The steps to build a website, from the idea to launch

1. Define the goal and the visitors

What should the site do: generate calls, quote requests, bookings, sales? Who is it for, and what are these people looking for when they arrive? The answers guide all the following steps.

To prepare: the list of your services, your typical customers and two or three sites you like.

2. Choose the domain name and hosting

The domain name is your address on the internet. Choose one that is short and easy to say out loud, and have it registered in your name, even if your provider takes care of the booking. A .fr most often costs around fifteen euros per year. Hosting depends on the chosen technology: a static site can be hosted for free, a WordPress site needs suitable hosting.

To prepare: two or three domain name ideas.

3. Build the site structure

The structure is the site’s plan: which pages, in what order, with what links between them. This is the time to decide on one page per service, any local pages or a guides section.

The showcase site guide lists the essential pages, and the packages on the home page specify what each type of site includes.

4. Prepare the content

Texts, photos, logo, customer reviews, projects: this is often the longest step, and the one that makes the quality of the site. Texts written for your customers, with the words they use, serve both the visitor and SEO.

To prepare: your photos, your texts or your notes, which we can rework together.

5. Approve a mockup

Before developing, a mockup shows what the main pages will look like: layout, colours, typefaces. We adjust at this stage, when changes are quick.

6. Develop the site

The site is built page by page, with clean code, headings and descriptions for each page, and markup readable by Google. The planned features, such as online booking or the form, are integrated.

7. Test on every screen

Phone, tablet, computer, different browsers: everything is checked, as well as display speed, forms and links. Orbitoile’s live test measures any site the same way: it is the standard I apply.

8. Go live and submit the site to Google

The site is published on its domain name, then submitted in Google Search Console with its sitemap. This is what lets Google discover all the pages quickly. Google’s SEO starter guide describes this process.

One limit to know about: on a brand new domain name, Google can take several weeks to index all the pages. In the first days, Search Console often shows pages as “crawled, currently not indexed”. This is common. You can request indexing of each page with the URL inspection tool, then give Google time to come back.

Also think of the legal notices, mandatory for a professional site: the list is in the guide legal notices of a website and on Service-Public.fr.

9. Monitor and improve

A site is never really finished. The first weeks show which pages attract visitors and on which searches. We adjust, we complete, and your local visibility builds up in parallel: the guide local SEO in Lyon details how.

How long does it take to build a website?

The timeframe depends mostly on the availability of the content and the number of pages. Here are the lead times I announce, counted from receipt of your texts and photos:

The actual lead time also depends on your feedback on the mockup: a quick approval saves several days. A site with a shop or booking needs more development and testing, and the price of building a site follows the same logic. My way of working is summarised in the four-step method on the home page.