Our Web Design Process

What to expect from our team.

NetGain has designed and launched hundreds of websites. Every one of them is different. That’s why we never take a cookie cutter approach to our web design process. You will receive individualized attention throughout your entire web project. Our customized approach guarantees smooth sailing from initial design all the way to launch day. And it’s reassuring to know that your project will be on time and on budget. Here’s what you can expect:

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Discovery

It’s all about you. By taking the time to truly understand your business goals, we can tailor our solution to suit your individual requirements. In our kick-off meeting, you can expect to meet our Creative Director and Senior Web Developer. We’ll discuss what makes your organization unique, uncover strategies to beat your competitors, and find innovative ways to appeal to your target audience. By the end of our conversation we’ll have a clear direction on how to improve your online presence.

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Project Management

Together, we’ll decide on the overall look and feel of your website – every detail from color palette, what pages to include, and site navigation. Once we have a roadmap in place, we’ll outline the phases of your web project, assign responsibilities to the members of our team and set completion dates. You will be assigned a project manager who will keep close tabs on the overall progress. We’ll regularly check in with you throughout the web development process for feedback to ensure that we are on the right track.

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Content

Compelling content is the cornerstone of every high-performing website. In fact, high-quality, original content remains a significant ranking factor in Google search engine results. Increasingly, Google is also evaluating how your visitors interact with your content (through likes, shares, and retweets). A thorough understanding of your target audience will guide our keyword selection and is considered the compass for your content marketing strategy. Our process begins with a thoughtfully crafted, value proposition. If writing is not your strong suit, we have copywriters to help you along the way. Beyond the written word, content also encompasses careful selection of graphics, icons, imagery, and video. With the right mix of multimedia and messaging, you will be on your way to creating a memorable visitor experience.

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Website Design

Our graphic artists have a knack for creating stunning websites that get you noticed – even in a crowded marketplace. Our graphic team is well versed in modern design principles such as conversion optimization. Our pages are deliberately structured to encourage visitor engagement and steer potential customers into taking the next step. Another principle we employ to achieve a clean, organized homepage, is the use of white space. White space isn’t necessarily white but can be thought of as “negative space” or “blank space”. It has the effect of giving your content some breathing room by removing clutter. We find that it improves readability and provides a more enjoyable experience on the web. We treat web design as a collaborative process, and we’ll work with you to refine our layout until we have arrived at a design that you love.

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Website Development

The next step in the online journey is to transform the graphic design files into a living, breathing website. Our web development team is responsible for coding the designs into a functioning website. The first stage is front-end development. Also known as client-side development, this refers to the what the user sees when they interact with your website. Using programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, we keep up-to-date with the best practices in the coding industry. For more complex projects like web applications, the second stage involves back-end development (also referred to as server-side development). Back-end development controls what goes on behind the scenes of a web application. For example, we will set up and connect to a database for generating results that are seen by users on the front-end. Our technical team is extremely well experienced and looks forward to diving into your next web or mobile app.

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Quality Control

Every web project undergoes a methodical testing procedure. For example, we evaluate crossbrowser compatibility to ensure that your website behaves properly using every major internet browser. We also check for mobile responsiveness and loading speed so that everything behaves as expected on desktop, tablet or smartphone. If we are using stock photography on your site, we make sure that licenses have been purchased for each image. Additionally, we go through a detailed search engine optimization checklist so that your website will be recognized by Google and begin ranking right away. Once we have performed our internal checks and balances, we send you a development link, so you can familiarize yourself with your new website prior to launch. For website redesign, SEO relies on a flawlessly executed “301 redirect” strategy. Redirection helps search engines find your updated content. More importantly, redirection transfers link authority from the old site into the new site. This way, your new website starts off with instant credibility.

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Launch

We are “go” for launch! Unveiling your website to the world is the most exciting phase of the entire process. Behind the scenes, our technical team takes great care to follow a precise sequence of events to ensure a smooth transition from your old site to your new site. We leave nothing to chance. Even the launch date and time are carefully scheduled to minimize disruption. Our final checks include proper configuration of your SSL security certificate, correct domain configuration, and stable website hosting services. Post-launch, we double check that Google Search Console and Google Analytics are operational and collecting data. Once our checklist is complete, it’s time to celebrate another successful website launch!