Have you ever tried to explain your web design job to your parents, only to find them looking lost and making a swift escape to the kitchen to ‘put the kettle on’? Website design and digital marketing is often tricky to explain to most people who remember a time when ‘desirable digital’ meant coveting a Casio calculator watch, and being ‘technical’ involved a spanner, a hammer or a few nuts and bolts.
Our award-winning digital marketing company, Relevance Realty, shares offices in London with cutting-edge website development company 542 Digital. They offer bespoke digital development when nothing else fits. They are used to explaining the way they work in layman’s terms.
Each project requires an integrated team of professionals, who work closely together on the construction to produce a functional, safe and attractive new build. Whether building houses or constructing websites, you need a good project manager to ensure all parts of the process flow smoothly and there’s good communication between all parties.
Phase 1: Design
An architect will scope the client’s requirements: the building’s intended purpose, local planning regulations and budget, before carefully creating a design. Research and due diligence are key.
Similarly, in web design, an information architect (the IA) will do the same. They will identify potential build solutions: hosting, content management systems, mobile solutions, ecommerce requirements and so on. Once the project is fully scoped, a web developer will work with the IA to specify the complete technical platform for the website build (also known as the backend); in other words, the ‘foundation’ for our metaphorical building. For smaller or simpler websites and projects, the IA and web developer are often the same person.
At the same time, web (UX) designers (UX = user experience) will begin to scope the requirements of the website from the visitor’s perspective, known as the front end. This is often the fun part from the client’s perspective, as it is akin to choosing the layout and design with the interior designer of our metaphorical building. Once everything is agreed, a front end developer will put it all together.
Phase 2: Structural Assessment
A good front end developer is akin to the role of a civil engineer. Using the most ‘up to date’ applied standards, a civil engineer will produce the technical consideration to ensure the building will be structurally sound; for example, that a bridge will take a heavy load. A front-end developer will take into account the user audience, coding standards, search engines and all the other things that are required to ensure the construction of a flexible website that is built for purpose, and built to last.
Phase 3: The Build
Similar to the cohort of contractors and labourers who help to build a property, a number of people will be recruited to produce the content, such as branding, SEO, writing, design work and photography. Depending on the project, and the requirements, the project manager will source the appropriately skilled people. Sometimes a company like Relevance might have them all under one roof.
Phase 4: Development
Once you have finalised the bricks and mortar, you have to focus on the sale. Most often, residential or commercial estate agents will use marketing, PR and profile enhancement and similar techniques are used to promote a new website or brand.
Phase 5: Interior Design
In order to market your website you also need to consider on-going SEO (Search Engine Optimisation to ensure that it can always be found and seen easily on search engines like Google), social media marketing (to develop your online presence and get people talking about your project), copywriting (so you sound credible), as well as blogging and online PR.
Relevance Realty is a digital marketing agency that specialises in designing and developing websites for property companies and intersecting industries. Our specialty is custom design, useable platforms, and organic growth. We have also developed a specialised Content Management System (CMS) for real estate companies, which has been specifically designed for Google search. We can provide all web marketing services such as content marketing, paid advertising, social and email marketing.
We have offices in London and Monaco with a multilingual team of digital marketing experts, designers & developers, and our portfolio of contented clients includes: Knight Frank, HouseTrip, Carlton International, La Costa Properties Monaco, Home Hunts, Hip Chalets, St Tropez House, Dynamic Lives.