TO DEVELOP A BRANDED WEBSITE FOR BUSINESS TAKES MORE THAN JUST PROGRAMMERS. It takes marketing intelligence; a deep understanding of business and how it works; experience in brand and marketing communications; and breakout creative backed by leading-edge web technology. We create branded websites that are frontline strategy against the competition.
Click to view and enter password “upsc”
Click the image above to see our Website Design Interface and enter this password, “upsc”. This is our prototyping tool for client collaboration from rough wireframes through finished design. With fully interactive capabilities showing all linking in the design phase. This makes the process quicker, more cost-effective and puts all design reviews and approvals online where they belong.
We use “Agile” methodology—the industry standard development process—to manage web development so we can deliver concept-to-market websites in an efficient and timely manner. This method allows you to oversee development, give feedback early and often.
OUR APPROACH TO WEB DEVELOPMENT HANDLES ISSUES BEFORE THEY BECOME ISSUES.
Select a topic for an expanded description.
DISCOVERY
The initial meeting is an important part of our development process. We are skilled at asking the right questions and getting to the right information needed to create breakout websites.
- In depth client questionnaire and requirements analysis
- Project kick-off meeting to fully define detailed content and functionality needs and wants
- Determine the content management system
- Project management system in place
- Key team members assigned
- Interface with client side management systems developed
- Production schedule defined and tracking procedures in place
STRATEGY
To begin developing your new website, we research your stakeholders, market and target audience utilizing our proprietary “Strategic Tool Kit.” This allows us to build strategies that will help engage, capture, and convert.
- Brand profile
- Unique Sales Proposition
- Prospect Profile
- Key Consumer Insight
- Competitive business summary
- Brand positioning developed or validated
- Key basis for opportunity identified
- Approved branding strategy developed
- Creative brief stating objectives and goals
WIREFRAME
Wireframes are low-fidelity sketches of the website. They are used to create placeholders for content, establish priorities for elements on the page, and to document requirements. We collaborate with you to structure your website in the most effective way and this helps determine what features are most important for your website, what goals each group of users have, and what the most beneficial user experience would be.
- Interactive clickable wireframe mockups
- A site map and flow chart are visual organized models of a website’s content. It is an interactive table of contents in which each listed item links directly to its counterpart sections of the website.
- User experience developed
- Social, mobile and analytics integration strategy
CONTENT
Just as function monitors structure; content precedes design. Copywriting for the web is challenging: the content must be brief, easy to scan and engaging. It should also utilize keywords that are important for the business to aid with SEO.
- Research and discovery for full and complete data
- Interviews with all key stakeholders
- Complete company, product/service, market and competitive analysis
- Content outline and revisions
- Write and get approved finished copy for the complete website
DESIGN
From creative development to information architecture, user experience and final mockups, our design process encompasses the full development lifecycle. We ensure your website will work flawlessly on all platforms and devices using responsive web design, meaning your site will automatically fit any screen size whether users access it via a smartphone, PC or tablet.
- Comprehensive layouts are completed showing a variety of options
- User interface fully designed
- Finished site design showing all graphic pages in a basic interactive format
DEVELOPMENT
Every web project is a custom-tailored solution. But we understand that leveraging existing technologies is important, so will help you seamlessly integrate a wide variety of web and server-based software into your site depending on your needs. Our team lead will work with you to plan and provide a staging environment where you can monitor and approve each step of the ever evolving website.
- Developing the technology infrastructure
- Prototyping
- Template and page coding
- Qualifications and testing
PROTOTYPING
A prototype is an early-stage, interactive preview of the website in a browser. We use it to improve functionality, page load times and search engine visibility—all in an effort to ensure a smooth user experience. We also implement Google Analytics on every site we build to track performance and recommend improvements over time.
- Build the development framework; the technical architecture of the website implementing the best performance optimization strategy
CODING
All our websites are “responsive.” Think of responsive web design as a way to make your web content available to all emerging mobile devices through a single website. This includes additional steps at code level design to identify how the content should be served on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
- Code templates for each type of page, develop and test special features and interactivity
- Build in current SEO standards and analytics at code level
QUALIFICATIONS
Qualifications is more than testing. Our developers and usability experts not only test functionality but suggest improvements.
- Final cross-browser check
- Final cross-platform/device testing of all links and functionality
- Full client approval process
- Official launch of new websites
MAINTENANCE
A maintenance program is essential, and many companies cannot do this internally. All websites from corporate to retail ecommerce need to be maintained to keep them working properly, and to keep them compatible with the constantly changing technology and standards of the internet. Here are a few examples:
- Maintain correct website functioning
- Upgrade all elements of the website as an ongoing process to keep the technology current
- To create and maintain consistant security and virus prevention
- To guard against and handle spam and hackers
- To maintain email account security
- To increase SEO and page rankings
- To modify content on an as needed basis
- To configure, update and manage the hosting servers
WE EMPLOY COMPLEX TECHNOLOGY WITH ONE GOAL IN MIND. SIMPLICITY.
Web programming can be done in dozens of ways. We utilize leading edge standards.
Select a technology below see how we use a smart strategy that gives a competitive edge to our clients.
DIGITAL MARKETING
The Google Marketing Platform is a unified advertising and analytics platform that enables stronger collaboration for your marketing teams by building on existing integrations between DoubleClick and the Google Analytics 360 Suite. With Google Marketing Platform you can deliver faster smarter marketing.
CONTENT MANAGEMENT
At BLAIRCOMM we are WordPress experts. WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP—the programming language of choice for web development. It is arguably most powerful and fastest growing website Content Management System (or CMS) in existence today and is fully supported worldwide.
- WordPress is the most cost effective CMS available for companies of any size. It is “Open Source” and there is no financial commitment, yet it functions like a custom programmed CMS.
- The intuitive user interface allows clients to manage their own websites, but is capable enought for advanced IT team customization. It is easy to maintain and update.
- The platform is supported by advanced programmers at WordPress.org providing a state-of-the-art IT team free of charge.
- The technology is robust and used worldwide. This means it is a commercially viable platform business can rely on.
- There are milions of users worldwide keeping WordPress a constantly updated platfrom that is here to stay.
- It utilizes industry standard, advanced web technologies and there is knowledgable technical support readily available.
- There are add-ons and custom modules that provide nearly any function desired plug and play at a fraction of the cost of custom programming.
- WordPress supports one of the most widely used ecommerce platforms on the web: WooCommerce.
- It is secure enough for any applicaion across industries.
- It supports multi-website management and/or intranet management.
ECOMMERCE
WooCommerce powers over 28% of all online stores and is now the most popular eCommerce platform on the web. It is also the most customizable eCommerce platform for building your online business.
We are WooCommerce experts.
- Can be integrated into most client’s CRM system
- Fully customizable in look, feel and function
- Supported by expert WooCommerce developers at no cost
- In use worldwide for readily available experts
- Utilizes industry standard technology
- Utilizes fully secure transactions
CODE STRUCTURE
As most know, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the most basic building block of the Web. It describes and defines the content of a web page. As with most languages, there are many ways to use it—but ony a few really optimum ways. We have spent years developing a smart way to create with HTML and utilize its latest development stage.
- HTML poorly done can inhibit your SEO and block search engines from finding your website
- We structure pages so they can be indexed easily by all search engines
- Correctly done it can speed up your site’s loading times and help conversion rates
- It must be written so a stranger can look at it and understand exactly what to do
- The HTML has to be easy to maintain and keep up with web standards
- The mark-up has to be robust and bulletproof to protect you investment
WEBSITE STYLING
CSS is a language that describes the style of an HTML document. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It describes how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen and saves a lot of work and money. It can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once and can be written in many ways to achieve the same effect. Some however have hidden pitfalls that affect a website badly.
- Poorly written CSS can slow the website down significantly and lose conversions
- Good CSS is fast and efficient, achieves the desired resuls and gains conversions
- Correctly done is can be viewed exactly the same across browsers and devices, including mobile
- Advanced CSS compliments HTML and can achieve results replacing other technologies and make a site stand out
INTERACTIVITY & ANIMATION
JavaScript is the programming language of HTML and the Web. It allows us to modify just about every aspect of the page: content, styling, and its response to user interaction. In short: JavaScript is the main web language that provides interactivity to websites. Used correctly it gives a dynamic user experience that makes a site popular, used poorly it can ruin the reach and viewability of a business website.
- Good JavaScript is fast and nearly invisible to users
- Poorly done it can generate errors on screen and slow a website to a standstill or freeze it
- Bad JavaScript can prevent a website from loading entirely
- JavaScript can do nearly anything to create the dynamic user experience expected today on the web
ARCHITECTURE & FUNCTIONALITY
PHP is a widely-used open source scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It is the most popular scripting language on the web and used to enhance web pages giving them functionality for a dynamic user experience. We utilize PHP to its full extent using the best current practices in conformation with web standards.
- Bad PHP can slow or even freeze a website
- Well done PHP is fast and invisible to users providing complex functionality
- Outmoded or incorrect PHP can generate errors and crash the website
- It must be written so it is understandable to other progrmmers for ease of maintenance
WIREFRAME DESIGN
A website wireframe is a visual guide that represents the framework of a website. Wireframes are created to arrange elements for a particular purpose and to see how the finished website will look and function before developing it.
Today, a wireframe must not only show design, but functionality and interactivity. We utilize a wireframing, rapid prototyping, documentation and specification software tool to create realistic wireframes that clients can access and test online before actual web development begins.
It is our prototyping tool for client collaboration from rough wireframes through finished design. With fully interactive capabilities showing all linking in the design phase. This makes the process quicker, more cost-effective and puts all design reviews and approvals online where they belong.
PROTOTYPING
GIT is the most widely used modern version control system in the world today. Version control software allows you to have many versions of a project showing the changes that were made to the code over time, and allows you to backtrack if necessary and undo those changes. This ability alone – of being able to compare two versions or reverse changes, makes it fairly invaluable when working on larger projects. It is used in creating a prototype of the finished website, can be worked on by many people at once, and accessed by the client’s IT team for collaboration.
GIT mirrors the entire version history. Each developer always has a complete copy of everything. A central server is still used, but should the worst happen, then everything can still be restored from any of the stake holders who have the latest versions. Think of it as security in the midst of chaos.
MAINTENANCE & MANAGEMENT
Full website maintenance goes beyond updating copy and images, it increases the value of the corporate website as a financial asset. Internet technology is changing all the time, and Google updates its unfathomable rules, algorithms and requirements frequently. Not keeping current is not an option if you want to compete. We maintain highly organized, secure digital asset management for our clients with redundant backup of everything both locally and in the cloud. All code is kept up to date and current with the latest internet and Google technology to ensure the website is efficient and ranked well in search. Some , but not all, of the technologies we utilize are:
- PLESK – server management
- C-PANEL – server management
- RANK MATH – SEO
- SUCURI SECURITY – website security firewall
- SOLID BACKUPS – backup and archiving system
- IDRIVE – Cloud backup system
- AWS – Cloud backup and digital asset management
- WORDFENCE SECURITY – Website firewall and security
- YOAST – SEO
- GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE – A Google developer tools
- GIT DEVELOPERS – Contributing writer
- Many more…
