Building websites – why it’s more than just the front end
Let me walk you through why creating a high-quality website takes time, effort and investment.
As a Digital Services Director, I often get asked why websites can be so costly. We all want a website that looks great, works well and helps us achieve our business goals. But there’s a lot more to it than what’s visible to you and your customers.
A website is like an iceberg. You see the design and possibly some of the functionality. But underneath the surface, there’s a huge amount of work that goes into planning, building, testing and maintaining. Let me walk you through why creating a high-quality website takes time, effort and investment.
Planning and strategy – the foundation
Before I even begin to think about design or development, I start with a solid plan. I spend a lot of time in the discovery phase – meeting with clients to really understand their business, goals and what they want to achieve with their website.
This is crucial, because without a clear strategy, a website can easily miss the mark and fail to deliver results. I’ll ask questions like, ‘who is your target audience’, ‘what’s your objective?’ or ‘are there specific user flows?’ to create an accurate picture.
The design phase
Once we have a clear strategy, the design phase can begin. Alongside creating the website visual, we think about how it will support your business goals. During this stage, we also create wireframes and figma prototypes to show how different elements fit together. We'll also create prototypes and conduct user testing to make sure the user flow works.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that, while clients love the design process, feedback can sometimes take longer than expected – particularly when multiple stakeholders are involved. That’s why we make it a priority to work closely with you to ensure everyone is on board before moving into development.
To help you feedback on design, we provide tried and tested crib sheets and guides designed to help you articulate your thoughts in a way that supports the process. By working together in this way, we can ensure your feedback is productive, clear and leads to the best possible outcome.
Building your website
This is the part most people never see, but it’s where the majority of the complex work happens. When I talk to our clients about development, I often explain that building a modern website is more than just converting a design into code. It’s about building a secure foundation that makes the site fast, reliable and scalable. For example, we optimise every site for speed which is critical for both user experience and search engine rankings. What we then have to think about is what could the client add to the site that might slow it down, and how we can build mechanisms to prevent this from happening (without causing frustration for the internal team).
Website development can sometimes feel like a moving target because platforms like WordPress and Next.js are always evolving. This means that as we build, we’re keeping an eye on how these frameworks change, and that sometimes means adapting as we go to ensure your website is built to last.
Read Adam’s take on building modern web experience with React here.
Ready for testing
The testing phase has several elements which includes both us and our clients. While we handle the technical testing across different browsers and devices, I need you to take the time to really use the test site. I encourage clients to browse as if they were their own customer, try to ‘break’ things and find anything that doesn’t work as expected. This way, we can take time to address all concerns before we launch the live site.
A website is never completely “finished”
Here’s something I always remind my clients: a website is only up to date the moment it launches. From that point forward, platforms like WordPress and Next.js are constantly issuing updates to improve performance, security and functionality. If your website isn’t regularly maintained, it’s at risk of falling behind or even being vulnerable to security threats.
Top tip: always budget for ongoing maintenance as part of your website investment.
So, why does building a website cost what it does? Well, it’s like the iceberg analogy: there’s a lot happening beneath the surface that you don’t see. From strategy and planning to security and testing, all of these factors play a role in delivering a website that not only looks great but is also functional, secure and built to help your business succeed.
Thinking about investing in a new website for your organisation or big project? Get in touch with our web team on 01782 618342 or info@starbots-creative.co.uk.
