1. Define Your Purpose:

What's the dish you're serving up? Are you showcasing your photography portfolio, selling handmade crafts, or creating a hub for your local community gardening club? Understanding your website's goal will guide every decision you make, from design to content.

Basically website development process, technology selection, this vary on your purpose. If you want just a portfolio website that will not be too complex, it will require a simple development process. But on the other hand if you have a complex website having data automation , some online sale or some other use case than it need to be developed very carefully. So keep the gaol clear when discussing your requirement with a web development agency. 

2. Domain and Logo Selection:

Domain is something which help the people to find your website. Your domain name should be simple easy to spell. In some cases you can put search term as well in the domains. For example if you are running a food cafe in Delhi , you can keep the domain food + cafe + location (Delhi) + .com / .in etc. Such domains are ranked easy on search engines. 

The another important factor is logo section. Sometime we dont care too much about logo. But it give an identity to the brand, so logo selection should be carefully. Branding colours are defined based on the logo. 

3. Technology Selection:

Discuss with the developer what technology they are going to use in the website. Technology and website architecture is a very important aspect of the website. In case you are looking for a simple portfolio website than technology dont matter much as you just want to serve the content. But if you have some complex data flow than technology matters. 

4. Development Process:

Development process is very important. If you are investing a good amount of time and money in the website it is important what process is used in the website.

• Right documentation for the website pages, features and workflow 

• Mockup ui before starting the development, there are various tools available like Figma, Adobe XD etc.

• Unit testing is performed during development

• Git version control is managed during development

• It has been keept mobile responsive during development 

• A complete testing is after development

5. Embrace SEO:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is like the secret spice that makes your website discoverable. Research relevant keywords, optimize your content, and consider backlinking strategies to help your website climb the search engine rankings and attract organic traffic.

After development make sure basic seo is done by the development team. Make sure for following activities 

• On page seo activities has been completed 

• Meta data optimisation in the pages

• URL are seo optimised 

• Website is submitted to google with a sitemap

• Google analytics has been setup for website traffic monitoring 

• Robots file setup 

6. Server login access:

Make sure you have server login. Server has been purchased on your name, in case the development team has hosted in on their server, you should have server access. 

Also confirm about server configuration, location and type of server they are using. 

7. Consider Security:

Your website's security is paramount. Regular backups, strong passwords, and secure hosting are essential to protect your website and your visitors' information.

8. Website Handover:

Code backup is a very important step in website handover. In case of any data loss or unwanted situation you can recover the website from the source code. Usually source code should be keept on the Git. Git provide a cloud based code backup solution. You can also keep code backup on Google Drive or local computer.  

9. Integrate Analytics:

Track your website's performance with analytics tools. Understanding what works and what doesn't allows you to refine your strategy and optimise your website for better results. Also make sure enquiry forms are connected ot your email id. 

10. Embrace Maintenance:

Your website is a living entity. Regularly update your content, fix broken links, and stay informed about the latest website security threats.

These are some simple steps that should be taken care for a website development.