The fourth phase is for programmers. Coding comes next when the design has been placed on the drawing board. The designers should work in tandem with programmers, making sure they understand how the site should look and work. Unlike traditional design the developer must know the interface and the code should not disturb the look and feel of the site or application.

The coding team should generate the necessary testing plans as well as technical documentation which is for both developers and end-users. Also the developers should keep track of bugs and version history when developing a site.

So now you have created your site, designed it well, and made sure it functions as expected, what do you do next? Why, testing, of course! How else would you know the site will work in any situation? So the fifth phase should be Testing.

Unlike software, web based applications need intensive testing, as the applications will always function as a multi-user system with bandwidth limitations. Some of the testing which should be done are, Integration testing, Stress testing, Scalablity testing, load testing, resolution testing and cross-browser compatibility testing. Both automated testing and manual testing should be done without fail. There are certain testing tools as well as some online testing tools which can help the testers to test their applications. After doing all the testing a live testing is necessary for web sites and web based applications.

When the team is sure the site will work as intended then it is ready to go live. Once the site is live and it starts receiving visitors, it is time to promote the site to drive more people to visit it. This is the seventh phase of the site development cycle.

During the Promotion phase, the website development team shifts its attention to site optimization. The goal of site optimization is to drive web traffic to the site and perhaps increase the chances of earning profit from the site. The site owner may or may not opt to hire a separate SEO team for this.

The last phase in the site development cycle is Maintenance and Updating. Just because the project has ended and the site seems to be working smoothly, it doesn’t mean that the site development process has ended. In fact, the process is set within a cycle where it begins again with Analysis whenever the site needs to be updated, upgraded, re-optimized or fixed.