It’s a wonderful thing to have the honor of helping a business owner with some part of their business. They already have the vision, and many times, when I get involved there is a clear outline of what they want to see happen. Occasionally, a business owner will have the work already funneling in, but they don’t have a concise and clear appearance or “storefront” whether brick and mortar or digitally speaking.
Either way, giving a business owner a “new look” or an upgrade to something existing is such an exciting project for me. It boosts my imagination and creativity that the client benefits from. Each project that I do, I can see the ideas flow freely and easier the more diverse the idea or approach to the job is.
My next client job is to upgrade an existing website and facilitate them changing host companies. Here is breakdown of what will be happening for them, and I will expand on this below.
- Setup new hosting package to begin building client website. (DONE!)
- Redesign website on new host server that allows WordPress. (IN PROGRESS)
- Review potential changes to critical design elements for client, like logo redesign or reimagining, stylizing, heavy focus on showcasing brands they carry, etc.
- Do final quality control on all pages of website, check links, test online forms or other interactive media.
- Gain final approval from client that site is ready to go LIVE.
- Submit ticket to old host company to “point” the domain name to the new nameservers.
Here are some details about the breakdown I have shared above.
First of all, this client was using a host company that is really structured for people and businesses who do not know how to design their own websites. It’s a good tool (not great) for someone who is going at it alone and just trying to put their information/business out there, but they kindof hold the person captive to a very limited resource for building websites. If this host company chooses, they do not have to update their program to allow for any other web builder options (like WordPress or Joomla!). Many times, they are using a builder that is seriously outdated by web standards, and the limitations of design choices can take someone back to the early 2000’s in appearance simply because the builder does not give the level of control to the designer/customer needed.
For some business owners, they just don’t want the headache of changing this or moving off of this server – so they just keep putting up with it. But its frustrating because they wish to make their digital storefront for their business better! If you find yourself in this scenario, never fear. It is a part of my services to assist with moving a client from a host company like this to one where there is more design freedom and the databases and servers are kept up-to-date with current web standards.
Moving on, I will be building this new client’s website on the new host server, not visible to the public yet. They need to keep their website active for potential new customers during the redesign/upgrade period. This is totally fine, and definitely can be done.
My recommendation was that they could keep their domain name with the current host company instead of also moving it. When you move the domain (your website address) to a new host company, it can slow down the process and changeover to a new site. Just keep domain protection, auto-renewal, etc. to protect your investment.
When you are building a new website (requires hosting, not a domain), then once your website is complete, it’s a simple task to “point” the domain name to the new website. Usually the change is almost instant, removing long periods of downtime for a website. It used to be that it would take several days for any changes like this to show up, and it was a waiting game for web designers to know if everything was going to work once it populated through the internet. But things have changed alot in the last 25 years or so, therefore the waiting period is significantly shorter.
Review time once a website design or redesign is done usually depends on the client and when they give their feedback. It can be just a few days before I hear back, or it can be several weeks. Usually this depends on the size of the website (larger sites take longer in review and quality control), the client availability, or whether it is urgent to their daily operations or not.
After review, and depending on how many edits or changes come to me from that, we can then move on to scheduling the site launch. Again, the swiftness of a site going live can depend on outside factors, i.e. submitting a ticket with the host company to redirect or point the nameservers to the new site, moving files from the FTP to the current hosted site. There are just so many ways and options to accomplish this, that’s why custom quotes are done by myself and I layout a custom plan of action for clients based on what they have shared, their needs, the urgency of the project, and so on.
I will be sharing more regarding this clients journey to an upgraded site, and also the challenges that can occur with website redesign. It’s a challenge I face head on, and do not let my clients go through alone.
