How to build a luxury website
To give you an idea of how we work with clients, below is our 12-step process for creating a luxury website. This is why we take two to three times longer to build a website than our competitors.
1. Project Scoping
Scoping is the stage before we even sign you up as a client. It is essential for us to understand what you need (but more often - what you think you need).
We will have an in-depth conversation with you about your brand and business objectives - where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Then we create a proposal outlining the things we feel you need to achieve your goals.
Mostly we don’t charge for this work.
2. Content Gathering
The next stage is to gather and collate all your content - copywriting, photography, film, graphics, brochures, etc and determine which ‘gaps’ need filling.
Depending on the amount and quality of your photography we may also use strategic high quality stock photography to give the site context, particularly for background images.
Gathering content is more time consuming that you may expect as we need to sift through what we feel is appropriate and decide what we need to source or create.
3. Brand Asset Creation
Fresh copy, new photography and a refinement (or redesign) of your logo are some of the brand assets we may need to create for you that you may not have initially considered.
Remember, your website is only as good as its weakest link and whatever unique assets we need to create for you we will make sure it’s within your budget.
4. Web Page Design
Once we have all the raw materials for your website, we jump straight into design. Some agencies create wireframes. We don’t. We use the BDUF (Big Design Up Front) methodology, where we design first and iterate second. Our clients love this way of working because they can see progress straight away and then make changes as required.
Our website creators are a mix of designers and developers, but fundamentally they are luxury specialists. They know how HNWIs ‘tick’ and what they want to see when they land on your site. We create websites that your wealthy clientele will love, are easy to navigate and look stunning.
5. Coding / Development
Most of our websites are built on the Squarespace platform which is perfect for small to medium sized brands who want a bespoke, stunning online presence. You can find out why we think Squarespace is so great for luxury businesses here.
Every site is built from scratch and from the ground up - not from a template. Much of the code is ‘baked-in’ already and we then use our own custom code as needed. This means we can focus 90% of our time on the very best user experience and stunning design rather than coding.
Each site is fully responsive so that it looks great on all devices and is super easy for you or your staff to add content to. The result? Beautiful luxury websites that look and work like a Swiss Watch.
6. Content Uploading
Often digital agencies will design the minimum amount of pages required and then train their clients to upload their own content. In contrast, we build the whole site and upload all* of the content ourselves. We cannot expect our clients to make things look as good as we can so we ensure each website is fully populated with content.
*with the exception of eCommerce, blogging or luxury travel websites with LOTS of pages
7. Testing & Tweaking
Hundreds of devices. Countless operating systems. From phones and tablets (Apple, Android, etc) to Laptops and Desktops (Mac, PC, Linux, etc), each has a different resolution and we need to ensure that your site looks just as good on each device.
This is where testing comes in. We test your new website on many different devices and then make tweaks accordingly. It’s a bit of a balancing act but we lean towards optimising for Apple devices and high end PCs because we expect the customers who can buy from your luxury brand to be wealthy.
8. On-Page SEO
SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of making your site Google-friendly so that people can find you online for your chosen keywords. ‘On-page’ SEO is about including keywords and tags on your website and ‘off-page’ SEO is about the activities that bring traffic to your site from elsewhere (social media, articles, ads, etc).
We include on-page SEO with every website build and because we use Squarespace as our preferred web building platform, site speed (an important consideration for Google’s algorithm) is excellent, resulting in improved rankings across the board. The other benefit is that you can use Squarespace Analytics which is arguably much easier to interpret than Google Analytics.
9. Website & Domain Hosting
Once your site is built and tested we need to set up website hosting which we do exclusively through Squarespace (it’s how they make their money after all).
Squarespace hosting is very cost effective compared to most hosting packages considering the security and updates that are included. Prices range from £10 ($13) per month for a simple luxury brochure site to up to £30 ($38) per month for a full eCommerce website.
We will also need access to your domain name so we can point it to your new website. And if you don’t have one we can set this up in Squarespace for you as well.
10. Training
The once the site has been live for a few days and we have ironed out any creases we will then have a call with you and your team to explain how you can add / edit / delete content on your website.
Squarespace has a very intuitive CMS and within around 30 minutes we will have you editing text, adding images and creating blogs. Of course we are always on hand to guide you and offer full unconditional support for at least 3 months after launch.
11. Maintenance
Most websites require maintenance from time to time, particularly Wordpress. With a Wordpress website you will always need a web developer on hand to add security patches, install updates and perform backups.
With Squarespace however this is not necessary. Ever. Squarespace does all this for you automatically as part of your hosting package. This means that once we launch a Squarespace site our job is done and technically you don’t need us anymore - unless you want to add new pages.
12. Ongoing Support
We work differently from most agencies in that we don’t tend to charge for support outside our initial 3 month period. Yes you heard us right. And it upsets us when we hear of clients who have been ‘drip-fed’ charged by a previous agency or freelancer for making text changes, adding images, or fixing problems.
Our rule of thumb - if you have any changes that amount to around 30 mins work or less, we won’t charge you. In fact we may ask you to donate money to our preferred charity instead. Of course if you have bigger changes like adding new pages or section to your site then we will need to discuss a price but small tweaks are on us.