One of the most common frustrations business owners have with web agencies is the black box. You hand over a brief, things happen in the background, and eventually something appears. Sometimes it's what you wanted. Often it isn't.
I think transparency here is a competitive advantage - for both sides. When you understand the process before the project starts, expectations are aligned, fewer rounds of revision are needed, and the final site is better. So here's exactly what I do.
Phase 1: Discovery (Week 1)
Every project starts with a structured discovery session. Not a vague 'tell me about your brand' call - a specific set of questions designed to extract the decisions that will shape the entire build:
- Who is the site for? Which specific customer types need to be persuaded?
- What action should visitors take, and in what order?
- What does your current site do well that must be preserved?
- What is the single most important business problem the new site needs to solve?
- What does success look like, numerically, 6 months after launch?
I also run a technical audit of your current site at this stage: performance scores, SEO baseline, analytics review, content inventory. This shows what the project is working with and where the biggest opportunities are.
Output: a discovery document that defines scope, success metrics, and the core content strategy for the new site. You review and sign off before I write a single line of code.
Phase 2: Architecture and Design (Weeks 2-3)
Before design, I map the information architecture: what pages exist, how they connect, what the user journey looks like at each stage. Most agencies skip this step. I don't, because a beautiful design on a poorly structured site is still a poorly performing site.
Design begins with wireframes - structural layouts without visual styling. This keeps reviews focused on 'does this content hierarchy make sense?' rather than 'I don't like that shade of blue.' Once structure is approved, I apply your brand system.
Design work happens in Figma. You can comment directly on designs in real time. There's no emailing screenshots back and forth. Feedback loops are fast.
I also define the component library at this stage: the reusable building blocks (hero sections, card grids, testimonial layouts, CTAs) that make up every page. This makes future content updates faster and ensures visual consistency automatically.
Phase 3: Development (Weeks 3-6)
I build on Next.js with a headless CMS (typically Sanity). This is a deliberate technical choice with business consequences:
- Performance: Pages are pre-rendered and served from a global CDN. Load times are typically under 1 second. Google rewards this directly in rankings.
- Security: No public-facing admin panel, no plugin vulnerabilities, no PHP execution. The attack surface specific to a dynamic CMS with a plugin ecosystem is not present in this build.
- Maintainability: The codebase is clean, documented, and built to last. No coupled theme code paths. No plugin compatibility surface to manage. Engineers you hire in two years can read and modify it.
- Editorial experience: Your team edits content in Sanity's structured editor. It's faster and more predictable than WordPress's block editor, and content can be structured for reuse across pages.
Development happens in two phases: first the core architecture (CMS schema, page templates, component library in code), then content integration (filling templates with real content, building page-specific layouts, QA across all devices and browsers).
You have access to a staging environment from week 3 onwards. This is a live, functional preview of the site at every stage of development - not a static screenshot or mockup. You can click through it, test forms, and review on mobile before anything goes live.
Phase 4: Content and Copy (Weeks 4-5, parallel)
Content is often the longest-lead item in a website build. I handle this in two ways depending on project scope:
Client-supplied content: You get a detailed content brief for each page - exactly what to write, how long, and in what format. This brief is generated from the discovery session and based on keyword research and competitive analysis. You write it; I edit and structure it for the web.
webvise-written content: For projects where copywriting is part of the scope, I interview key stakeholders, review existing sales materials, and write page copy that's optimized for both search and conversion. I've found that copy written with both SEO intent and persuasion strategy outperforms generic AI-generated or template content significantly.
Content development runs parallel to development - the CMS gets filled while the templates are built. This keeps the timeline tight.
Phase 5: QA and Launch Preparation (Week 6)
Before anything ships, the site goes through a systematic quality checklist:
- Performance audit: Target PageSpeed scores: 90+ on mobile and desktop where content weight and third-party scripts allow.
- Cross-browser and cross-device testing (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge; iPhone, Android, tablet, desktop)
- All forms tested end-to-end - submission, confirmation, and email delivery
- SEO checklist: title tags, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, sitemap, robots.txt, structured data
- Analytics verified: GA4, Search Console, conversion goal tracking all firing correctly
- Content proofread: headlines, body copy, CTAs, legal pages, all locales if multilingual
- Redirect map: every old URL that mattered maps to the correct new URL
Nothing launches without passing this checklist. I've seen too many sites go live with broken forms, missing analytics, or no redirects - all problems that silently cost the business money from day one.
Phase 6: Launch and Handover (End of Week 6)
Launch day is scheduled at a low-traffic window. I monitor the site for the first 24 hours and keep a rollback plan ready. That rollback plan has stayed unused in production to date, but it is always there.
After launch you receive:
- A recorded walkthrough of how to use the CMS for content updates
- Documentation of the component library (what exists and how to use it)
- The full design file in Figma
- Access to all accounts: hosting, analytics, Search Console, CMS
- A 30-day post-launch support window for any issues that surface in production
What Happens After Launch
Most clients continue the collaboration in one of two ways: a monthly retainer for ongoing content, SEO, and development work, or an as-needed arrangement for specific projects as they come up. Retainers are never required - the work should speak for itself.
Clients on retainer also get monthly performance reports: organic traffic trends, Core Web Vitals, ranking movements, and conversion rate data. Not vanity metrics - the numbers that connect to business outcomes.
Is This Process Right for You?
This process works best for businesses that:
- Are investing in a website seriously - not looking for the cheapest option
- Want to understand what they're getting and why each decision was made
- Have a clear business goal the new site needs to support
- Are ready to participate in discovery and content review (it requires 3-5 hours of your time total)
If you're currently on WordPress and not sure whether your site is performing as well as it should, start with a free analysis. The tool checks your Core Web Vitals, PageSpeed score, and technical health in 60 seconds. Run it at webvise.io/wp-health-report - from there, get in touch for a specific conversation about what a new build would look like for your situation.