How We Approach Website Projects: A Behind-the-Scenes Case Study

A web design case study is simply an honest account of how a website actually got built: the brief, the decisions made along the way, and what changed once it launched. This is ours. Below is the real process Arcknet follows on every website project, walked through using a recent build for a home services business in Jalandhar, described qualitatively rather than with invented numbers.

Most agencies talk about their process in vague marketing language — "we collaborate closely with clients" and so on. We'd rather show the actual steps, in order, because that's what actually determines whether a project goes smoothly.

Step 1: Discovery and Scoping

Every project starts with a working session, not a template. We ask what the business actually does, who its customers are, how those customers currently find and contact the business, and what's frustrating about the current setup — an old site, no site at all, or a site nobody can update. For the Jalandhar home services client, this meant understanding their service area, their busiest service lines, and the fact that most enquiries were already arriving over phone and WhatsApp rather than a contact form. That single fact shaped several decisions later in the build.

Step 2: Sitemap and Content Architecture

Before any visual design happens, we map out the site structure: which pages exist, what each one needs to say, and how they link together. For a local service business, this usually means separate pages per service line rather than one crowded "services" page, because each page can then target its own search terms and its own local intent. We also plan where the blog fits, and which existing content (if any) is worth keeping versus rewriting from scratch.

Step 3: Design in Wix Studio

We build wireframes first — plain layouts with no color or imagery — so the client can react to structure and content before getting distracted by visual details. Once the layout is approved, we move into full design inside Wix Studio: brand colors, typography, photography (client-supplied where possible, licensed stock where not), and a mobile-first layout, since most local searches in Punjab now happen on a phone. We typically go through two to three rounds of feedback before locking the design.

Step 4: Development, Integrations and On-Page SEO

This is where the site actually gets built: forms that route enquiries properly, click-to-WhatsApp buttons or a full WhatsApp Business API setup where relevant (we're an official Wati partner, and this comes up on almost every local-business project now — see our

dedicated page on WhatsApp automation for how that works), image compression for load speed, and the on-page SEO groundwork: title tags, meta descriptions, header structure, and schema markup so search engines and AI answer engines alike can understand what the page is actually about.

Step 5: QA, Launch and Handover

Before anything goes live, we test across browsers and devices, check every form and link, and if the project is a migration from an existing site, we map old URLs to new ones with proper redirects so the business doesn't lose whatever search rankings it already had. Launch itself is usually the quiet part — a DNS switch, a final check, and then a walkthrough so the client can see exactly how to update their own site afterward.

What Actually Changes

We're deliberately not going to hand you a page of invented percentages here — that's not how we operate, and it's not something we'd want reflected in our own writing. What we can say honestly, based on this project and others like it: navigation gets simpler, pages load noticeably faster, forms and WhatsApp contact options are easier to find on mobile, and the business owner ends up with a site they can actually edit themselves instead of calling someone every time a phone number changes.

Why We Work This Way

None of these steps are unusual on their own — most agencies would describe something similar if you asked them. What tends to differ is discipline: skipping the sitemap stage and jumping straight into design is how projects end up with a homepage that looks great and five inner pages that were clearly an afterthought. Skipping proper redirects during a migration is how a business loses search visibility it spent years building. The order matters as much as the individual steps.

It's also worth being direct about timeline: a straightforward single-location business site typically moves through discovery to launch in a few weeks, while a larger site with e-commerce, multiple service areas, or custom booking logic takes longer, simply because there's more to plan and test properly. We'd rather set that expectation upfront than promise a date we can't hold.

A Typical Project Timeline

1. Discovery call and scoping — usually within the first week

2. Sitemap and content planning

3. Design mockups and revision rounds

4. Development, integrations (forms, WhatsApp, payment where relevant) and on-page SEO

5. QA across devices and browsers

6. Launch, redirects (for migrations), and client handover training

7. Post-launch support and ongoing maintenance

This is the same process behind every project in our portfolio — whether it's a clinic, a school, a landscaping business, or an e-commerce store. If you're planning a new site or thinking about replacing an old one, get in touch and we'll walk you through what it would look like for your business specifically.