Last Updated on November 19, 2020
The best practice is to set a ‘go live’ date with your web designer and stick to it! Make sure your online date is realistic though. Can you really provide the information to your web designer within the time frame they need to format it? Talk with your web designer about their production schedule, can they get your website online within the deadline?
Once you have set a goal, keep working towards it with your team. Make sure you provide the information to your web designer in a timely and complete manner. That way they can keep to the website deadline and production schedule. Remember, web designers have other clients, so if you are late with providing any of your content they may have to push your launch date out. Also, there is nothing more frustrating as a web designer, than being drip feed content, or discovering that some of the content provided was not meant for the web site!
To keep on top of the website project the following milestone dates should be observed:
- The date you are expected to have provided a completed design brief and site flowchart
- The date you will have the final content to the designer (images, and page contents).
- Date the designer will have the first draft design to you
- The date the designer expects you to sign off the design or provide changes by
- The date the designer will provide an amended design to you
- The date you will see a final draft of the website
- The date the web designer would like you to sign off the final site or provide changes by
- The date the web designer will complete your requested changes by
- The date the website will go live
- The date the site will be submitted to the search engines
- Date the website will be audited for search engines, website visitors and enquiry numbers
- If you have a more complex website with a lot of custom programming work, there will be separate milestones for the testing, completion and sign off of each of these extra features.
Reasons for Delay
The Number 1 reason for delay is content! The majority of people struggle with preparing the content for their website. Though your web designer will be a highly skilled person, most will not write the content for you (unless they have copy writing services). Life and events can also get in the way of getting a website live – if you’re having to deal with running a business at the same time then it’s all too common for the website to be at the bottom of your list of priorities (much to your web designers frustration by the way!).
