Stages of Website Development
Stages of Website Development
A website is a collection of data like images, audios, videos, documents, etc also known as a webpage or a website, portal with different name on same domain. So basically a website is an inter collection of web pages which reside in a special server which is known as Web Server or simply Server. A website maybe also known as a Virtual location on World Wide Web (WWW), containing several WebPages and data files accessible through a browser. Though it may seem simple, but the process that the developer has to go through various stages while creating, running & managing the website. Each website has its own unique web IP Address like 184.108.40.206 and masked with the name which makes easy to remember. When a person is searched in mobile phone’s phone book, it’s easy to search by name rather than a few remembered numbers. The address which can be reached through an inter connected networks also known as the Internet. So let’s not lag behind and start the stages that are needed in order to develop a website.
Web hosting is the service of providing storage space for a website or an application on a server on the internet. Once the website is made available on the Internet, it can be accessed by millions of other computers that have the Internet browsing networks called online platforms. There are various web hosting companies that provide the services of web hosting to many users all around the globe. Web hosting also can be related to an apartment in a city that provides many people to live in it and for that the peoples pay for the services that they get in return. Isn’t it as simple as that? Well it may sound simple but things can go all way around if some things are not being cared of. One’s should always know about the type of web hosting that they want to do and also the uptime scenarios that come along the web hosting. A website can be hosted on various servers like Shared, Reseller, Dedicated, VPS and many more depending upon uptime, service type, network speed, backup, power failure, CDN etc. Just remember to choose the services that ones can rely upon and also for the security and many other features that come along with it. It is basically like a new Computer that you want to buy based upon the features and of course the Budget that comes alongside.
Research is one of the most important aspect in the field of website development as the developer needs to learn and create a website according to the client & viewers choices or in some cases to his/her and also keeping in mind the various competitors that are on the market, to create something unique and interesting that could beat all of its competitors on the market. There are various things that should be acknowledged before creating a website like the type of audiences, languages, demography, website hosting types, contents, etc.
Contents are the KING in the field of websites and Webpages, as users need more and more content to stay attached to a website. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more other websites are running effectively and efficiently as they are able to give user huge amount of contents on which they can engage on for hours and don’t get bored off. In a website, language should be understandable by the audiences that visit the site and also should know about the timing of the audiences that visit the site. Many users copy contents on their site from various sources and don’t mention the Reference, which could fall under copyright issues later. So to be on the positive side of things, always remember to create contents as original as you can and also the contents related to the website that is being built upon.
Nowadays it’s hard to find websites that don’t include any photos and videos. Almost the entire website features a photograph to attract audience. Photo’s should be genuine to avoid all the copywrite issues and various other laws or the source of the photograph should be included, if you have taken it from somewhere on the world of World Wide Web (WWW). Photos should be retouched adding some effects making it eye catchy for the audience.
Graphic design provides a visual asset that can be used for almost all of your campaigns which can include a banner or a logo. Graphic design that’s built upon research can help you attract various audiences making them easier to browse and locate the content that they want to see on the website. Many of the world’s top websites logos are so recognizable and almost anyone can recognize them from far away distance. A single logo of your organization can make a remarkable change, it can attract audiences, make them stay longer in the website and so on. Graphics are used from the headers to the footers in a website and, No wonder in the century of advertising and marketing, this is one of the most important aspect while developing a website. There are various graphics related work like cropping, clipping, banners, image editing, rendering, etc.
A layout is a pattern that defines a website’s structure. It has the role of structuring the information present on site for both website’s owner and for the users. Mainly it is about placing the right elements at the right side of a website, which can play a vital role for the audiences as they can freely move around the site and search the content they want to see very efficiently and effectively. Layout designing can be compared to the way you setup your newly furnished apartment, in order for the visitors to find it comfortable as well as eye catchy. Graphic designer should adjust all the details according to the client’s choices, maintain UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience), which makes the audiences to browse a rich and variety of experiences in a website. A developer should also keep in mind about making the website mobile friendly, as to a new research many users in the world access the Internet through Smartphones. Developer should also be concerned about the responsive and non-responsive sites as non-responsive sites are not so well ranked by the Google which also hampers the SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Developing and Coding
The name may sound envious as many of the people nowadays try to become a developer and a coder, but trust me it can get hectic often in this field with writing hundreds of lines of codes and trying to get the job done, the developer will surely face enough bugs that may try to test his patience and skills. In this part of the process, the developer generally embeds various plugins, tries to create a rich UI/UX experience. The major plugins that the developer embeds in a website are Google Maps, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, tablebugs.com, Google Drive and many more which may go on and on.
The features that are made available to the audiences, to make them easier and have a rich experience is what this content covers about. From Social Media’s integration to integrating Google Maps, it’s all about the characteristic of the website. Some features on a website may include Blogs, News&Events, Announcements, Calendars, etc. It may also be referred to as the services one’s get while visiting a Five Star Hotel or a Penthouse in an apartment.
Content Management System (CMS)
As everyone can guess from the heading itself, it is all about managing various contents found in a website in an efficient and effective behavior. It is a tool that helps in updating a website, updating some features from themes to the templates, content changing, etc. CMS based websites are generally known as dynamic websites which is linked with a Database, as its content changes from time to time according to the admin choices or the client’s.
It is about setting up an email address to different organizations for inter communications which is safe and secure for the organization as they will have their own personal business email source .Through this way they can inter communicate easily with each and every departments of an organization from marketing department to the finances and many more. It is about creating each and every individual employee’s email based on the organization. And with this we can also setup the automated reply function for the users if they aren’t available or are on leave.
When an organization hires an employee for sales department, he creates email on Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! As firstname.lastname@example.org, the things goes well, email works at a blazing speed but when he decides to leave the company the companies owner may not be able to trace back the data, conversations, contacts from his mails and in another hand when the employee leaves his email to his leaving organization he has to hand over his personal data, browsing history, photo backups, data stored in Google Drive, his core information saved in Google Password and more his various system connected or verified with email while his subscription in any personal social media account, banking login details and private emails sent by his friends and family but if the organization has its own personal email email@example.com then it is possible for the organization to transfer as well as access all the mails or handover to new employee without any hassle.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) are the protocols for establishing an authenticated and encrypted links between networked computers. The most common and well known use of SSL is secure web browsing via the HTTPS protocol. A properly configured public HTTPS website includes an SSL certificate that is signed by a publicly trusted CA (Certificate Authority). Users visiting this type of websites can be assured of authenticity, integrity and encryption. Because of the above mentioned properties the users can securely transmit credential information such as credit card numbers, PayPal details, and login information over the internet, and be assured that the website they are sending it to is genuine and authentic. SSL certificates are generally displayed on the left of the URL with a padlock sign.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
With many websites running over the Internet, it’s for sure that not every one of them is successful. There is a huge competition and many organizations want their websites to be a success. There are various ways in which ones can optimize a website and some of them are described below:-
- Commenting on various global web pages about your website can also make a difference as many users may click the link to access the site.
- While making visiting card ones should also include his/her organization’s website which is also a way of marketing and advertising.
- There are countless websites found on the internet today, but not each one of them are successful and in order for it to reach countless number of peoples and businesses, they must need to have a SEO in order to ensure that they are one of the competitors on the global market and they also need to update certain metatags over and over again to make it more successful.
- Advertisement and Marketing plays a vital role in today’s world and making a hoarding board about ones web page is a very good and reliable way to advertise.
- Selling, promoting & branding any products through any means of digital media like Facebook, Instagram, Mass Email, Bulk Email, Google Ads, Facebook Advertising etc are known as Digital Media Marketing where any area, group, interest, demography, place, age, group, gender, interest, event etc can be targeted easily. In a single line; marketing your own business over the internet.
Q&A (Quality and Assurance)
This is one of the major and also one of the important aspects in the phase of website development. After all the work is done related to the site, every website must be checked by a Q&A professional to find out the existing faults, what developments could have been done to make it more beneficial. This should be done in order for the quality and assurance testing by a Q&A professional Tester and have him check if the things were done right and in order.
Upload to Server
After all the various testing by a Q&A professional, a website should be uploaded to the server for other users to access it. Before uploading a website things regarding SSL should be checked and a reliable SSL should be used in order for the audiences to feel safe regarding their personal credentials. Also the website’s connectivity to the Database should be checked and all the Databases information should be well managed and maintained by the admin for feasibility issues regarding various data and information’s. One’s should also look into FTP (File Transfer Protocol), SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), etc.
In the world of World Wide Web various websites around the world are being infiltrated by a group or a single person also known as Hackers. To ensure that the website is secured from various attacks like Brute-Force, DdoS (Distributed Denial of Service), attacks to the Databases, cross site scripting, malwares, plugin attacks one’s should always build a strong security system, so that their website doesn’t get infiltrated by a group or a single person. Also one should check out whether the embedded links are from a secured SSL or not and also if the SSL is present or not.
This part covers about the regular update done to the website from contents to the images and videos present in it. Script should also be updated from time to time, because as old as the script gets the more number of people may try to infiltrate the website. And also the renewal of website should be done from time to time to ensure the longevity of the website.
Under the mentorship of Prakash Upreti