Basic Steps to Create a Website: Seven Milestones

The basic steps to create a website are often reduced to three: buy a domain, install a template, go live. In practice, projects stall on content nobody writes, pages nobody approves and acceptance with no standard. The seven milestones below mark the owner and deliverable for each.

1. Answer Three Questions First

Before building, decide who visits the site, what they should do after reading, and who maintains it later. The answers determine navigation structure and page count.

If most visitors arrive from search as strangers, organise pages by question. If most arrive from a trade show QR code, organise by product line. Maintenance decides admin complexity: with one person maintaining, do not build a three-role permission model.

2. Seven Milestones and Deliverables

Content and acceptance are the two milestones that overrun. Business units must supply content; designers cannot invent it, and this has to be settled at kickoff.

3. Where the Budget Goes

Three blocks: domain and server (annual and predictable), template or custom build (one-off, wide range), content and photography (commonly omitted).

Many budgets count only the first two, then discover at launch that product photos are missing and the company profile is three years old. Reserve at least twenty percent of the website cost for content production.

4. Platforms and Trade-Offs

Three options: open-source CMS, SaaS builder, custom development. Open source is flexible and controllable but needs some ops knowledge. SaaS is fast but constrains data and design. Custom is free but expensive.

Choose by two conditions: whether long-term search optimisation matters, and whether you have unique business processes. Both yes means open source or custom; neither means SaaS is enough.

5. Pre-Launch Acceptance List

Tick each: every link works without errors, forms deliver submissions, mobile layout does not break, pages have unique titles and descriptions, images are compressed but sharp, filing information and contact details are accurate.

Have someone outside the build team run this list. Builders skip what they know well and stop seeing problems.

6. The First Three Months After Launch

Launch is the start. Submit the sitemap, watch indexing, adjust the first screen using visit data, and move the enquiry entry point into view while scrolling.

If organic traffic is still near zero after three months, check indexing first, then whether pages answer search intent. Do not rush into a redesign.

7. FAQ

How long does it take?

A brochure site typically takes four to eight weeks, half of it content preparation. Estimate custom features by feature list, not page count.

Build in-house or hire an agency?

Depends on whether someone maintains it. If not, hire and agree maintenance terms.

Should we own the domain and server?

Yes. Hold the accounts yourself and let the vendor configure them. Who holds the accounts decides how hard switching vendors will be.

Does it need ongoing investment?

Yes. Content updates and security maintenance are continuous; a stale site loses rankings gradually.

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GrowLab columns: Website Development · Custom Website Build · SEO Optimisation

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