From Concept to Launch: The Process Behind Our Website Development

Creating a website is more than just picking a design and adding content. It’s a journey that combines creativity, technical expertise, and strategic planning. At JMJ Digital, we specialise in building WordPress websites that are developed to meet the goals of our clients.

Every website begins with an idea. By understanding your business needs, and target audience, we design sites to meet your desired functionality. Once we have a clear idea of what you want, we ensure everything is made to match your needs.

Build Methods: Custom Build vs Page Builders

When building a website, selecting the right development approach isn’t about difficulty, but about carefully evaluating all project factors. The choice between a custom-coded solution and a page builder hinges on multiple critical considerations: performance capabilities, budget constraints, specific project requirements, and desired outcomes. By weighing up these elements, we can make an informed recommendation that aligns perfectly with your project’s unique needs and strategic objectives.

Custom Build

A custom-coded WordPress theme and CMS is not only the most flexible route, but it also allows you to tailor every aspect of your site’s design and functionality. It has faster load times and better performance. Additionally, it is more secure and has less vulnerability, but as with everything, there are pros and cons.

Pros of a Custom Build

• Unique design and functionality
• Better performance
• Enhanced security
• Highly scalable
• Clean code structure

Cons of a Custom Build

• Higher upfront costs
• Longer development time
• Ongoing developer dependency

Page Builders

Page builders are popular for their ease of use. These drag-and-drop tools allow anybody, even without coding experience, to create and customise a website. They are also great for smaller projects or when budgets are tight.

Pros of Page Builders

• Easy content management
• Faster development
• Lower cost
• Has built-in templates and features

Cons of Page Builders

• Difficult to maintain consistent styles across pages
• More plugin dependencies
• Heavier code
• Less flexibility for technical optimisation
• This may include security risks
• Higher long-term maintenance costs

At JMJ Digital, we mainly prefer custom builds for clients, especially those looking for a tailored solution that will grow with their business. However, we understand that custom builds may not be the best fit for every client. In these cases, we will build with page builders as they offer professional-looking websites even on a limited budget.

Page Builder Plugins

While page builders are not as flexible as a custom build, they still offer a wide range of options to create websites.

Elementor

Elementor is one of the most popular WordPress page builders because of its powerful features and ease of use. It offers a live front-end editor, so you can see changes in real time. From typography to spacing, you can customise almost everything with Elementor. It is also a very user-friendly tool that works well with most WordPress themes and plugins.

Avada

Avada is a feature-rich WordPress theme that includes a built-in page builder. It offers a range of pre-built demo sites, which can be imported with one click. While it’s a bit more complex than Elementor, it’s an excellent choice for creating a more detailed site. As for ease of use, it includes a slightly steeper learning curve compared to Elementor.

Visual Composer

Visual Composer is another popular choice for those who want flexibility with page design. It includes both a front-end and back-end editor, giving you the option to work where you are most comfortable. Additionally, it has an intuitive interface with both front-end and back-end options.

Plugins For Improved Functionality

At JMJ Digital, when we build WordPress websites, we don’t just focus on design and layout, but we also make sure that your site works smoothly and has been built effectively and securely. This is why we have a handful of go-to plugins to add features, improve performance, and make your site easier to manage.

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)

Every website has unique needs when it comes to the CMS, and ACF helps us meet them. This plugin allows us to create custom data fields that give us the ability to build the CMS exactly to your requirements.

Gravity Forms

Forms are more than just a way to collect information. They are an important part of the user journey and how your lead information feeds into your CRM. Gravity Forms makes creating versatile, professional forms easy.

Smush

Images are important for making your site look great, but they can also slow it down if not optimised correctly. That’s where Smush comes in. Smush compresses your images minimising quality loss, helping your site load faster.

Google Site Kit

Google Site Kit pulls all the essential data about your website into your WordPress dashboard. It connects Google Analytics and Search Console seamlessly on setup, giving you insights into your site’s traffic, performance, and SEO.

WP Migrate

Moving a website to a new host or server can be tricky, but WP Migrate simplifies the process. This plugin lets us transfer databases, files, and settings quickly and securely.

Duplicate Page and Enable Media Replace

A Duplicate Page is a lifesaver when you need to copy an existing page or post to create a similar one. It saves time by letting you clone layouts with a single click. Enable Media Replace, on the other hand, helps replace media files.

Wordfence

Security is a top priority for us. Wordfence is our trusted plugin for keeping your site safe. It includes a firewall, malware scanner, and login protection to block threats and vulnerabilities. We will also often integrate Cloudflare for increased levels of security.

The Development Process in Action

Following a well-organised web development process helps us deliver what clients want. From front-end design to back-end functionality, we take every step seriously to ensure quality and performance. However, the most critical step begins before we even start coding: creating a comprehensive website brief.

A great website brief is like a roadmap that guides the entire development process. It helps align your business objectives with technical implementation, ensuring that every aspect of your site meets your specific needs. Unsure how to craft an effective brief? Our detailed guide, “How to write a website brief – Your 10 step guide“, walks you through the essential elements that transform a vague idea into a clear, actionable project plan.

• Front-End Development: The front end is the first thing your visitors will see and interact with. It includes the layout, design, buttons, navigation, and overall visual experience. We make sure that everything is user-friendly, responsive, and visually appealing.
• Back-End Development: While the front end is what visitors see, the back end is what makes everything run. It’s the server-side part of your website that includes your content management system (CMS) and integrations with third-party tools.
• Testing and Quality Assurance: Before launching a website, we put it through a testing phase that helps us detect bugs, ensure compatibility, and verify that everything is working fine. We take multiple steps to make sure that your site performs well no matter what browser or device your visitors use. Here’s how we handle testing and quality assurance:

1. Cross-Browser Testing: We test the website on all major browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, etc. to ensure that everything appears and functions correctly.
2. Device Testing: Since more people browse the web on mobile devices, we check the sites on various screen sizes like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.
3. Functional Testing: We test all the interactive features on the site, including forms, buttons, navigation, and more. Besides that, we test integrations with third-party services like payment processors, social media platforms, and CRMs.
4. Performance Testing: We test the speed of your website on various devices and networks to ensure that everything loads quickly.
5. Security Testing: We run security scans to identify vulnerabilities and ensure that your website is protected against malware or data breaches.
6. User Testing: We test with different types of users to make sure the navigation is intuitive and the experience is smooth.
7. Final Review: Once we are done with all the tests, we do a final review of the website to make sure everything is in alignment with your project goals and vision.

Launching the Site

Launching a website is an exciting step, but it’s not as simple as just hitting publish. At JMJ Digital, we follow an organised process to ensure that everything is in place for a smooth launch.

Pre-Launch Checklist:

Before we hit the launch button, we run through a detailed checklist to ensure that everything is ready:

• We perform one last round of testing on every aspect of the site.
• We make sure that all SEO recommendations including any 301 redirects are in place so your site is visible to search engines, and any migration turbulence is minimised.
• We perform a full old site backup, just in case something goes wrong.
• We go over all the content to ensure it’s accurate, well-formatted, and ready for your audience.
• We set up tracking tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, so you can monitor your website’s performance from day one.
• We make sure we have all the access we need for your domain and hosting to make the migration a smooth process on the day.
• We prepare a launch plan to make sure the transition from development to live is as smooth as possible.

Post-Launch Monitoring:

Once your site is live, the work doesn’t stop there! We monitor the site closely in the first few days to ensure everything runs smoothly and address any issues that may arise.

• We keep an eye on site speed and server performance to ensure that everything is running efficiently.
• We track how visitors are interacting with the site using Google Analytics.
• We monitor the site for potential security threats and risks.
• We address bugs that users report.

Ongoing Maintenance and Development

A website is never finished. Even after the website is launched, we help keep your site healthy over the long term when on a flexible WordPress maintenance plan:

• We support you with developing your site to meet your needs as requirements change.
• We ensure your site stays protected by installing the latest security patches and updates.
• We regularly monitor your site’s speed and make optimisations.
• We keep track of your site’s performance over time and provide reports on traffic, conversion rates, and SEO performance.
• We provide regular backups to ensure that if anything goes wrong, your site can be quickly restored.
• We have 24/7 uptime technology alerting us if your website ever goes down so we can react quickly, before you even know!

Creating and maintaining a successful website is a continuous process. At JMJ Digital, we handle everything, starting from the initial concept and web design to web development, SEO and long-term WordPress maintenance. With our comprehensive approach to website development, we ensure that your website stays at the forefront of digital innovation.