Essential Tips for Making Your Web Development Project a Success

Successful projects of any kind mean satisfied clients, which can lead to referrals, more clients, additional projects and contribute to creating a great business reputation. So when it comes to web development projects it is in the best interests of website designers, developers and digital marketers to work together to deliver that successful outcome.

The key is to make sure that the new website delivers on its promises in terms of the look, usability and online visibility, but ensuring the development process runs smoothly can be a challenge. So here are a few essential tips for making your web development project a success.

Gather Together All the Necessary Information

A web development project is geared towards satisfying customers who browse online so that they take one or more pre-defined actions and ultimately buy a product or service.

So before you begin your project, make sure you’ve gathered all the information you need such as:

• What products or services do you sell? This may sound obvious but a surprising number of websites do not accurately reflect the company offering.
• What does your company's branding look like? Is it dated or no longer representative of the business? Does it need a reboot? Now is the perfect time to do so.
• Who is your target audience? Is it local, regional, national or international - these factors affect how a website should be structured.
• What problems do your services or products solve? Is this clearly articulated by the content or is a content review required?.
• Who are your competitors, both online and offline? What are they doing well, or badly, and what risks or opportunities does that present?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can start setting concrete goals on how the website should function, feel and look. For example, if a website is going to be developed to attract more potential customers via organic search then search engine optimisation should be your focus. If the aim is to convert more web visitors into customers then optimising for conversions should be your focus. Most likely your goals will be a combination of these and other factors, particularly with regard to your competitors.

Don’t make a start on a project until you’re absolutely sure you have gathered all necessary information and are clear about the project’s specific goals. Document the goals and review them on a regular basis throughout the project to ensure you are still on track to meet them.

Break Your Project Down Into Phases

Next, it’s important to remember that web development goes through a number of phases before a project is complete.

Here’s what a simple project might look like when broken down into basic phases:

• Sitemap
• Wireframe creation
• Content
• Visual elements
• Testing
• Launch

Each of these phases will take time and some websites will be much more complex than this with additional phases being necessary. But whether your web development project is simple or complex, detailed planning and clear communication will ensure the web developers know exactly what needs to be done and when.

Determine Your Budget

When you know exactly how much money you have to work with, you can review the goals and determine whether they are all achievable within budget. Now is the time to make compromises, if necessary, rather than being forced to rethink the design further down the line when it may be difficult or costly to make changes. This also means there will be less room for disagreements about the completed website at a later stage if it’s clearly understood why some features were not included.

Finalising the budget early in the project (and sticking to it) will ensure the project runs as smoothly as possible. Discuss what features are essential to the website and which are simply “nice-to-haves” - involve key departments or teams in these discussions as well as the people responsible for SEO, digital marketing, social media and branding.

Using a responsive design and a secure transfer protocol (via an SSL certificate) have long been essential features that ensure a good user experience and good online visibility, but so too are elements such as how quickly web pages load on mobile devices and how quickly visitors can interact with a page (by, for example, clicking a button). Working out beforehand the cost of building a website that not only looks good but functions well will help you determine a workable budget.

Communicate the Details Clearly

The success of any type of project hinges on good communication. When you clearly communicate every aspect of your project with those involved, there will be fewer misunderstandings, morale stays high and productivity levels improve.

Start by outlining a basic plan then add details and deadlines and share with everyone involved. There are different types of communication (informal, verbal, status reports, progress meetings etc) and communication should always be a two-way process so invite people to ask questions and supply feedback and ideas.

Pro tip: Make sure to choose a communication channel that works for everyone and does not add an unnecessary burden on those using it.

Invest in the Right Tools

Web development projects always work better with the right tools so also select a project management tool that will help you to:

• Plan projects
• Schedule and prioritise tasks
• Understand progress of a project
• Manage tasks and team members
• Spot issues before they become problems

There are many useful project management tools available right now including Slack, Asana, Microsoft Planner and Trello. They all have advantages and disadvantages so try them out and select the one that works best for you (my personal favourite is Trello)

Give Yourself Enough Time

All tasks need deadlines but, even in the best-planned projects, obstacles crop up and setbacks occur. So factoring in some leeway for schedule overruns is a sensible precaution to ensure the project can be delivered to the expected quality.

Final Thoughts

Web development projects are exciting, they are an opportunity to showcase a business, reinforce it’s reputation and make a branding statement; and to ultimately attract more customers. They are not without risks and I’ve written before about the risks of redeveloping a website but they can be delivered successfully if they are properly planned and managed, have clearly defined project goals and an effective communication process.