There are several parts our website process. This page will guide you through the different phases and give you an idea of what to expect.
Step 1. Complete and Submit a Website Design Questionnaire
When you contact us for a quote, we will ask you to complete a Website Design Questionnaire. The questionnaire is designed to get you to really think about and plan out your website wants and needs.
Step 2. Follow-up Meeting / Phone Call
Our first meeting we will focus on your answers to our Website Design Questionnaire. The purpose of the meeting is to get a clearer idea of the scope of the project. The details will help us create an accurate proposal.
Six things you should have ready
(This will be the time to discuss any adjustments to your questionnaire answers)
- Site structure — A list of the pages you’d like on the site.
- Functionality — Anything beyond static pages: email forms, blogs, photo galleries, video, e-commerce, etc…
- References — We will discuss the URLs your provided in the questionnaire for a few sites you like design-wise, as well as for your competition.
- Design/Layout — We will get to know your company and discuss where you want to go design-wise.
- Budget — Having a budget range to work with helps us determine if we are able to provide everything in your wishlist. While our small business sites generally start at $3,800, we can come up with a plan to best fit your budget. You may want to consider a phased approach that will allow us to work on your project as your business grows. Choosing to withhold budget information results mostly in wasted time for both of us. It’s much more effective for everyone to know what to expect from the beginning.
- Timeframe — The majority of website projects take roughly 10-12 weeks to complete. If you have a specific date you’d like to complete the project by, please let us know.
Step 3. Proposal
After our initial meeting we spend some time creating a detailed proposal. The process of creating this proposal helps us determine what technologies we will use to make your site, research solutions for new types of functionality we haven’t used before, and determine costs and time frame. It usually takes 2-3 business days to put together the proposal that we will deliver via email.
Step 4. To Do List
Once you have agreed to the proposal terms and submit your signed agreement and deposit to get started, you will be sent a To-Do List that will have some specific items that you will need to provide prior to the design process. This may include your logo files/images/graphics/ icons that you want included and content for your pages. IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT INFORMATION –As stated in your design services agreement, all such material supplied by the Client will be assumed to be the property of the Client and therefore free to use in any development without fear of breach of copyright laws. The copyright for all material provided by Bloom such as code, graphics, photographs, images and text, will remain the property of Bloom until such time as payment has been made in full whereupon they will become the property of the Client.
Step 5. Design
Typically we provide you with with two options for the homepage first draft. Most projects include two rounds of revisions for the homepage. We go through the layouts with you, revise per your feedback and make smart recommendations when you’re undecided. Once the homepage has been approved, we design a secondary page layout, a blog page layout and any remaining unique layouts that are defined in the project scope. IMPORTANT— It’s really helpful if you can provide us all of the content before we start designing. Even if it’s not 100% final, it helps us plan and design accordingly.
Step 6. Programming
After the layouts have been approved and content has been received, we begin building your site. We will keep you posted on progress and let you view your beta site along the way. IMPORTANT –It is absolutely necessary for us to have final content before we start programming. Changes to content after programming begins will be billed as additional services.
Step 7. Testing
We make sure your site looks good on all browsers. We currently support all current modern browsers including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer. If you need to support any specific outdated browser not listed here we can do so at an additional fee.
Step 8. Launch
Once your website is ready to go live, we’ll send you an invoice for the remaining balance. After we’ve received payment, we will migrate your beta site to your server, test your site again and make your website live for all to see.
Step 9. Training
The majority of our clients want the ability to make day-to-day changes to their website pages on their own. By doing so, you ensure the content on your site stays fresh and relevant, you improve the customer experience, and you save you money on maintenance. Two (2) hours of training is typically included in the proposal. Training is done over the phone to show you how to use the system and make content changes. We will provide as much training as desired. Additional ongoing training is available and will be billed as additional services.
Step 10. Maintenance (optional)
Taking good care of your website is important in that it will help keep your site secure. We offer WordPress website maintenance plans that keep your website software and plugins up to date and more. Fixing sites that break because of updates or viruses can be time-consuming and expensive. Our ongoing maintenance plan will ensure your site has the latest security patches and is always up to date. Service is month-to-month and there are no contracts. Maintenance is billed monthly.