What Are the 7 stages of Web Development Life Cycle

Planning – the first stage of web development

The planning phase is the first step in the WDLC. During this phase, you determine what your website needs to accomplish and how it should be structured. This includes deciding on a domain name, hosting provider, content management system (CMS), and other necessary components. You will also need to identify your target audience and develop a plan for how you will reach them. 

This phase is critical for setting up a successful website as it helps you determine what resources are needed for each stage. Some decisions made at this point would create a lot of work if you later changed your mind. You should also use this time to think about what it is you want to say or more importantly, what your potential clients might want to know. This part of the Planning stage is called keyword research. 

Design

The Design phase is where you create the look and feel of your website. This includes selecting colours, fonts, images, layouts, navigation menus, etc. You should also consider how users will interact with your site by creating user flows or wireframes that show how they can move from one page to another. 

During this phase you should also consider accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.0 AA or Section 508 compliance. These standards ensure all users can access your site regardless of their abilities or disabilities. often people think the design is about personal preferences, for example you may really be into dark colours like black with high contrast white text. The important thing to consider though is that the colours, graphics and fonts need to be compatible with your brand. Black may not be appropriate if your business is a children’s nursery, it would send totally the wrong message.

Development

Once you have finalized your design plans it’s time to start developing your website using HTML/CSS/JavaScript or any other programming language you choose to use. At Saint IT our preferred CMS is WordPress for lots of reasons. One of the most important reasons is the flexibility and the ease of use for the client once the website goes live. 

During this phase you will need to write code that implements all of the features outlined in your design plans. Now you also include any additional features that may be needed for functionality or interactivity purposes. After you finish writing the code, you test it on different browsers and devices to ensure everything works correctly before deployment.

Testing

The Testing phase is where you make sure everything works properly before launching your website live on the internet. This includes checking for bugs in code and ensuring that all features work correctly across different browsers and devices. It’s important to test thoroughly during this stage. Any issues must be identified and fixed before launch day arrives! Remember that a bad website with lots of errors or bad grammar can negatively impact your brand. 

Deployment

After you complete all tests successfully, deploy the website! This process makes the website public so that users can access it online through their web browsers or mobile devices. Depending on your chosen hosting provider you might need to set up databases, configure DNS settings  and configure security settings. Once you finish these steps, launch day arrives!

At this point, check your SEO and reporting. Ensure that you fully optimise each page for search engines and receive high-quality reports from your website. Integration with Google Analytics is one useful tool for this.

Maintenance

90% of web development agencies overlook this stage.  They create the website, your client pays the bill, and they deliver a website that demands constant maintenance without offering any training or instructions. The end result is a bad website that frustrates your visitors.

The Maintenance phase is an ongoing phase, where you make changes over time, based on user feedback or new requirements from stakeholders/clients etc. This could involve adding new features/functionality or fixing existing bugs/errors in code etc.. It’s important to keep up with maintenance regularly so that users always have an optimal experience when visiting your website! At Saint IT we ensure all our clients receive the best service once their website is live. We have the skills and know-how to ensure all updates are applied regularly and we perform monthly manual, visual checks and tests to ensure there are no issues.

Optimization – The Final Stage of Web development

The Optimization phase involves making changes over time in order to improve performance such as increasing page loading speeds or improving search engine rankings etc. This could involve making changes such as optimizing images/code for faster loading times or implementing SEO best practices like meta tags etc. It’s important to keep up with optimization regularly so that users always have an optimal experience when visiting your website! 

Website performance depends on a number of factors and your web developer/agency should have advised you at the planning stage of the best hosting package for your website. If you’re running a large corporate website with hundreds of pages you’re not going to want to host that on a low cost, public cloud web host.

Conclusion

The web development life cycle (WDLC) with its seven distinct phases, Planning, Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Maintenance and Optimization outlines the complexities involved in web design. Each phase with its own purpose within the website project is crucial to how well your website performs over time. If you have the multiple skills required, and the time, you can certainly undertake such a project. But we recommend you partner with an experienced web design agency, that have the right tools and skills required. 

Partner with Saint IT to build your website and ensure every stage meets your goals. Enjoy a stress-free process while keeping your clients and visitors fully engaged throughout their ‘website journey’.