How do we at Hurja create effective WordPress websites for businesses?

In this blog post, we’ll go through how we at Hurja create functional WordPress websites for businesses and what steps we take in the WordPress development process.

A company’s website is the cornerstone of its entire digital presence, and its primary purpose is to help achieve the company’s business objectives. A successfully implemented company website attracts the right people; visitors find what they are looking for and carry out the actions the company wants them to (making contact, making a purchase, etc.). It must also be possible to edit the website and maintain its content easily in future, without the need for intermediaries. A functional website is therefore much more than just a pile of code!

It is worth carrying out a needs assessment and specification carefully

It all starts with a needs assessment. The most important thing in a needs assessment is to start by considering your company’s objectives: what do you want to achieve through your company’s website? Consider, for example, how extensive the site needs to be, and how much and what sort of content and functionality is required. Also think about the purpose of your site – in other words, what you want visitors to do while on it.

What if the objectives of your company’s website are still unclear? – Don’t worry, we can also help you assess your needs!

Once a thorough needs assessment has been carried out and the objectives are clear, it is possible, on that basis, to draw up a proper specification for the project covering the content, scope and required functionalities of the service. Remember to also consider any additional services. Such services might include, for example, sourcing suitable stock images for the website, search engine optimization (SEO), analytics, content production, integrations with the company’s other systems, and so on. Thanks to its flexibility, a WordPress website is an excellent choice for a business, particularly when considering the factors mentioned above.

Website design

The design phase begins once we have agreed with you to start the website project and the initial specification phase has been completed. Website design covers the visual, structural and technical design of the layout and features. Page and menu structures, content structures and hierarchies, as well as functionalities implemented using technical solutions, are designed and built according to your requirements. The design of the website’s layout can be carried out either in line with existing graphic guidelines or as a standalone project.

Check out the websites and online stores we’ve built!

Website content strategy and content production

Particularly in larger website projects, it is advisable to draw up a content plan during the design phase, which will then serve as the basis for creating a wireframe during the user experience (UX) design process. The plan should include, at a minimum, a site map detailing the required pages, images, text, language translations, downloadable materials and so on. Your company’s website content plan ensures that all necessary content is taken into account when designing the wireframe and provides a potential todo list for content production regarding any missing content.

Content production is an essential part of a website project, as the most important thing when developing a website is to put the users first. The site must contain the content your customers need to progress through the purchasing process, and it must serve users in such a way that the necessary information can be found quickly and easily. Furthermore, Google’s algorithms favor pages where users can find the most informative content, so good search engine visibility is not possible without high-quality content either.

In website projects, content production is, unfortunately, often the very stage where the workload is underestimated – and the whole project may grind to a halt at this point if content production is left entirely to the client. At Hurja, we’re here to help you in this area too, drawing on our own expertise and that of our partners! Content production can involve writing website copy tailored to a company’s needs, and the written narrative can be complemented by images and other visual elements.

UX and UI design

User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are crucial to the success of a website, as usability is one of the most important features of any site. UX and UI design ensure that the graphical appearance of the user interface is both visually and technically functional and that it meets the objectives set for it. This guarantees that your company’s website will be user-friendly.

A top-class user interface designer always possesses graphic design skills and expertise in web development. This ensures that the user interface’s visual design is both visually and technically effective, and that the company’s WordPress website meets its set objectives.

High-quality technical implementation ensures a fully functional WordPress website for your business

The technical implementation phase of WordPress development is all about clean coding! Through high-quality technical implementation, we ensure that your company’s WordPress website functions smoothly. Once the coding has progressed far enough, you can preview the site being built on the WordPress platform at your leisure, away from prying eyes. The preview allows you to monitor the website’s progress at the earliest possible stage and to discuss any changes you’d like with your dedicated contact person, even while the development is still underway.

One of the best things about developing WordPress sites is that the platform’s developer community is so extensive. Open source code is a brilliant way to create a content management system that scales to suit many different purposes and doesn’t get stuck in its development.

WordPress works very well as a platform for websites of various sizes, and sites can be built on it in a variety of styles. Generally speaking, however, there are two main ways to build a WordPress site: building a site using a ready-made WordPress theme purchased from a third party, or coding a completely bespoke, customized theme for the site. We use the latter approach, particularly for larger website projects, as this allows us to create a website that precisely meets the client’s needs, without being constrained by the limitations of a third-party theme. This also ensures, for example, fast loading speeds, as there are no extra features or unnecessary code that often slows down ready-made themes.

However, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when building a bespoke theme, provided you use ready-made, modern tools that speed up and streamline the development of WordPress sites. Below are the frameworks and tools we commonly use, particularly for larger website projects where a completely bespoke theme is implemented.

WordPress theme templates

A theme is a design coded into WordPress that determines how
the site appears to visitors. We generally use Sage, a so-called WordPress starter theme, as the basis for our unique WordPress themes. This streamlines the start of WP development and enables the efficient coding and further development of a custom theme. You could think of WordPress as the foundation of a house and Sage as the framework – once the foundation and framework of the house are already in place, building the walls and other surfaces goes much faster.

Working with Sage is safe, as its documentation provides clear guidance on matters such as dependencies and pre-installed tools. Sage remains technologically up to date, as it is constantly being developed. The Roots development team behind Sage provides excellent support in the event of problems, and Sage’s official developer forums and discussion boards are also available to help if needed. Sage is developer-friendly and does not contain any unnecessary components or unclear instructions that might confuse WP developers or slow down their work.

WordPress plugins

Using plugins, it is possible to build a range of value-adding features into a WordPress site. Plugins can be used to extend a website’s functionality with features such as contact and feedback forms. Plugins can also be coded entirely to meet the client’s specific needs – for example, in the Apetit website project, the product management system was built as a customized plugin. We use them in most

In our WordPress website development projects, we use certain tried-and-tested ready-made plugins, such as:

• Gravity Forms – Creating online forms
• Yoast SEO – A guide to search engine optimization for your website
• Polylang – Implementing multilingualism on a website
• Redirection – Internal redirects on the website
• WP Rocket – A caching plugin for optimizing website loading times and content

Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) enables the creation of additional features tailored to the theme’s design as Gutenberg-compatible blocks, making content management clear and user-friendly for the website administrator. Using the additional fields that can be built into the site’s admin view, it is possible – in addition to standard content and blocks – to create fully customizable and organizable internal page structures, or to provide users with a choice of additional content, which can be any other content found on the site.

A WooCommerce plugin for setting up online stores

The WooCommerce plugin is the most common and best option for setting up an online stores on the WordPress platform. It offers a wealth of add-ons that extend the functionality of your online store, as well as support for all common payment and delivery methods. WooCommerce is a versatile and scalable e-commerce solution, and, like WordPress, it is constantly being developed.

Testing and publishing the website

The testing and launch phase includes final testing, fine-tuning the details and, for example, optimizing performance prior to launch. Once the pages are ready in terms of layout, functionality and content, and you have approved them, the website will be published at the agreed time on the domain name of your choice.

Project Management

Project management includes, among other things, ensuring that the project progresses according to plan, communication during the project, and joint meetings between the client and the team. Project management is one of the most significant factors in the success of a website project, as it ensures the project starts and progresses as planned, and that all parties involved are kept fully informed of the progress. Project management therefore ensures that your company receives a fully functional, high-quality WordPress website!

Maintenance

Once a company’s WordPress website has been built and published, it is transferred to a web server for hosting, where it is available to internet users around the clock. The purpose of the hosting service selected for the website is to keep the site up and running, up to date and serving its intended purpose with the best possible uptime. At a minimum, website maintenance services offered by various providers include server space and other server resources required by the site, i.e. web hosting. However, effective maintenance requires more than that.

As well as ensuring reliable server maintenance, it is also worth making sure that the website remains technically up to date – particularly if it is built on an open-source content management system such as WordPress. Due to the continuous development of the content management system, a WordPress site requires regular maintenance to ensure it remains fully functional and that, for example, the use of outdated versions does not compromise the site’s security. It is therefore of the utmost importance to ensure the website is properly maintained after it goes live!

So, if you need a new WordPress website for your business or your existing site needs updating, please get in touch!