On of the most common questions we receive is about how long a site will take to launch. That’s tough to say, since a good deal of this process depends on our clients’ needs, schedule, and the amount of customization involved.
What we can do is show you how the process works and what you can expect.
Pre-purchase consultation
This no-obligation consultation is absolutely free and can be via phone or online. The purpose of this meeting is determining what you need in a site, when you need it, what package would work best for you and if any customizations would be involved. The goal here is for you to understand your options and determine how we can be helpful to you.
We will not try to hard sell you or send you spam afterwards. We will follow up once or twice at weekly intervals to ensure you don’t have any questions, but in general, we don’t do that creepy stalky thing. You do you.
Initial planning meeting
After you purchase a package, we will conduct an initial planning meeting to gather your design preferences, look at different layout options, discuss customizations and go over the free tools you can use to clarify your goals. You will also have some options about how the site is built and where you want us to launch it. By the end of this meeting, you will have a solid idea of what to expect though you may still be exploring some options. We encourage you to take all the time you need with this.
Scope meeting
At the scope meeting, we’ll be making the final decisions about how you want your site built, the colors, the fonts, the layout, and where you will want it hosted. It’s at this point that you will know exactly what to expect, how it will function, and the date it will be live. In a best case scenario, we will have all the images and copy you will want us to put in the site. If that hasn’t happened, no problem. We will build out the site using placeholder copy and images.
Buildout
During the buildout phase, your site is being programmed and tested. This can take anywhere from two days to a number of weeks, and this will have been discussed during the scope meeting. We strongly discourage making changes at this point because we have a pretty efficient workflow, and making changes now could affect the functionality of your site and push back the launch date. Most likely, any changes happening now will result in having another scope meeting and restarting buildout, possibly resulting in additional charges.
Follow-up meetings…
Depending on your package, you will have one more more follow-up meetings. This is where we make everything on the site “just so,” we train you on how to use your site, and you sign off on our launching it. If you want to try a different font or color, this is where your revision hours come into play. If everything has gone smoothly up to this point, there should be plenty of time to nip and tuck so you end up with a site you’re proud of.
… and beyond!
Our goal is to make sure you have everything you need to be successful. To that end, we have a Slack channel just for clients where you can log in and ask questions, troubleshoot issues, make long-range plans for your site, and more.
We also have maintenance packages available (where we keep everything up to date, make routine backups of your site and proactively handle little issues before they become big ones) and tech hour packages (if you want to add functionality to your site over time).