Website Development Process: 8 Steps From Brief to Launch

Brief and discovery

Week 1 · 2 to 4 days

Everything later depends on this step, and it's the one people most want to rush. A good agency will ask you:

• What should a visitor do on the site? Call, send a WhatsApp message, book, or buy.
• Who are they, and what do they search for before they find you?
• Which two or three competitor sites do you like, and what annoys you about them?
• What's the budget, and is there a real deadline, like a product launch or an exhibition?
• Who on your side approves things? One person is best.

What comes out is a one-page brief and a fixed quote. If nobody can say in one sentence what the home page should get people to do, the brief isn't finished yet.

Sitemap and wireframes

Weeks 1 to 2 · 3 to 5 days

A sitemap at this stage is simply the list of pages and how they link together. The XML sitemap you give to Google comes later, at launch. A wireframe is a rough layout of each page in grey boxes: where the heading goes, where the enquiry form sits, and what shows first on a phone.

This is the cheapest point to change your mind. Moving a section on a wireframe takes minutes. Moving it after the page is built can take hours.

It's also where you decide what each page is for in Google. Give every search term one page, because two pages chasing the same term end up competing with each other. We learnt that on our own site. In 2026 we had three pages all aimed at web design in Jaipur, and they kept getting in each other's way in search results. Two of them now redirect to the third, and we're still sorting it out.

Content

Weeks 2 to 4 · runs alongside design

This is the step that slips. Content means every word, photo and file that goes on the site, and most of it has to come from you, because only you know your prices, your team and your customers.

Write it before the design is finished, not after. A design drawn around dummy text looks lovely until your real 600-word service page goes in, and then the layout falls apart. If writing isn't your thing, pay for a copywriter. It usually costs less than three extra weeks of a half-finished site. The full list of what to hand over is further down this page.

Design

Weeks 2 to 3 · 1 to 2 weeks

The designer draws the home page and one inner page first, usually in Figma. Once you approve those, the other pages follow the same style. Agree in the quote how many rounds of changes are included. Two rounds is common.

Ask to see the phone version first. In September 2026, 77.3% of web traffic in India came from mobile phones, according to StatCounter. A layout that only works on a wide screen is built for less than a quarter of your visitors.

Check the colours as well. The WCAG accessibility guidelines ask for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text, which rules out light grey text on white. If you don't have a logo or brand colours yet, get your logo and brand design done before this step starts. Design on its own usually costs ₹15,000 to ₹60,000 for a full business website.

Development

Weeks 4 to 6 · 2 to 3 weeks

Now the approved design becomes working pages. The developer sets up the platform (WordPress, Shopify or custom code), builds each page template, connects the forms and adds your content.

Good agencies build on a staging link, which is a private copy of the site that only you and they can see. You should get that link early and be able to click around while the work is going on, not just at the end. If you chose a CMS website, this is also when you get a short training session on editing pages and adding blog posts. Ask for it to be recorded.

Speed gets decided here more than anywhere else. Google's Core Web Vitals ask for the main content to appear within 2.5 seconds, the page to respond to a tap within 200 milliseconds, and a layout shift score of 0.1 or less, which means the page doesn't jump around while it loads. Whether you build on a ready-made theme or a fresh design also affects speed. We compared the two in our post on template vs bespoke websites.

Testing and sign-off

Weeks 6 to 7 · 3 to 5 days

The agency tests first, then you do. Don't skip your turn. You'll spot a wrong price or an old phone number faster than any developer will. Things worth checking yourself:

• Every form, by sending a real enquiry and checking it reaches the right inbox or WhatsApp number.
• The site on an ordinary Android phone over mobile data, not just on office Wi-Fi.
• Chrome, Safari for iPhone users, and one other browser.
• Every phone number, email address and map pin.
• Page speed, using Google's free PageSpeed Insights.
• Alt text on images and the order of headings, which screen readers rely on.

Once you're happy, sign off in writing. That's often the point where the remaining payment falls due.

Launch

Week 7 · 1 day

Launch day is mostly a checklist:

• Point the domain at the new hosting and check it opens with and without "www".
• Install the SSL certificate so the site opens on https.
• Switch off the "noindex" or "Discourage search engines" setting used on staging. It's easy to forget, and it keeps the whole site out of Google.
• Add 301 redirects from every old page address if you're replacing a site.
• Submit the XML sitemap in Google Search Console and set up Google Analytics.
• Check every file path against the live server before copying anything across.

Launch early in the week and early in the day, so there's a full working day to fix whatever breaks. If you're replacing an older site, read our notes on website redesign first, because redirects are where a lot of the old site's Google traffic is either kept or lost.

After launch

Every month

A website isn't finished at launch. For the first month, open Google Search Console every week and see which pages Google has found and which it hasn't. On 29 September 2026, Search Console showed that Google didn't know about 122 of the 244 URLs on Lume Loam, one of the online stores we work on for Dekulture, and its weekly impressions had dropped from about 150 to about 20 since 13 September.

After that, the routine is simple. Back up weekly, update the platform and plugins, renew the domain and hosting, and keep adding content. Plan ₹5,000 to ₹12,000 a year for domain, hosting and email.

One rule to plan for now: if your forms collect names, phone numbers or email addresses, India's DPDP Act applies to you. Under the DPDP Rules notified on 13 November 2025, the duties on notice and consent apply from 13 May 2027, so it's worth adding a clear consent line to every form while the site is being built. Our post on data privacy myths and facts covers the basics.