Developing the Website

We are so close to this new website becoming a reality. But we’ve still got the tallest mountain yet to climb — and that is actually building out and developing the website.

Again, if you’ve gone out and hired a developer, there’s not much that you need to do during this part of the process. They’re taking care of it for you while you focus on your business.

But that can also be a little bit worrisome for you. How do you know that the developer is actually working on the website and that they’re doing it right? What if it all comes back wrong? What if it’s not something that you like?

If you think about it too much, it can be overwhelming.

So today, let’s go through some of the things you can and need to do to put your mind at ease and to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Patience is required

Again, during this phase you don’t have a lot of control over what’s happening on a day-to-day basis. All you can really do is just check in with the developer and see how things are going.

So once again you’re going to have to show some patience. Designing the templates takes quite a while and so does developing them. Depending on how complex the designs are, it could take twice as long to develop them than it did to design them.

And I know some times that the length of time it takes can make it seem like the developer is just messing around and not working on the website. But, once again, if you’ve hired a quality developer, you can rest easy knowing they aren’t doing that.

Instead, we’re building out code in a way to make sure that this website can run for a long time. And we’re making sure that it matches the design and that it looks good no matter which way you look at it.

So again, just focus on running your business. The website will be done when it’s done.

Check in regularly

That being said, it’s not a bad idea to check in with the developer on a sort of regular basis. It might be just a quick email seeing how things are going and if they need anything from you.

There is a limit on how often you should be checking in with the developer though. If you’re sending me an email once every couple of hours just to see how things are going, things are going to get very tense to be quite honest.

But maybe once a day or once every couple of days is a pretty good interval. And this open line of communication might be helpful in case they run into any problems that you might be able to solve, such as maybe they need more content here, they have a question about your branding there or maybe they want you to look at what they’ve done since it might be a little bit different from the design because they that’s better.

So if you’re a little bit concerned about how the website buildout is going, just check in with the developer every now and then. But don’t overload the developer.

See if they have a way you can view it

If you’re still worried about the development of the website, you can check with your developer and see if they have development website that you can check every now and then.

I know when I’m developing a website, I have a local development website on my laptop and then on WP Engine, I have a development site that’s locked down to outside views. And then I give the client a username and password so they can view that site on WP Engine.

Then when I complete a section, I push the code up to the WP Engine site and let the client know. That way they can see that progress that’s being made and even review the site for changes they might want.

So see if your developer has something similar. Not all developers work the same way, and for some developers that might be a distraction. But it never hurts to ask. And if they do, it’s a pretty good way to track the progress and not bother the developer too much.

Trust the developer

Finally, this part really makes you just trust the developer. Because it’s so hands off, you really have to trust that they know what they’re doing. And that can be a bit of a challenge.

And really this is where that vetting we did earlier in the process really comes into play. If you’ve done your homework, if you’ve reviewed all of the portfolio and if you really asked them a lot questions, then this part should really be smooth sailing. If not, this is where things become a real pain.

But there’s not a whole bunch you can do now if you’re kind of stuck. So until the site is ready, you just have to have trust the developer and trust that they know what they’re doing.

Next steps

So that is the development stage in a nutshell. Again, this is pretty much hands off for you, so there’s not much you can do. That can be both relieving and just stress inducing.

But if you did your homework, there’s a plan in place for you to be able to see the website in development, just sit back and relax as much as you can. Remember, your new website is almost a reality. That’s exciting.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in comments below or reach out on social media. You can also learn more about creating a website for your business over on my website. I have a bevy of resources and blog posts that can help you make informed decisions during this entire process.

When you’re ready to move on to the next step, I’ll see you in the next video.