Why WordPress
WordPress is a free, open source content management system (CMS) written in the PHP and JavaScript languages. It powers more than 31% of the top 10 million sites on the web and is actively developed by a voluntary community. Square Digital has years of experience developing and maintaining high-quality websites on WordPress.
As an open source project, WordPress benefits from a widely distributed developer community working to improve the software. New features, performance improvements, and security patches are constantly introduced, and a frequent release cycle ensures improvements are always available. WordPress also has a strong commitment to backwards compatibility, cutting down the cost of website. WordPress’ boasts a huge community of users and many people are already familiar with the interface, reducing the time required to onboard new users.
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The key to delivering a great website requires a solid understanding of client needs. We break our development process down to six key stages, employing a hybrid agile project management approach.
During this project kickoff, we sit down with your team in person or via Skype, to gather details for the project on a granular level. At this point, we will break down the project timeline with milestones, coordinate asset access, and finalize the statement of work.
After our kick-off meeting, our team will draft a sitemap with SEO in mind. This outlines how the user will navigate the website and how search engines will crawl the content. We then outline the UX (User Experience) of each page template with functionality, showing how this affects the user journey.
The wireframes are often considered the “blueprint” of a website. During this phase, we begin sketching out each page and the modules in a crude format digitally, also known as “low fidelities.” As we progress through this phase, your team will see a “prototype” of your website come to life via the InvisionApp.
After we lock in the low fidelity wireframes, we begin the UI (User Interface) design phase. Our team takes the wireframes and begin designing “high fidelity wireframes” by adding images, colours, placeholder copy, and typography in line with your approved brand guidelines.
Once high fidelities are approved for production, we move into the development phase. Our designers hand over the designs to our developers who begin coding and building the technical infrastructure within the WordPress CMS. This is where your website comes to life.
Our developers will release fully developed pages to you on a staging environment as they each become available. At this point, you will be able to see and test your website on a beta staging website, as the team populates your website with final copy and imagery.
After fixing any bugs, we prepare to deploy your website onto a live URL. Our developers will arrange hosting, DNS records, archive your old website, and prepare an SEO migration so you don’t lose rankings. Once your team gives us the green light, we deploy your new website to the world wide web!
WORDPRESS COMPARED TO OTHER CMSs
Open Source
Unlike most enterprise CMSs, WordPress is open source software: it can be used by anyone for free. Open source software benefits from continuous improvement by anyone in the world, and the open nature of its codebase makes WordPress one of the highest reviewed pieces of software in the world.
Secure
WordPress’ codebase is regularly audited by a large community of expert volunteers and professionals. Unlike closed source software, WordPress is publically reviewed by thousands of developers worldwide, significantly limiting security issues.
Expandable
WordPress includes comprehensive theme and plugin APIs, which allow for extreme flexibility. There are currently over 50,000 free plugins and over 2,500 free themes. With the full flexibility of the theme and plugin APIs, WordPress can integrate with any other software.
Working with a variety of small to medium-sized business, means that we understand that you have to stick to your budget. We offer tiered pricing, designed to fit within the most modest budgets.
The bronze tier is for clients on a lean budget, who need help getting their business online and are willing to do some of the work themselves. This tier includes a crash course in WordPress giving you the knowledge and skills needed to make web pages and content edits yourself.
The silver tier is for clients who want to be more hands-off during the creation of the website and need a fully functioning website upon delivery, but are still cautious of price. These websites are often developed from existing templates that cut down on our developers’ time/cost.
The gold tier is our fully bespoke web build service. We spend time strategizing, designing, and developing completely customized modules and web pages. This tier is for clients who want a website that stands out from the rest, is scalable, fine-tuned for business needs, optimised for SEO, and fully deployed with content/imagery populated.
With 10+ years of WordPress experience, your satisfaction with your website is our primary goal!