The Process of Building a WordPress Site

WordPress has really taken the development world by storm in the last 5 or so years. It’s grown from a relatively small blogging platform to one of the most versatile and easy to access content management software in the world. Its capabilities, flexibility, customizability, and support have driven us to begin using it for most of our projects in the last year or two. It takes a few extra steps, but it’s well worth it. Here’s how the process would go if you decided to buy a WordPress website from us.

Step 1: You tell us what you need

First step of any good process is listening to what you, the client needs. We find out exactly what kind of content you want, what functionality you need, what timeframe you’re on, and what kind of websites/elements that you like.

Step 2: Val creates an awesome design

Val will then take all of that information and create some amazing mock ups of some pages on the website for you. Once you have a chance to look at the mockups, you’ll get back to us with some revisions and we’ll hone in even closer on the perfect site for you. This is your chance to really perfect the look and feel of the site that you’ll have for the next several years.

Step 3: Build the framework out of PHP/CSS

At this point, we just have a design in a Photoshop file. We’ll take that file and turn it into a working home page and content format page. These are pages with dummy content and are pure code – you wouldn’t be able to edit a thing at this point in the process. The reason we do this is that it separates any potential problems with WordPress from problems in our base code and ensures that the “foundation” of your website is solid as a rock.

Unfortunately, this can be the longest part of the process so don’t get too anxious!

Step 4: Put theme into WordPress

Since WordPress is so dynamically-oriented, we can take those two simple pages we’ve built and turn it into a whole site worth of pages, whether you have 10 or 100 pages. We do this by converting all of the code that we used to build your framework into WordPress hooks in PHP. So, your statically-coded title tag turns into a dynamic hook such as “get_the_title()” so that you have the power to change it on every single page individually. We do our best to make the site as dynamic and easy to edit as possible.

We’ll also go through every pixel of the website and ensure that it’s absolutely perfect and ready for the content. This is our testing stage to ensure that the base functionality of the site is in perfect working order.

Step 5: Add plugins, content, and a little bit of magic to make it all work

After we have the theme all built out and your base, frame pages inserted we’ll start adding your content. We add a custom selection of powerful plugins to add the greatest amount of functionality to your site. This includes SEO, caching, Google maps, sliders for the homepage, etc. All of these plugins extend the site with the least amount of work from your end and have the ability to stay updated with the latest and greatest specs.

Step 6: Testing

This is your chance to go through and see everything on the site. You’ll be able to test out all of the ins and outs of your website and get a “sneak preview” before anyone else. We’ll change out content, go through a couple rounds of edits and at the end you’ll be ready to take the site live.

Step 7: Tada! You have a working site

This is the fun part! You finally get to show your website to all of your family, friends, and customers who have been hearing about the site for months. We’ll point your domain name over to us (if we’re hosting) and get all of the email and other features of the site set up.

Back to All Insights

Brittany Mathisen

2023-09-27

OTM has been a wonderful marketing partner for the last four years. We have shifted marketing plans over time and they are very open and explained all the details as we moved forward with new plans. They have done everything from help design and update offices, managed social media, planning marketing events, and many more things. The Hear for Holidays Event that we do each year is one of my favorite events that we work on together. Rachel and the whole OTM team have brought my marketing vision to life and I love everything they have done for my business. I look forward to what the future holds as we continue to work together.

Yvonne Myers

2023-07-30

I worked with Old Town Media (OTM) on a quick grant project that had a 6-week timeline. They were very thoughtful about whether they could meet the grant expectations and needs before accepting the work. The team at OTM then completed extensive research and facilitated focus groups to ensure the product they created met the needs of the end-users. They met all of the grant deadlines and far exceeded our expectations of the portal they created for us! I would not hesitate to use their services again and highly recommend them to others looking for a professional, high quality, and FUN team to work with.

Julie Dokoupil

2023-07-18

OTM is a locally owned firm that I have worked with for over 13 years. They are an amazing team of people who know and understand current marketing technology and strategies. My husband and I are starting a new business and they have helped us out even with small details to get our business going.

TunDesign

2023-06-20

I have seen a significant increase in community engagement which has helped bolster our brand presence, exceeding the expectations of the entire team. Carrie and her team provides consistent communication through slack and emails which has led to an effective and trusted partnership. Truly appreciate how hard-working, agile, and driven everyone on the team is. Thanks again for eveything your team has done for our company.

David Haase

2023-06-07

OTM has done a fantastic job bringing the Fort Collins Peach Festival back to the public! OTM is dealing with several volunteers on a committee and keeping everyone informed, best in business advice and a platform that will serve us for years. We didn't know what we needed and were presented with choices and educated about each before implementation. Kerrie and Brianna have done great work for us! Dave Haase Committee Chair Fort Collins Peach Festival

Dana Sednek

2023-03-15

Using their Path to Growth Model, OTM not only gave me a path forward, but they helped me clarify my strategy, direction, and actions for how to set and launch my business. I was able to launch quickly and I see the flywheel ahead that is necessary to accelerate customer intake and revenue building. Thrilled with the outcome!!!

Liza Adams

2023-01-13

As the Head of Marketing at Encompass Technologies, I considered Old Town Media an extension of our marketing team. OTM worked closely with us on rebranding and repositioning, multiple industry-first product launches, key industry events, and integrated demand generation campaigns while we grew our marketing team and acquired new companies. With the help of OTM, we grew our pipeline and bested industry benchmarks for Software as a Service (SaaS) sales and marketing efficiency metrics. We came to rely on OTM for tactical execution to augment our team but where they added the most value was in our rebranding strategy and market positioning efforts. OTM played an integral role in conducting research and deeply understanding our market dynamics, ideal customer profile, customer challenges, competitive landscape, products and innovation, key differentiators, vision, and mission. This was no easy feat with a highly complex ecosystem, multiple segments, wide variety of audiences, and a broad array of products. Armed with market insights, OTM helped us develop a compelling brand, an inspirational story reflecting our vision and strategy, a unique and defensible market position, and messaging that was relevant to our target audiences. I appreciated that the team was respectful and empathetic, intently curious, insightful with their observations and recommendations, and candid with their feedback. OTM set realistic expectations about deliverables/scope, level of effort, roles, timeline, and cost. The team was responsive, highly collaborative, and open to suggestions. OTM plugged our expertise and resource gaps which allowed us to break the compromise between doing good work and doing it quickly. On top of that, they were fun to work with. OTM was truly a partner of the business.

Eric Dengler

2023-01-11

Great team! Small company service. Big firm power and expertise.

zach fulton

2023-01-06

Simply put, OTM is a well oiled machine! Thanks for all you do

The Process of Building a WordPress Site

Step 1: You tell us what you need

Step 2: Val creates an awesome design

Step 3: Build the framework out of PHP/CSS

Step 4: Put theme into WordPress

Step 5: Add plugins, content, and a little bit of magic to make it all work

Step 6: Testing

Step 7: Tada! You have a working site

Growing a business
is hard and finding the
right partner matters.

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