Small Biz Geek

I've created a written checklist of criteria to be met during the planning and building of the site.

*Preperation*

• Study client & job specificities

• Appraisal of existing web site, IT systems

• Check competition

• Define site goals and overall strategy

• Web design client questionnaire

*Quote Submission*

• Confirmation of site objectives (corporate, marketing, etc.)

• Choose business model & marketing plan

• Plan interactions, technologies & functionalities

• Choose content management system

• Choose data delivery model and backup

• Roles and responsibilities & Initial timeframe

*Quote submission*

• Project validation, contract agreement & deposit paid

*Planning*

• Website title

• Host selection & registration

• Domain name selection & registration

• Mirrors & other domain-related registrations

• Website structure & information architecture

• Validate wireframe

*Layout*

• Overall look and feel

• Choose fonts

• Color scheme research

• Standards and templates (usability, accessibility, etc.)

• Basic layout creation – (X)HTML/CSS

• Validate Mockup

*Content preparation*

• Review content providers (copy-writers, graphic designers, programmers etc.)

• Text update/creation & Art update/creation (photos, illustrations, etc.)

• Add rich media content (Video, Audio etc.)

• Distribute content quantity – Keep home-page light and effective

• Provide a call to action for every page (avoid dead ends)

• Copyrights, terms of use, website disclaimer, privacy policy

• Contact details (including map)

• About page (with author(s), staff, company information, credits, affiliates, trade bodies etc.)

• Testimonials, reviews and awards

• Products description

• FAQs

• Optimize target keywords usage in content

• Proofread

*Content integration*

• Merge mockup and content

• Pay special attention to content layout and hierarchy (try to meet the user “Z” reading pattern)

• Define headers (h1, h2, h3 etc.) & paragraphs – Add to SEO Spreadsheet

• Identify and add page titles with character limits – Add to SEO Spreadsheet

• Identify and add meta with character limits – Add to SEO Spreadsheet

• Label links with title tags which show where they lead

*Design*

• Artworks reception/update/creation (photos, illustrations, etc.)

• Logo update/creation – Ask client to watch video – “Design Discussion 1: Graphic Logo Concepts”

• Design header with clear statement of the site purpose & prominently placed logo linked to home-page

• Add visible phone number to the header or to the top of right column

• Design clear navigation (if in JavaScript/Flash, provide a text-based alternative)

• Design main section (columns and sidebars) and footer now or later

• Make sure that important content is above the fold at least for home-page

• Balance illustrations/photo and text importance according to the site purpose

• Design visible testimonials, reviews and awards

• Make sure content and/or design elements encourage future visitation or viral sharing

• Make sure company information and contact (email or form) are immediately accessible

• Style lists and special text fields (error, validation, etc.)

• Design buttons, sprites, etc. Make sure they change on hover if they are clickable.

• Design Favicon

*Functionalities*

• Build database (MySql) Check PHP version with host

• CMS/Blog/E-commerce implementation

• Newsletter (site functionality & email format)

• Restricted areas (backend/password protected pages, deindex certain pages from search – robots.txt)

• Crawl access for Google search bot (CSS and Javascript essential for mobile sites - robots.txt)

*Technical & Usability*

• Make URLs meaningful & user-friendly – Add to SEO Spreadsheet

• Ensure that URLs are always consistent (www.website.com or website.com)

• Add canonical tags to all pages

• Add any 301 redirects for shorter URLs – Ask client to watch video on “301 Redirect”

• Cross-browser optimization

• Create custom 404 error page

• Ensure that visitors receive confirmation after every action

• (X)HTML validation & optimization

• CSS validation & optimization

• JavaScript validation & optimization

• Optimize the site for graceful degradation

• Optimize image format, dimensions & file size

• Protections & .htaccess functions (anti-spam, compression, caching, anti-hotlinks, etc.)

• Further website security (database, cgi-bin, etc.)

*Marketing & SEO*

• Create an XML Sitemap and Submit in Webmaster Tools

• Configure robot.txt – Deindex any URLs for strategic/technical reasons

• Submit site to Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing)

• Check formatting of site results in SERPs – Tweak SEO Spreadsheet

• Provide SEO Spreadsheet to client – Any changes made must be reflected in the worksheet