Discovery
As soon as you have booked your project and confirmed a start date, we will schedule a 60 minute virtual planning consultation. This takes place over Zoom and we will: define clear goals for the website;  create a sitemap and map out user flows. After this, I will send you a checklist of what I need and in what format; a summary of the sitemap and website goals; and an intake questionnaire. Email megan@nutmegstudio.co for a copy of Nutmeg’s pricing or to book your project.

Design & Development
Design begins on the scheduled start date, provided all content has been sent to me. Please let me know as soon as possible if you need to reschedule that start date. I start the process by designing the homepage and sending this to you as a mockup image. Once the design is approved, I move on to designing the rest of the website’s pages and setting up required functionality, such as eCommerce if we’re building an online store.

Review
Once the website has been designed and developed, I will ask you to review and send me change requests and feedback. 

Mobile Design
All Nutmeg’s packages include detail-orientated mobile responsive design. When designing for mobile, I use a mobile viewport to make sure the design looks amazing on all screen sizes.

Performance Optimisation & SEO
This phase is all about optimising the website so that it loads quickly and finalising the on-page search engine optimisation (SEO), including: SEO data for each page, integrating with Google Analytics + Search Console, and submitting the sitemap to Google.

Security & Backup System
We install an automated online security system to make sure the website is protected from malware, viruses and brute force attacks. We also set up the backup system so that the website’s files are automatically backed up at regular intervals.

Prepping to go live
This phase is about making sure the website is ready to go live. It includes testing all functionality, including running test orders if developing an online store and testing the email marketing integrations. It also includes testing the design using a mobile responsive tool to ensure design adaptability across devices and screen sizes.

Go Live
Your new website is ready to launch and celebrate! I will make sure to share the news on my social media channels. Once live, I will also assist you with the Facebook Shop and Instagram Shoppable features (for eCommerce builds) as this can only be initiated once the website is live and operating.

Handover and 30 days support
In the week after launch, I will send you a handover guide that explains how to maintain your website, make updates, edit pages, manage the online store and publish your own products. All packages also include 30 days tech support after going live to help ease you into your new website and fix any bugs / errors if they occur. Please note that this support does not include additions to the website outside of the original project scope. These will be quoted for separately.

Essentially, your website is a collection of files, and those files need to be stored somewhere. A web hosting company stores your websites files for you on secure servers that make sure your website is online 24/7.

Not all website hosts offer the same level or quality of service. Here is an article I wrote about this. That’s why it’s important to make sure you use the right web host to ensure your website performs optimally, loads quickly and is as secure as possible.

My preferred web hosting companies are Cloudways and domains.co.za. Domains.co.za has a WordPress-specific hosting plan that is ideal for new and smaller websites – https://www.domains.co.za/wordpress-hosting

Cloudways offer a premium cloud-based web hosting plans that are perfect for eCommerce websites.

All web design and development packages include 30 days’ tech and maintenance support. This is to iron out any issues that occur after launch, which will be fixed free of charge provided they are identified in the 30 days.

If you would like premium web care beyond the 30 days, then it’s recommended you sign-up to one of Nutmeg’s website management plans. Website management plans include: bi-monthly plugin and theme updates; a full restore service if something goes wrong and you site needs to be restored from backup; immediate assistance if there is a problem with you site; and 1 hour of virtual website tech assistance during the month. Plans start from R700 per month.

If not on a Web Care plan, then you would be charged R550 per hour to fix any issues that are not hosting-related (the web host will fix web hosting issues on their side).

The time it takes for your website to appear on page 1 of Google depends on a number of factors. It depends on the search phrase people are using to find your website and the number of other websites that are also available for those search phrases. Nobody can truly say how long it will take for your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages (including people who actually work for Google), however there are a number of factors that can improve your chances. Building your website on WordPress is a good start as WordPress has some great Search Engine Optimisation fundamentals built-in. Creating unique and interesting content on a regular basis for your website is also critical to increase your visibility amongst search engines. Launching your website and then forgetting about it is a surefire way to get lost amongst the noise.

I’m happy to talk to more about your search engine strategy if we haven’t already.

We will install Google Analytics software on your new website and show you how to log into your Google Analytics account where you can see a wide range of statistics about your website including number of visits, page views than the amount of time people are spending on your website.

If you subscribe to one of our website care plans you will also receive more detailed analysis about your website performance and recommendations on how to improve.

Whilst we like to be flexible and responsive to your needs, we also like to deliver what we promise within the time frames and budgets we have allowed. If you ask us to add new features to your website while we are building it, will most likely ask why? If we all agree that your new request will help us achieve our objectives then we will be more than happy to oblige. If your new feature is something you would like to add to your website but is not directly tied to your original objectives then we will suggest to schedule it for a second iteration of the website once it has been launched. This will require a new proposal.

I will send you a welcome letter, first project invoice and service contract. I will also ask you to book a date for the virtual planning consultation. 

25% project booking fee; 50% due on the project start date and a final 25% payment on approval of the website, before going live.

Read this article here for an answer to your question.