration from Wood Media’s process was helpful. Follow along with us on Instagram and send us a DM if you have any questions or need someone to bounce ideas off of. :)
