How to Actually Build a Website (for Business Leaders)

This is a guide for business leaders who want to understand the process of building a website. If you’re thinking about investing in a new site, read this before you engage a web development agency.

And, if you’re wondering who we are: iOnline has been building websites since 2000. I’ve personally been involved in hundreds of web projects since 2018. Feel free to get in touch with us if you have questions about this article (or website builds generally).

1. Architect a Website Strategy

Building a website isn’t a small project. In fact, it’s probably one of the most expensive (and complex) marketing initiatives you’ll undertake. Don’t let that scare you, though. Like most things, it can be simplified with a clear, well-developed strategy.

Start by asking yourself: what problem do I want my website to solve? (Yes, most websites solve multiple problems, but what’s your biggest? What’s the main reason you’re investing thousands of dollars in this project?)

Most brands we work with, for example, want more leads. Their website is their digital shopfront – a place for their ideal customers to visit, browse and, hopefully, enquire. Others, though, rely on networking or tenders to land new contracts. For them, a website is a sales enablement tool, somewhere they can send prospects to help build their credibility.

Once you know what you want your website to do, start talking to different website development agencies. It’s a good idea to bring your chosen vendor in now – they have the experience to help you do things like:

• set success metrics for the website build project
• put together a realistic budget
• choose your content management system (CMS)
• discuss whether SEO is needed
• conduct user and SEO research.

Make sure you get quotes from at least 3 different vendors. Price-shopping isn’t the goal – as with most professional services, you get what you pay for – but comparing different inclusions can help you get a better sense of what’s ‘normal’ in website builds.

2. Plan Your Website Build

Your strategy covers the big-picture stuff: the problem you want your website to solve, and the basic approach you’re going to take to solve it. Now you need to make it concrete.

Start by mapping out project roles. (Your agency can help you here.) Who is going to be responsible for the different aspects of the website build? Use a RACI matrix to make things easier.

One of the first tasks you should aim to complete: drafting a sitemap. A sitemap lays out all the pages on your website in an easy-to-understand format – which can be anything from spreadsheet to a fully interactive tree diagram.

Once you know exactly what pages you want your site to include, you’ll need clarify the granular details – how you want them delivered, what tasks are involved, what dependencies exist, whether you need any sub-contractors to complete specialised work. If that sounds overwhelming, don’t stress. Most agencies have clear processes that they’ve refined over hundreds of projects. Just ask yours how they do it.

You’ll also need to lock in your website’s functions (the things you want it to be able to do). For example, do you need customers to be able to buy products directly online? Do you want a gated membership area? Do you want a blog or an email signup form? Are there specific integrations you need with software like your CRM? Specifying all the required functions now means your agency can more accurately forecast costs and timelines.

3. Start Building the Website

Congratulations. You’ve done (most of) the hard work. Now, it’s time to sit back, relax, and let your agency deliver.

3.1 Draft the Copy

All websites start with the copy: the written information that goes on each page. To draft the copy, your agency will normally engage a copywriter – a specialist who can help clarify your messaging, design the user experience, order the information on each page, and actually write the text.

Make sure you allocate some time to talk to your copywriter. Their job isn’t to make things up about your business. They need you to give them the hard facts about your brand, the offerings you sell, and the things that make you different. (And, if you can’t give them that information for some reason, put your website build on hold. You have bigger business concerns that need resolving first.) They’ll also ask you for direction on things like brand voice – how the copy feels and sounds.

Once your copywriter has the information they need, they’ll start drafting the copy in line with your project delivery schedule. Every agency has a different process, but, normally, you’ll receive a handful of pages for an initial ‘soft’ review. That’s a chance for you to make sure the copywriter’s work aligns with your overall vision for the website (and course-correct as needed).

After the soft review, your copywriter will deliver the rest of your website’s pages, either in whole (for small sites) or in tranches (for larger sites). They’ll also explain how to provide good feedback, then work with you to implement any changes until you’ve reached a final, fully approved version of each page.

Once that happens, the copy is now finalised. No further changes should be made for the rest of the build.

3.2 Sketch the Wireframes

You’ll normally receive copy in copy documents – Microsoft Word files that contains some kind of design enablement language. (At iOnline, we use shortcode markup.)

If you don’t work in marketing, though, copy docs can be confronting to review. Seeing lines and lines of text in one place can make it hard to visualise the final product (which, in turn, makes giving good feedback difficult too).

That’s where wireframes can come in handy. They’re low-fidelity ‘sketches’ of the web page that feature the copy in place. Because they don’t feature colours, images, or other design elements, you can focus on solely reviewing the copy.

Note how the shortcodes in the copy doc match the elements in the wireframe.

Most agencies deliver both copy docs and wireframes. The actual feedback is provided on the copy doc itself, with the accompanying wireframe providing visual context.

3.3 Design the Mockups

Once you’ve approved the wireframes, it’s time to work with your agency’s visual designer to create mockups. Mockups are static images that represent exactly how your website will look when it’s completed.

You’ll need to give your designer guidance on things like your logo, brand colours, and overall visual identity. They’ll then be able to create various designs for each type of page (known as ‘templates’). Using templates keeps your site’s visual design consistent and makes it easy to quickly apply site-wide changes.

Keep in mind that good design isn’t about ‘looking pretty’. Aesthetic appeal is part of a designer’s job, but they also need to enhance the impact of the copy, making it as easy as possible for users to accomplish tasks and get the information they need. When you provide design feedback, make sure you aren’t projecting your personal preferences – your website, after all, is for your ideal customers, not you.

After you’ve approved each mockup, the design should be considered complete. No further changes should be made for the rest of the build.

3.4 Develop the Staging Site

Now you know exactly what your website will say and what it will look like. It’s time to make it real.

During development, your agency’s web developers will build your website in your CMS of choice, either by manually coding it or by using a visual builder like Elementor.

You probably won’t be involved much at this stage. You’ve already approved everything at the copy and visual design stages – the developers will be working off detailed specification documents that tell them exactly what they need to do.

4. Test and Remediate

Well done – your site is practically completed. All the pages have been uploaded, all features have been developed, and the whole thing could, in theory, go live right now.

Like a newly built house, though, there’s still time to inspect it and request changes before you move in. At this point, any feedback should be focused on fixing defects – that is, errors and unapproved deviations from the copy documents/mockups.

Your agency will work with you to test all pages, forms, links and features across different devices. (Remember, your site needs to be mobile- and tablet-responsive.) It’s also a great idea to get someone who fits your ideal customer profile (ICP) to try out the website too. They’ll give you an idea of how your real-world customers will use it – and a pair of fresh eyes never hurts.

5. Launch Your Website

Once your agency has completed all required testing, your website is ready to enter the wilds of the internet. If you’re replacing an existing website, you can expect about 5 minutes of downtime as the cutover takes place.

6. Review and Optimise Your Site

Your agency will then spend an hour or two conducting post-launch testing to make sure all URLs and forms are working properly. They’ll also do things like check your analytics and tracking scripts and monitor your site’s indexability (or, for new sites, submit them to Google Search Console).

Once the launch has been fully validated, your agency will normally hand over your website’s logins. They’ll also generally give you a brief training session that teaches you how to do things like:

• navigate your site’s back end
• make minor changes to the copy (such as updating pricing)
• update plugins/apps.

7. Maintain Your Site

Building a website is gruelling. By the time you launch, it’s tempting to put your hands up and say, ‘Done. I don’t want to touch that for another 12 months.’ But, at the end of the day, a website is software. There’s no perfect end state. All sites are designed to evolve in response to user feedback, business changes, and competitive shifts.

That means you need to be committed to monitoring and maintaining your site. Install user tracking software like Microsoft Clarity to see how real humans interact with your pages. Talk to your customers to understand their digital experiences. Watch how your site performs in Google, ChatGPT, and other forms of search. Review each page every 12 months for correctness and completeness.

And that’s it. You now know how to build a website – and how to find an agency partner that doesn’t cut corners.

Good luck. Have fun. Make something your customers love.