Are you looking for a Houston web design company for your next project? You’ve come to the right place.

With virtually everything done online today, you need a digital footprint, and the best place to start is with your website. People looking for services turn to the internet, whether they’re looking for a cute boutique with unique gifts or a carpet cleaning service for a rare Persian rug. 

Not just any design agency, any website design or web development agency, will do, though. You need one that’s tailored to your unique business, and your audience. That’s where Muze Development comes in. Not only can we design your dream website, but we can make sure it presents you in the best light and is streamlined for today’s busy users.

Why You Need a Website

A website today serves as your calling card, it’s where you present yourself to prospective customers or clients. If you’re not online, you run the risk of losing out on a lot of business — and that’s just not good business.

As of January 2023, just over 20% of people surveyed said they use the internet to find local businesses in today’s technological era, according to Statista. More than 30% said they use search engines for that purpose multiple times a week. 

That makes it even more important that you have an online presence. But, you have to cater to your target audience. You need to show them why your business is the one to contact and use over all others in the industry. The best way to do that? Put your best foot forward from the moment they land on your website. 

Making the Best Impression

Website design isn’t something that you should leave up to chance, either. It’s important that you hire the right people to design your site, rather than go for simply the cheapest option. Make sure whoever you hire has your goals and considerations in mind when designing. It’s okay for them to offer insight as to how to improve your site. It’s not okay for them to override your every opinion and do what they want to.

When you hire Muze Development, you’ll immediately see the difference. We put you and your company first when it comes to web design, because ultimately, we want you to succeed.

Our Web Design Process

Every company and organization has its unique approach to doing things, and Muze Development is no exception. Our website development process has been streamlined to ensure that we nail your company, organization and website requirements from the word “go.” It involves multiple steps to ensure that we thoroughly understand your company, organization and needs. That way, we can design it to your specifications and then make small tweaks where necessary.

We build exclusively with WordPress, a robust CMS system that is built to ensure you stand apart and get the best results possible. Our design process includes the following.  

Initial Consultation and Discussion of Requirements

At our initial consultation, we’ll go through what you’re looking to achieve with your website, whether it’s a new design or an overhaul to make it fit in today’s technological age. We want to know what your goals are when it comes to your website so we can make sure we include it in the next steps. 

The discussion of requirements will touch on topics such as functionality, navigation, usability, branding, and backend services. From there, we’ll write out a list of the requirements and the steps needed to meet your website design goals.

Market Research: Understanding Houston’s Business Landscape

Every locale’s business landscape varies, and Houston’s is growing rapidly. Between 2010 and 2020, for example, small businesses skyrocketed by more than 70% in the area, a true testament to how it’s thriving. It’s a cultural beacon and a fantastic hub for global trade, and owes its success to Houstonians as well as foreign agents who come in and take advantage of the great assets the city has to offer. With a population that exceeds 2 million, there’s a lot of room for growth.

To understand your company and place in the business landscape, it’s important to look at the services and solutions you offer and how you stand out. Then, your new website design should incorporate some of these differences, whether it’s the focus on branding or the focus on the functionality of the website. Muze Development will take a look at what your competitors are doing right and what they’re doing wrong. Then we can formulate a plan for your website design that will set your web presence above that of others in your field.

In doing market research online marketing yourself, we’ll take a look at various factors, including the amount and quality of competition you have in the area, as well as niches where you could fit in and advertise, blowing the competition out of the water. Also equally important to online marketing yourself is dialing into your target audience, because we need to know who to cater the website to. For example, a company engaging in a business-to-customer relationship will be a bit more laidback than the website of a company dealing in business partner-to-business partner interactions.

Part of website design is considering future services as well, such as SEO and maximizing content. That step will come much later, but it’s always a good idea to design the site with that in mind, because once the site is up and running, you need a way to draw in your target audience. 

Conceptualization and Wireframing

Once we’ve nailed down your requirements and taken a deep dive into how your business fits in the Houston business landscape, we can go ahead and start the conceptualization and wireframing stage. 

Conceptualization is the process of taking the requirements for a website and turning them into an outline that showcases ideas and concepts for the proposed web design. During this stage, we’ll go over any potential issues that may arise and how we can nip those in the bud.

Wireframing is the process of creating basic visuals that outline elements for your web pages, a mock-up of sorts. We can show you how the design would flow for users and it typically includes a sitemap that shows how the website will branch out from the homepage. This is our jumping-off point, something we use early in the process to help establish the basic structure of your website before we add all of the content and design elements. 

Our process includes ensuring your brand and website is mobile-device friendly, as the majority of people use their phones and tablets to browse the web. Without optimizing your websites for these two platforms, you’ll miss out on traffic and we don’t want that.

Design and Development Phase

After we’ve nailed the concept and wireframing, the next step is to take all of that and turn it into your website. This is the design and development stage, and typically the longest of the steps involved. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they’re actually different in terms of execution. 

The development phase refers to the functionality of the website, so during this step, we’ll be heavily involved in the coding aspect, making sure that everything links first. The homepage is the start, then sub-pages are created according to the layout established in the wireframing stage. 

Many people also use a content management system (CMS) to create content, and plugins are added at this stage of web development, as well, if need be. There will be focus on some aspects of SEO during the whole website creation and development stage, too, because it will help rank your site higher in search engines. This focus includes optimizing your title, keywords, and site description.

Site design refers to the visual appearance of your website and that’s where your branding, colors, and layout come into play. This step includes adding your videos, photos, and other necessary graphics. 

Testing and Quality Assurance

Once the website design and development is considered “done,” it’s not really done … not yet, at least. It still needs to undergo testing and quality assurance to ensure that it’s functioning properly. 

Testing means going through every single link on the website and making sure it not only works, but also goes to its intended destination. Broken links are fixed during this stage, too. Every form and script is carefully combed over, and spell-checking is necessary to ensure the content is spelled properly. Misspellings are representative of your business, and you don’t want to start off on the wrong foot. At this stage, we’ll also deploy code validators, to test that the code meets all specifications, including for cross-browser compatibility, if necessary.

Basically, we want to account for every possibility, run multiple checks, and then check again. There’s no such thing as being too careful.

Launch and Post-Launch Support

Once we cross the Ts and dot the Is, it’s time to launch. Once the site is cleared in the testing stage, all of the files will be uploaded to the server. Then, it’s important to test yet again. Once we’re satisfied with the upload, we’ll turn the site over you to for testing and for your input. 

Once your site is live, we don’t just fade into the background. Our post-launch support is top-notch and we thrive on making sure you’re satisfied. If something doesn’t seem right, or you’re not satisfied with a specific element, we want to know so we can fix it. 

At this stage, we welcome all feedback and will help provide ongoing support and maintenance, so that if anything fails to work properly, we can get in and fix and maintain it right away, and prevent lengthy downtime.

Why Choose Muze Web Development Partners as Your Houston Web Design Agency?

Our Houston web design company has been helping businesses just like yours in The Bayou City and surrounding area since 2006. We can help you, too. With over 15 years of custom website design experience, we’re confident that our extensive track record will include you as well. 

Let us take your passion and vision and craft a strong, dynamic online and off digital marketing agency and design, digital marketing agency, and presence development agency that draws Houstonians looking for businesses just like yours whether they are using Google, Bing, or another search engine.

While we excel as a Houston Web Design Company, our expertise in digital transformation also extends to Law Firm SEO Services, our focus on ensuring legal professionals in Houston benefit from a robust online presence tailored to their unique needs. Our solutions and services for past and current clients expand across several industries and different business models, including:

  • Non-profits
  • Small Businesses
  • Corporations
  • Large Organizations

We can put this experience to good use and get you onboard with the locals, exactly where you need to be if you want to see the growth you dream of. 

Getting Started with Your Houston Web Design Project

Are you ready to get started? We’re ready to help and we make it easy to not only establish your online presence, but make sure you’re seen. Our comprehensive process takes you through your project step-by-step, so you know what’s happening now, what’s coming, and what the end goal is. 

We cover all of the bases when it comes to your website design so you can focus on what you do best — run your business. 

Here’s what you can expect throughout the design process when you work with Muze Development. 

Initiating your Web Design Project

Getting started is easy. There are three steps that we take in the beginning to make sure we’re all on the same page. First, you’ll want to reach out to Muze Development to discuss your project, and there are three ways you can do that:

Information Gathering

Once you’ve reached out to us, we want to get to know all about you and your business. To give us the best chance at meeting your design needs, there are critical pieces of information we need to have on hand. When you speak with us, be prepared to discuss the following: 

  • Business Goals – what are you looking to achieve with your website? Is it a placeholder that describes your services, or is it a full-service website with direct booking and other features?
  • Target Audience – who are you trying to reach? This is typically defined as either a business-to-customer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) approach. Is your target audience a direct client, or are you providing services to another business so they can service their own clients?
  • Design Preferences – what do you envision when you picture your website? Do you want it simple and elegant, or splashy and attention-grabbing? Think about your colors and your layout, as well as any features — such as a calendar, blog, contact form — you want on the site.

Scheduling a Meeting

Finally, you’ll want to schedule the meeting, so we can go over all of the information above. Clients have the choice of meeting virtually or in-person. To get started, simply reach out to us via one of the methods above and we’ll get in touch to schedule the meeting.

Personalized Consultation Process

No two businesses are the same, which is why we ditch the one-size-fits-all approach, because your website needs to be as unique as the goods or services you offer. During the consultation, you will speak with Muze Development to dig deep into what it is you’re looking for, so we can start to shape the project for you. 

First Consultation

At the first consultation, we really want to get to know you and learn about the project you have in mind. We will go over your business needs, such as what kind of website would work best and what we need to do to ensure you stand out among the competition. 

We’ll also discuss your project scope — how in-depth you want the website to be — and your budget. 

Proposal Development

Once we have a good idea of what you’re looking for, we’ll draft up a customized proposal as to how we’ll tackle your next website or app development needs. Our proposal will detail every step in your next web development or side project and give you a breakdown of the timeline involved. We are committed to delivering a product you’re satisfied with, on time.

As for the budget, you’ll never be left in the dark. All of our costs are outlined according to the project plan so you can see it upfront. 

Once you receive this proposal, we ask that you take your time to look it over and note any questions or concerns you might have about the process involved. We are happy to discuss and adjust per your specifications.

Proposal Review and Adjustments

Once you’ve had time to review the proposal, we want to hear all of your feedback, good and bad. If something doesn’t make sense, we can explain it, or we can make tweaks per your specifications. Once we have your feedback, we will make the necessary changes and then send you the updated proposal.

Adjustments can take some time to make, especially if they’re in-depth. However, once they’re all made, we can go ahead and finalize the project details, which will then lead to us getting started on the site design and development. 

The Onboarding Process

Our onboarding process is three-fold and is designed to keep the project moving forward at a pace that’s sustainable for both Muze, and you, the client. 

Signing the Agreement

Once you’ve looked over the team and final proposal and agreed to all of the steps and details outlined within, we’ll sign the agreement. The contract signing will include all of the pertinent information, including the budget for the project, an estimated timeline, and will formalize our partnership.

Kickoff Meeting

The kickoff meeting comes after we sign the agreement. Here, we’ll meet, whether virtually or in person, to discuss the scope of the project and then we will initiate the design process. From here, we’ll immediately start working on your website, following the steps we outlined above. 

Regular Updates and Communication

Throughout the design process, we will stay in touch regularly. We know how frustrating it is not to have any updates on where the project stands. For that reason, we will communicate with you regularly and provide status updates. We’ll also discuss any issues that arise and ask questions about a particular direction you’d like to take on a specific issue. 

In short, consider us true digital partners and partner in your marketing and development and website development and web design.

Contact and Expectations

One of the things that sets Muze Development apart from other top web designers in the competition and other Houston, web designers and design services is the fact that we aren’t just transparent, but we welcome your contact, too. We love having a team and our clients engaged in the project and as excited about it as we are. That said, we recognize that communication with clients is an essential part of our business.

We’ll Give You Our Contact Details

We’re not shy about having our clients reach out. In fact, we prefer you do. To that end, we’ll provide you with our contact information, including an email, a phone number, and a physical address where you can reach us. We’ll also ask to have yours on file, as well, so we can reach out — and we’ll only do so in your preferred method.

We Want You to Reach Out

It’s true! We love working with our clients and want to pave the way to mutual success in business. The only way we can do that is to keep in touch, at any stage of the project. If you have questions, we’re more than happy to answer them. If you are looking to get started on another project, we want to hear from you.

Don’t be afraid to reach out. We’ll also respond in kind and not leave you in the dark. 

Follow Us on Social Media

We have multiple social media outlets where you can contact us, or follow along to see where our journey is taking us next. You can follow us on Facebook, or on LinkedIn for the most up-to-date news on what we’re offering and what clients are saying about our services. 

Why Work With Us

When it comes to your website design, you want to work with the best right off the bat. With our decade-plus of experience and a promise to put our clients first, many have learned firsthand that there’s something to be said about working with locals. 

As a Houston web design company, Muze Development stays on top of the latest trends and places a strong emphasis on completing each project to the best of our ability. And the best part is, we include you every step of the way. 

With Muze Development, you get: 

  • Transparency – Our excellent customer service skill set ensures that you are always in the know. No matter the size of your project, you’re an important client and will be treated as such. We stand behind each of our principles. 
  • Honesty and Integrity – When you put your trust in a company to help boost your own, honesty and integrity are a must. We strive for 100% customer satisfaction and the only way to do that is to listen to you and deliver on what we say we will. If any delays crop up, you’ll be the first to know, and if any issues crop up, we’ll reach out right away to make sure we can fix it in a timely manner.
  • On-Time Delivery – Nothing is more frustrating than missed deadlines. We are a Houston web design company that strives for timeliness.

When you’re ready to hire a web design agency and our team of web designers, we want to hear from you. Tell us what your passion and goals are and how you envision your future web design project and let us make it a reality.