The Ultimate Web Design And Development Buyer’s Guide [Updated 2024]

1. Introduction:

Are you planning to build a website? In this article, we have outlined everything you need to know about website development and design. We cover everything from the basics so don’t be overwhelmed by the table of contents. Our aim here is to empower you, the buyer so that you can choose the best service provider.

We provide everything from the steps of website development, what to look for in a service provider, important questions to ask them and how to assess your service provider. We hope you find this helpful.

2. What is web design and development?

One of the best ways to ensure you get your money’s worth in Web design and development is to have a general understanding of both these terms. This will protect you from bad code, slow-loading websites, and poor UI UX design. Here are a few things you need to know about web development and design:

2.1 Web Design:

Web design has less to do with coding, and more to do with user experience (UX). Branding elements come to play in web design, in an attempt to create a memorable user experience on the website.

A good website design considers all the possible devices used to access the website – desktop/laptop, tablet, and mobile and aims to provide a seamless experience on all three devices. 

Web design combines colours, shapes, images, and text to build a positive user experience. Even the most minute elements like deciding paragraph breaks, come under website design. 

2.2 Web Development:

Web development is all that your customers cannot see. It is the building blocks of a website, skillfully hidden under the shadows of good design. Web development builds the website features and functionality using an efficient coding system.

While most of us can critique design, it takes a little more experience to understand efficient coding. Speed is usually an indicator of good web development. An efficiently developed website should load in under 3 seconds. 

A website developer should have expertise in more than one coding language; the most popular of which are: HTML (HyperText Markup Language), CSS, PHP, and JavaScript but also extending to other languages like Ruby, C/C++, Python etc.

2.3 Why are both website development and design essential?

Website development and design work hand in hand to build a strong brand experience. Even if you have a separate design and development team, they must coordinate with each other to create a smooth website. 

Since the two fields overlap, some developers take on the roles of designers, or designers learn code later in their careers and get into development. A good website requires two experts – a good ui/ux designer and a good web developer.

A good website requires a blend of aesthetics and logistics where development is purely logistics and design is a combination of the two. Hence having the expertise from both designers and developers ensures that the site has a strong code and is user friendly at the same time.

Many brands forget that their website must put its users at the centre of the project. They start the web development project with a lot of speculation which usually goes to waste if the customer is not placed at the centre of all these speculations. A good website development and design company must dedicate time and resources in audience research before they start building.

3. The role of a website in today’s digital landscape

Around 15 years ago having a website was not as important, however in 2024 a website creates trust and familiarity. In fact, not having a website can impact a brand negatively – potential customers often feel a brand is not serious if they don’t have a website.

3.1 Why does every business need a high-quality website?

A website not only acts as a brochure for all your products and services, it boosts your visibility, increasing your chances of being found. With a website, you can focus on the next stages of marketing like search engine optimisation and building content clusters.

Additionally, it works to build a brand personality; something your customers can connect with before they buy your product/service.

3.2 Key benefits of a professional website for brand and sales

You can have an edge over your competitors simply by having a website. Here’s why you should consider having a website or updating your outdated website:

3.2.1. A website works like a 24-hour sales representative

A website with optimised call-to-action buttons and communication channels gives potential customers the chance to connect with you even when you are sleeping. 

3.2.2. Increases brand visibility

Recent studies suggest that around 33% of people find a new brand through search engines. That is a 33% increase in potential customers – something you’re missing out on if you don’t have a functional website. 

3.2.3. Easy to track customer data

Websites encourage online behaviour and with online behaviour, we get trackable data. Never has it been easier to track user behaviour and learn from their actions. By incorporating simple analytics tools you track customer behaviour and further optimise your website to suit your audience’s requirements.

3.2.4. Builds SEO opportunities

A website is the first step to a healthy search engine presence. Once you build the website, you have a blank canvas for content clusters. These provide opportunities for customers to learn from you and connect with you.

3.3 How does web design impact user behaviour and conversions?

A good website can increase conversions by 300%. If you know how your target audience behaves online you can optimise website navigation.

Responsive design also builds a positive experience by putting customers at the centre of the design. 

Thirdly, the visuals are likely to keep customers engaged and impact their decision to buy. Visuals can be a little tricky, because it is very easy to overdo it if we are not careful. However, if visuals – images, buttons and their placement, is done tastefully it can convince customers to give your business a try. 

4. Understanding the different types of websites

There is an infinite number of types and sub-types of websites. We will cover a few of them in this article. 

4.1. The brochure-style website

As the name suggests, a brochure-style website looks and feels a lot like a brochure. This type of website is ideal for small local businesses with a lower budget. They may even be ideal for hyper-niche companies that do not have online demand and traffic. 

Companies can use brochure websites in 2 ways. They can either optimize them for search engines and emphasize their contact information, encouraging potential customers to get in touch with them, or they can use it as a handout to interested customers to further drive the buyer’s decision. 

Doctors, dentists, local vendors, real estate agents, etc benefit from having a brochure-style website.

4.2. E-commerce websites

E-commerce websites are perhaps the most popular types of websites. Platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Grofers are all e-commerce websites. However, the thing we like about e-commerce websites is that you don’t have to be incredibly popular or work in a mainstream niche to start an e-commerce business.

Websites like Syounaa have a smaller audience because they offer a hyper-niche product line. For them, having an e-commerce website increases their chances of finding ideal customers. 

4.3. Portfolios and personal brand sites

Let’s say you are an entrepreneur – an owner of multiple brands, product lines, and podcasts, and you have recently published a book. Optimizing your social media channels is excellent, but nothing can compare to the professional control that you get from having a website. 

When you are an entrepreneur, you become a brand and your portfolio builds a positive brand image. It also provides search engine benefits – the next time someone searches your products, your portfolio will pop up.

4.4. Corporate and business sites

Corporate sites are for corporations and businesses. A good business site is one that talks about the company, its history, people working under the company and its products and services. A corporate site gives you the opportunity to showcase your brand objective, aims and aspirations and truly let your brand shine in the eyes of its potential customers.

4.5. Web apps and complex sites

Certain apps use their websites to either show their skills or create a hyper-interactive experience for their audience. Web apps combine modernism with functionality, using the latest skills and technologies.

Have a look at the Xapo Bank website. Don’t you feel captivated right from the start? That’s the power of an immersive website.

5. Choosing the right platform for your website

Many websites have been built on the wrong platform, which now affects their user experience. Knowing which platform is ideal for your website can impact the way your audience sees your website. Here are some website platforms and sub-platforms you should know about.

5.1 Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system allows non coders to collaborate on a website. Bloggers, project managers, and copywriters need to access the backend, and learning how to code will slow down their output. 

A content management system empowers non-coders to work on certain parts of the website without a developer’s help.

Here are a few popular content management systems you may hear web developers mentioning:

5.1.1 WordPress

WordPress is perhaps the most popular CMS. Around 40% of all websites are powered by WordPress. People use it because it is beginner-friendly and provides the perfect platform for both coders and non-coders to collaborate.

In fact, the platform is so easy to use that people have developed their websites with no prior experience in coding and web development. 

5.1.2 Drupal

Drupal was developed in 2001, it was built using MySQL and PostgreSQL. Although any website can be built on Drupal, this open-source CMS has been developed specifically for corporate and ecommerce sites. 

While the platform does not require a background in coding, it does have a learning curve and requires a bit of practice to build a professional website.

5.1.3 Joomla

Joomla was built in 2005 as a free open-source content management system. It offers similar platform features as WordPress and Drupal however usability wise, it is slightly more difficult to use than WordPress but easier than Drupal

Comparison between the three

5.2 E-commerce platforms

E-commerce platforms are ideal for those who want to sell a product, or a line of products online. As mentioned above, although we have many large-scale e-commerce platforms, there is always room for small businesses that want to sell their products online. 

Platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce and Magento are built specially for e-commerce businesses. Their customizations are optimized for product based businesses hence it helps brands come online faster and on a lower budget.

Here’s how each e-commerce platform differs from each other:

5.2.1. Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular platforms for ecommerce websites. People like it because it is easy to use. Since it is built for product-based brands, Shopify provides seamless integration with multiple selling channels like Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram etc.

It is perfect for startups to medium sized brands, that want to come online quickly. Shopify also provides search engine optimization features, that improve brand and product visibility in a relatively short duration.

Guide 1 Table 5.2.1 Shopify

[Pros and cons table needed here]

5.2.2. WooCommerce

WooCommerce has been built specifically for WordPress websites. It is excellent for businesses that are already up and running on WordPress and want to expand their brand to an e-commerce website. 

The flexibility in customization is a game changer for WooCommerce users and since they are catered for WordPress, they integrate seamlessly into the platform, making you e-commerce-ready in no time!

Guide 1 Table 5.2.2 WooCommerce

5.2.3. Magento

Magento is ideal for medium to large businesses that have multiple products and/or customizations for a product. The platform is known for its exceptional performance.

Companies with a strong brand image and a higher budget can opt for Magento because, unlike other e-commerce platforms, Magento websites cannot be made without coders.

Magento is ideal for corporate businesses – companies that are selling both products and services. Service-led businesses tend to prefer Magento for its features.

5.2.3 Magento

5.3. When should you consider a fully customized website?

A fully customized website, or a website built completely from scratch does not use an open-source website building platform. Around fifteen years ago, most websites were built from scratch but now with open-source technologies providing unlimited customization, building from scratch has become a rare practice.

You may prefer building a website without an open-source web development platform for a few unique scenarios like:

• Your company/organization has strict rules against particular open source software. Certain government websites and security brands might fall under this category.
• You require heavy customizations especially to keep your data secure. Often a template based open source software provides template-based security. Although these measures are ideal for most e-commerce websites and brands, government sites, that manage human data in massive volumes require a customized security system. This is one of the main reasons why someone opts for a fully customized website.

Customized websites take more time to develop and since they don’t use pre-built customizations, they are often more expensive. However, the designs and user experience is unmatched to template-based websites. The comparison is similar to heating up pre-made food and cooking a meal from scratch. While the latter takes more time and effort, the flavours and freshness are incomparable to the former. This is of course true if, and if only, we have a seasoned home chef at hand. The same goes for websites. If you require a customized website, you must work with experienced developers who understand the latest code languages and build a website from scratch.

5.4. Website builders vs professional developers

Website builders are platforms like Wix and even WordPress and Shopify that allow anyone to build a website without using code. They apply simple drag-and-drop, and section-building techniques. While the learning curve may vary from platform to platform, website builders are relatively easy to use.

While website builders are making it possible for anyone to build a website, it does not mean that everyone should build a website without any coding experience. They are usually ideal for individuals with a smaller budget, perhaps seeking to build a portfolio website. However, as you start to grow and gain traction, it is always ideal to get your website re-built by a professional developer, one who understands design principles, coding, and the latest best practices.

6. Essential components of a high-quality website design

A website is only effective when it can connect with its ideal audience and encourage them to follow/buy/join etc. A few key design elements can distinguish a regular website from an excellent one.

6.1. Visual design and aesthetics

Design elements make your brand visually unique. Good design follows essential design principles with colour, typography, imagery and visual appeal. Here are 5 principles of good design:

6.1.1. 5 principles of good design

1. Emphasis – Good design understands what is the most important information on the web page. Is the website designed to sell a course? Then the emphasis should perhaps be on what you will know after you finish the course. Does your website act as a brand collateral? Then perhaps the focus needs to go to the logo, the tagline, and the brand history. 

Emphasis should not only be on the final goal but on the way we want our audience to feel when they enter our website. A restaurant website might make customers feel hungry the moment they enter the website, a tour package website might encourage visitors to tune into their adventurous side, etc. 

2. Contrast – How do you create emphasis? By having adequate contrast. Remember that contrast can easily be overdone on a website, but it is also a crucial element to have on the website. While the most common contrasts we know are colours (red with blue, black with white etc) but can also be a difference between textures (smooth with rough, or shiny with matte), shapes (sharp-edged shapes with smooth-edged shapes) etc.

3. White space – Strange as it may be, white space does not have to be white. It refers to the website background. A good website background is meant to provide a spotlight on all the other elements of the website. Most corporate websites adapt a plain, single-coloured background, sometimes with a gradient. This helps take the attention away from the background and to the images and contents. Backgrounds can play a role for recreational websites or entertainment brands – for instance, a website that covers the history of a particular place might have a background that looks like browned paper. But as simple or as creative as the white space may be, its intention is always to highlight what the website has to offer.

4. Repetition – Repetition determines content hierarchy. It creates a roadmap for your audience to view your content. Bad design will usually have multiple fonts and text sizes. Good design makes sure elements of equal importance have similar designs. So all main headings are designed the same way, all subheadings are designed the same way, and images of the same importance have the same design. Repetition leads to familiarity which is an anchor for brand identity and conversions.

5. Balance – Lastly, there needs to be a balance. A website that has videos at every corner, or high contrast from the beginning to the end would confuse the audience (especially if the audience is not looking for an exhilarating experience). Good design has balance in every corner. This means that even the contrasts are balanced. Instead of contrasting pure black with pure white, designers tend to soften both colours before juxtaposing them. Or, making sure that users can see only 1 video at a time. If one section has a video the next section doesn’t. This gives the website a balanced look and makes it less overwhelming to viewers.

Bonus: Movement – This is a bonus because movement applies to animated transitions on a website. Since it is not done often, few websites have it overdone, thus losing the impact it is supposed to have on us.

If you have animated transitions, you need to make sure it follows the laws of physics. A banner that rips apart cannot have both straight-line cuts and uneven ones. Additionally, the direction in which the objects are moving must make sense to the viewer – a forward-moving car, cannot have a backward-moving wheel. 

Example of a good design:

Here’s how the principles of design apply to colour, typograhy, imagery, and branding

6.2.1. Colour

Good designers often create and follow a colour template for the website. This template includes the logo colours, primary colours, secondary colours, (if required) tertiary colours and neutral colours. A colour template should look something like this:

6.2.2. Typography

Text plays an important role in evoking emotions amongst viewers. Easy-to-read fonts, with minimal design, like fonts from the Sans Serif family, are commonly used in corporate websites. Fonts like the ‘Times New Roman’ is barely in use on modern websites, however, historical websites might find the font suited to their brand personality.

6.2.3. Imagery

The colour and placement of imagery play a role in good design. For image and text to form a uniform brand image, one must make sure that the image has a distinct role on the page and is not just there to fill space. 

Imagery in good design can reinforce content hierarchy. The space between written content and images, and curved/sharp edges affect the way we view a website.

6.2.4. Branding

Lastly, all the elements mentioned above together contribute to branding. A good brand should always focus on the emotion and not their product and services. When the website is easy to understand and has a unique design, it creates a brand that viewers want to interact with.

6.3. User Experience

User experience refers to how visitors feel when they visit your website. You must always consider the state of mind your user is in when they visit the site. Corporate website visitors might be in a hurry as they are probably comparing your services to competitors. 

Tours and travel websites are often visited during the weekends, and while their target audience has a little more time in their hands to peruse through the pages, they are still comparing tour packages with competitors and finding the best deals. 

Earlier more people visited personal blogs and websites because it was a valid form of entertainment, however now, with the rise of social media, people mostly visit websites to receive value. This is why most visitors are in a hurry and will be ticked off by a poorly designed website.

Here’s how you can improve user experience and stand out to your audience:

Navigability – Are the categories easy to find and browse through?

Accessibility – Are all the important website pages easy to access?

User flow – Lastly does the website have a design hierarchy – i.e. help users understand the order in which they should consume the content?

6.4. Mobile responsiveness

Did you know that 95% of all website visitors access the mobile version of the website? Website development is usually done on the desktop, that’s why most developers and designers build the desktop version first, followed by the mobile version, often leading to a slow and clunky website. 

A good website design must be mobile responsive, i.e., adjust itself to the viewer’s screen size. While some companies maintain uniformity between desktop and mobile designs, you should ideally go a step further and optimize the design elements for each platform. This means that you might have to replace design elements purely for the mobile version.

6.5. Conversion centric design

Is your website made for conversions? A conversion can be anything from converting a visitor to a subscriber. Encouraging visitors to take action should be the main goal of the website. Good design takes careful consideration of the placement of call-to-action buttons, or CTAs and form placements. 

Websites made for product or service conversions should work side by side with marketers. This helps create a sales funnel. Placing the website in the sales funnel and understanding how it caters to different levels of the funnel can impact the design. 

For instance, if you are a gifting and packaging company, you might have customers who first want ideas on what to gift their loved ones before making a purchase. As customers consume more content on gifting ideas they move higher up in the sales funnel and when they reach the brand product catalogue they are ready to make the purchase.

[Infographic – Show a good design vs a bad design]

7. Steps in the web development process

A good website development usually has the following development cycle:

7.1. Planning and discovery

The planning and discovery phase should go beyond the purpose of the website but rather focus on the customer’s purpose. ‘Why should someone visit your website’? A detailed planning session will save you time in edits and re-edits.

Planning and discovery help you understand: 

• Who your target audience is
• What is their state of mind when they enter your website
• What they are interested in 
• What problem is your business solving for them
• What is an irrefutable offer for your ideal audience

Having a detailed explanation of each of these pointers will greatly impact your website design. For instance, if your target audience is somewhere between 20 – 29 they might enjoy website gamification, and animated transitions, whereas if your audience is between 50 – 59, they may prefer a website with fewer moving elements, and videos.

Try to go as detailed as you can with each of these pointers before building the website.

7.2. Design and prototyping

Good design is always a result of multiple tests and prototypes. The design and prototyping is usually the longest phase in web development because design is very subjective and often requires multiple iterations to reach a conclusion both the designer and client are satisfied with.

It starts with building a wireframe which is the barebone website structure. For instance, YouTube’s wireframe might have looked something like this:

A wireframe is meant to look barebone and lifeless. This tends to give an idea of where things are supposed to go, the dimensions of images, and the length of content. 

Once the wireframe is finalized, it will be fleshed out further as mockups where designers and developers test the website functionality and design elements like colour palettes, logo placement, etc. 

Lastly, we have the UI design. Here the customer comes back into the picture, and designers make tweaks to the website design to make it easy for customers to use. 

7.3. Development and coding

Once the design is finalized, our developers jump into action, building a website that follows the design to the T. Depending on how complicated the design and the website functionality is, a website can have one or more developers. Your developer may either develop both the front end and back end of the website. However, if the website has multiple functions and design elements, you may need a front-end and back-end developer.

Website development can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on the number of elements and pages needed.

7.4. Testing and quality assurance

Once the design and development is done, we must make sure everything is working properly and as planned. At this phase a quality assurance representative will go through all the pages, check all the buttons and make sure they go to the right pages, video buttons play and pause as promised and the spacing between each element follows the proposed design.

Device compatibility is also tested at this phase. The quality assurance representative will check the website on multiple platforms and device sizes to make sure all the website elements are working properly and as planned on their platforms.

The last and final stage of quality assurance is debugging. Here, the developers usually come back into the picture and debug all the issues found via quality assurance.

7.5. Launch and maintenance

Lastly, when everything is done on the website and it is functioning properly, you are ready to make it open for public use. 

8. What should you look for in a web design and development agency?

There are many web development and design agencies out there but how do you know which one is good, more importantly, how do you know which one is right for you? Here are some ways you can assess web development agencies around you:

8.1. Ask for a portfolio

A web development and design agency must have a portfolio. Many have a general portfolio, showcasing their past projects but experienced companies should cater their portfolio for you. This means that if you have a pet product website, they should show you their past experience in the pet and retail industry.

Since many companies have NDAs prepared with their clients, they are often restricted from sharing the names of their clients. However, a quick talk with them will help you understand their work experience and if they are the ideal service provider for you.

8.2. Range of services offered

While you can work with an independent developer, designer and SEO expert, it is always better to get all related services from a single company. At Webzenia we provide end to end services –  everything from developing the website to publishing, marketing and converting customers.

8.3. Communication and project management

Web development and design has multiple stages that need to be handled with care and consideration. Good communication and project management makes sure that everything is on track and delivered on time. 

Look for agencies that give you clear deadlines for each milestone. Additionally companies must assign a feedback loop that ensures that all feedbacks are dully noted and addressed.

8.4. Transparency in pricing

Pricing is perhaps the singular deciding factor in finding a service provider. The biggest mistake here would be to go for a company simply because they charge the least. A smaller charge could mean that there are hidden costs later on or that there is a lack of experience/resources.

Good companies always provide a clear payment structure. Here are some things you need to know about the service pricing before you choose a web development and design agency:

• Are they charging hourly or per milestone
• What is the payment structure? – Should you pay at the start of the milestone or at the end?
• What happens when the company fails to provide the discussed deliverables at the end of a milestone?
• What happens when you fail to make a payment on time?

Having a clear understanding on the following questions will protect you and your service provider from payment and delivery issues. 

[Infographic: A checklist to sum up the above]

9. Here’s what you need to ask potential web agencies before choosing them:

We’ll help you segregate the good from the not with these simple questions:

9.1. What is your process and timeline

A well-structured process for web design and development ensures that the final product meets the client’s expectations and performs optimally. The process typically involves several stages, from initial discovery to post-launch maintenance. Here are some essential phases every web development and design project should have:

9.1.1. Discovery Phase (1–2 Weeks)

The goal of the design and development agency here is to understand the details of your business, the client’s goals, the target audience and specific requirements. Usually, this is the phase where the agency has maximum questions directed towards the client.

The agency should discuss technical and functional requirements at this phase. They must explain which technical features the site should include (e.g., eCommerce, SSL certificates, CMS, forms, integrations). In case you (the client) want a specific feature on the website, the agency should and guide you on how the said feature will impact the website’s performance – how long it will take to design it and what will be the final outcome. 

Research and strategizing are also done strictly during this phase. The agency might do a competitor analysis to understand what your competitors are doing, the latest trends and an opportunity for you to shine.

Lastly, you must discuss the project scope and timelines in this stage to establish clear deliverables, deadlines, and budget.

9.1.2. Planning & Strategy (1–2 Weeks)

In the second stage, it is time to lay out the blueprint of the website, aligning the design with the business goals. The agency will usually create sitemaps and wireframes at this stage. 

Any technical specifications, placements and layout are addressed in this phase. The phase ends when the client approves the barebone structure. 

Note: This phase might exceed 2 weeks if there are many changes given by the client. The design and development should discuss how long it will take to complete a single round of changes to maintain transparency.

9.1.3. Design Phase (2–4 Weeks)

Now that the website structure is ready, it is time to put the customer at the centre of the design. This is when the agency focuses more on branding and user experience. 

At this phase, agencies will create the user interface and the user experience. The designs will be better fleshed out with colour schemes, typography, layout and other branding elements.

This is when developers and designers start working on mobile responsiveness, ensuring that the design usability is compatible with different screen sizes. 

Depending on how big and complicated your website is, the web development agency might create a prototype at this stage. A prototype is usually not a fully functional website but gives a good idea of how the website will look, where each button will be positioned and which page they will go to once clicked. 

Lastly, client feedback ensures that the phase is complete and we are ready to proceed to the next phase. Just like the previous phase, the timeline can be affected if there are too many changes in the design phase and the final prototype.

9.1.4. Development Phase (4–6 Weeks)

Now that we have all the design elements and the wireframe clear, we can turn the website design into a functioning reality. 

The front-end and back-end developers usually work together using a script like HTML, CSS, Javascript etc ensuring that the website is fully functional and responsive to human input. 

Once the website is ready it is time for all the content – text, images and videos provided by the client

Although web development and design do not include SEO services, a good agency should provide tools to enhance SEO later on. This includes features such as meta tag slots, meta headings, image alt texts and URL structure. 

We can end this milestone once we receive the client’s approval.

9.1.5. Testing & Quality Assurance (1–2 Weeks)

The final step makes sure that the website works flawlessly across all platforms, screen sizes, browsers etc. 

Security protocols are tested in this phase, especially if the website is designed to store customer information.

9.1.6. Website launch

Lastly, once everything is set and in place, the website is launched. Your developer should set up the domain and hosting environment to ensure a smooth operation. The website is usually migrated during this phase from the development site to the website domain.

Once the website is open for the public eye, you can spread the word amongst your clientele and encourage them to visit the site.

9.1.7. Post-launch & Maintenance (Ongoing)

The work doesn’t end after the website is published. It is important to finalise a post-launch maintenance scheme to make sure it is a smooth sailing website for the years to come. 

Your service provider should manage the following operations post-launch

• Regular bug fixes and updates
• Security updates
• Performance monitoring
• Content updates

9.2. How is SEO handled in web development?

Usually, SEO services are a separate undertaking. If your service provider also provides SEO services they may either provide a web development package that includes content and SEO services, use SEO best practices to prepare your website for optimization when it is done later, or proceed to Search Engine Optimization once they are done with the website development process.

9.3. Do you have any support and maintenance options?

Most web development and design companies will have a support and maintenance option. It is important to discuss these packages before starting the project. 

Web development and design companies tend to provide the following ongoing support services:

• Addressing changes in content and pages only when required
• Maintaining hosting and addressing changes only when required
• Providing timely updates, security checks and addressing content changes when necessary
• Providing timely updates, and security checks, addressing content changes when necessary and maintaining website hosting

9.4. How do you ensure site security?

When creating or maintaining a website, a professional agency prioritizes security to protect your business, customers, and data. Security measures involve a series of best practices and tools designed to keep your site safe from online threats like hackers or data breaches. Here’s a breakdown of how they ensure your site is secure:

• Secure Development Practices: This means building your website using up-to-date, trusted code and frameworks, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities that hackers might exploit.
• SSL Certificate Installation: An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is essential for securing your website. It encrypts the data shared between your site and its users, like passwords or payment information. You can spot an SSL-protected site by the padlock symbol in the browser’s address bar.
• Regular Updates and Patching: Like any software, websites need regular updates. Your agency should keep all parts of your website—its content management system (CMS), plugins, and themes—up to date. This prevents known security gaps from being left open.
• Firewalls and Malware Scanning: A firewall acts as a barrier to filter and block harmful traffic. It’s like a security guard for your site, while malware scanning tools regularly check for suspicious activity or unauthorized access attempts. 
• User Access Control: Ensuring only trusted individuals can access and edit the website. Agencies often recommend setting up user roles and passwords with strong security measures so unauthorized users can’t make changes to the site. 
• Data Backups: In the unlikely event of a security incident, data backups allow you to restore your site quickly. Reputable agencies set up automated backups to ensure your site can be recovered without significant downtime or data loss.

With these measures, a web design agency takes a proactive role in maintaining your website’s security. This gives you peace of mind, knowing your site is built on a strong security foundation and that any potential issues can be quickly addressed.

10. Factors that affect the cost of web design and development

Website design and development never has a ‘one size fits all’ solution. The pricing varies deeply based on the industry you belong to, the type of solution you need and when you need it. 

Here are a few things that can affect the cost of web design and development:

10.1. Custom design vs Templates

Templates usually cost less when compared to custom designs. The existing templates reduce design and development costs significantly and developers focus more on tweaking the existing template to suit your brand requirements. 

Custom designs require a lot more time and experience in coding and design sense as it require developers and designers to build everything from scratch.

10.2. Complexity and functionality requirements

The website’s price will increase as the complexity and functionality requirements increase. This is why portfolio websites with few pages, buttons, and features, cost the least amount of money. However, as the complexity increases, the website goes from being a brochure to an e-commerce website the website becomes more complicated to design. 

10.3. Additional services

Certain services like SEO, content creation and marketing, don’t come under web design but can be done simultaneously with web development. If you work with an agency that also provides these services, you can reap the benefits of these services while building your website at the same time. 

10.4. Hourly rates vs Flat fees

Now this depends completely on the agency and the type of work they do, but we have noticed that companies usually provide flat fees if the task at hand is clear and easy to do.

Hourly rates are applied when the web development process is complicated and requires multiple experts, like 3d design experts, motion designers, avatar creation, etc. Additionally, if developers don’t get a clear brief on the project, they may charge hourly rates to reduce the number of back-and-forths that occur between the client and the service provider.

11. Setting web development budgets based on your business needs

To avoid disagreements later on, and to get exactly what you were looking for, it is important to have a web development budget early on. Make sure the budget is reasonable for the amount of time that is expected to be put into the work, and the number of experts being involved in the project. 

Here’s how you can determine the project budget:

11.1. Determining what is essential and what is nice to have

The common mistake that occurs within non-designers is to consider everything as essential. When we begin a web development and design project, it is essential to take a step back and be incredibly objective on what is essential and what would be nice, if it was on the website.

This way you can segregate your project into phases and build the essential components first, followed by the components that contribute to brand personality.

11.2. Considering long-term maintenance and scaling needs

While not all, some websites, especially e-commerce websites, that run purely on online visits, account creation and product purchase, require scaling based on the audience requirements. The primary requirement usually is to increase (or decrease) the website’s ability to handle large audiences at a time. 

Additional scaling can include increasing the number of pages, increasing or updating security protocols etc. Scaling and long-term maintenance is a part of running a smooth website. Make sure this is discussed with your service provider at the start of the project.

12. Post Launch Essentials: Maintaining and updating your website

As we said earlier, work doesn’t end with the launch of a website. We need to take a few ongoing measures to make sure the website is running smoothly and continues to perform the way that it should. 

If websites are not updated periodically, they lose their speed and relevance. This is why is it important to talk to your service provider about website maintenance schemes post-launch.

12.1. Importance of regular updates

Regular updates keep your website safe from possible phishing and hacking attempts. Additionally, it makes sure your website is running smoothly and is capable of serving your audience the same way as it did when it was first launched. 

12.2. SEO and content updates

SEO is an ongoing process, and if you want a consistent reach through your website you need to consider periodic updates needed in creating and updating SEO content. As for content updates, they may vary depending on the number of pages you have, the type of content you sport and their relevance. Website pages might not need content updates as often, however, if you have a blog, it would go hand in hand with SEO and would require frequent updates.

12.3. User feedback and analysis

The initial UI design is created from predictive analysis and potential audience research. But, after you build a website, you have concrete evidence of what your audience is doing on it – where they are most active and what is pushing them to leave the page. 

Once you have adequate research on online visitors, you can use it to improve user experience, through better CTA placements, and sales funnels.

13. Why choose our web development services?

Webzenia has been providing web development services since 2018. We built our brand completely from scratch and have stayed in business only because we have had long-term customers who keep coming back to us with more work. 

Here are a few reasons why you should choose us:

13.1. Tailored solutions for every industry

We put a lot of focus on initial research and industry research because understanding the brand and its customers reduces the number of drafts and re-drafts. Our in-depth research allows us to build tailored solutions for every industry. 

13.2. End-to-end services

We are the 1 stop destination for web development, design, search engine optimization, content creation and marketing. This means that you can say goodbye to working with multiple vendors. We can help with everything that comes with building your assets online.

13.3. Proven track record of successful projects

Over the years we have had the opportunity to work with multiple brands and various niches and we’ve given life to some really successful websites. Have a look at our portfolio to learn more about our past projects. 

13.4. Focus on client success and growth

We are dedicated to our client’s long-term success and we do this through extensive research, execution and data generation and reflection. Our aim is to mould your brand based on how your customer behaves online, considering that customer behaviour is constantly changing and moulding to something unique.

14. FAQs: Your top questions answered

14.1 How long does a typical web design project take?

Depending on how complicated your project is, it takes anywhere from 5 to 14 weeks to complete. Experienced web developers and designers usually spend the first week gathering information from the client. The web development and design stages follow an iterative process and ultimately project finalization. Depending on the complexity and expertise required, your web development agency should tell you how long your project should take. The deciding factor for project completion is usually the iteration, and editing phase. The project can be extended past its deadline if there are too many edits and re-drafts requested before finalization.

14.2. What’s the difference between web design and development?

Web design focuses more on the visuals of the website – how it looks to its target audience. Web development, on the other hand, focuses on building the website – how it looks on the backend.

While the design is what customers see, clean code is also important for websites to rank high on search engines. Both web design and development require experts who have open channels of communication with each other. 

14.3. How does SEO fit into web design?

SEO makes sure that all components of the website is optimized – this includes design. In this case, the design is optimized for improved user experience. When users are happy, engaged and at ease on the website, they are likely to spend more time on it. This inadvertently increases website rankings and recognition. 

14.4. What if my site needs changes in the future?

Since the world of web development and design keeps changing exponentially, frequent updates are a must. We provide everything from minor to major website changes to our clients at a discounted rate. You can get in touch with us to learn more about our web development packages and ongoing maintenance charges.

15. Conclusion

So, here’s everything you need to know about web development as a non-developer. We hope you feel more confident in understanding web development and that you can make informed decisions with your service provider. All the best!