The first stage of our website design Uckfield service is basic research into the business and the competition. It helps us to understand the market and the types of online material the industry is using.

The devil is in the detail. All businesses have competitors; it is our job to research those competitors. We look at those direct competitors in Uckfield but also further afield in Sussex and Surrey. We analyse not just their website but their overall online marketing presence.

• Who are they linking to on the website?
• Who is linking to their website?
• Content review (text, images and videos)
• Functionality review
• Overall search engine dominance
• What social media channels are they using?
• How often are they updating social media?
• What type of content are they sharing on Social Media

Before we embark on any form of website design or web development we first need to understand the ethos of the business. Every business is unique, that’s why we create bespoke websites. Every website should be as unique as the company.

Based in Sussex, we meet with our clients face to face to document the overall objectives of the website. At this early stage, we listen! Once we have a good understanding of the business and its digital marketing goals, we start to present ideas and concepts. We discuss the latest trends, techniques and functionality available to fulfil the objectives.

Often, a client will show us examples of websites that they like. As we are creating a bespoke website, we are not dictated by fixed layouts. In addition to offering our expertise in website design, we can implement functionality from multiple existing sites, creating an original, unique website for our clients.

It is important in the early stages to set expectations. We often find that business owners assume that by simply having a website they will appear at the top of search engines. Of course, top listings are possible. However, website design and advanced SEO are two separate projects.

Wouldn’t it be nice for all of us if we had unlimited funds to allocate to digital marketing? Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. At Boonwag Digital Marketing we plan for the growth and development of a website from the outset. Even the smallest of sites can easily be developed to incorporate new functionality, reach new audiences and integrate with other digital marketing systems.

Therefore, we listen to the overall objectives of online marketing. We want to understand the best scenario, even if it’s world domination. For example, we may identify that the business would like multiple website videos, eCommerce website, payment gateways or a membership website. There is also a requirement to promote the site not just in Uckfield but numerous, towns and counties across the UK.

Now that we understand the best-case scenario we can configure the website in readiness for expansion, taking baby steps towards the ultimate goal. We break the project down into bite-size chunks enabling drip-fed funding.

For all our website design Uckfield projects, we create a website specification document taking the form of a quotation. It details all work to be carried out and outlines the website functionality, as agreed.

If a client has already purchased a domain name and hosting, we can start to configure the environment of the new website. We can provide domain and hosting services via our third-party supplier. We have worked with them for many years and have direct contact to resolve any problems.

We create the development website on the Boonwag server. We send our clients a secure URL to access the site throughout the stages of development.

At this stage, we ask the client to forward any website content they have such as text, images, logos and videos.

We work with content writers, graphic designers and photographers supporting with any new content required for the website.

Depending on the complexity of the website we share a wireframe document with our clients. The wireframes function is to provide an exploded diagram of the website outlining the menu structure. At this stage, we explore the customer journey through the website assessing how many clicks a website visitor needs to perform to get to any one piece of information.

We consider the customer journey on desktop, tablet and mobile.

Throughout the entire design process, we keep in mind that this is not our website. We are creating a website for a client who has an ultimate say in anything we do. We see it as our job to offer advice on the design using our years of experience in web design.

Before uploading all content, we seek feedback from the client including, colour schemes, fonts, images and layout.

Over the coming days, weeks or months we notify the client of updates. We work as a team reviewing the website development, performing any tweaks as required by the customer.

For a website to be successful, regarding attracting visitors, it needs to be fast and stays fast. We deploy tried and tested third-party plugins to optimise our websites for maximum performance. We implement security and spamming prevention software and configure daily, weekly or monthly backups depending on the size and functionality of the website.

We take performance seriously as search engines are using performance as a ranking factor.

The day has arrived. We agree and sign-off the website, backup and deploy in the live environment. If we are replacing an existing website, we consider redirection of old URL’s to the new website ensuring that we redirect old references found in search engines to the relevant location on the new website.

We notify search engines of the new website and wait for it to be indexed and found in the search listings in Uckfield and any other town or county as outlined the website specification.

We understand that in life it’s hard to get it right first time. As part of our website design Uckfield service, we support our clients for 60 days after going live with minor tweaks and amendments providing the requests are covered in the initial website specification.

During the website development project, we build strong, lasting relationships with our clients. We meet regularly to discuss the performance of the website and new functionality that could be added to enhance the overall customer experience.

We often say that when a website goes live is just the beginning of the journey. It’s no different to buying a house. It’s only when you live in the house that you start to create a home, that you feel comfortable in relaxed in.

So how do we know if our website visitors are feeling comfortable and relaxed on the website? Simple, we deploy website analytics to monitor the activity and the customer journey.

Standard analytics, which most digital marketing agencies deploy, is perfect for primary data analysis such as traffic volumes. This data can help determine whether there has been a general uplift in traffic as a result of SEO investment.

Our advanced analytics configuration provides a far more in-depth understanding of user interaction with the website.

Why is this important?

For all of our website design Uckfield projects we offer advanced analytics, we install and track events using triggers. A trigger can be assigned to a page, a button, a form or a link. Triggers enable tracking of the user journey through the website. For example, we can track how many users have watched a video or how many users have entered a particular page but left the website shortly after. Upon analysis of this valuable information, we can start to modify the site based on the user’s journey. Ultimately, we are attempting to create the best possible end-user experience on all devices.