3. The Content & Design Phase
This is where the site's personality comes to life. This phase often runs at the same time as the planning phase, as the design will be built around your actual content (text, photos, videos).
What you'll do:
Provide Your Brand Assets: You'll supply your high-resolution logo, any existing brand guidelines (colors, fonts), and any specific photos or videos you want to include.
- Provide Your Core Content: You will be responsible for providing the written text for pages like "About Us" and detailed "Service" descriptions (unless copywriting is explicitly included in the project scope).
- Review the Mockups: The agency will present you with a static, full-color, "pixel-perfect" image of what your new homepage and other key pages will look like.
- Give Clear, Consolidated Feedback: Your job is to review the mockups and provide decisive feedback. For example: "The overall look is great, but the 'Call to Action' button isn't visible enough," or "Can we try a different photo in the hero section?"
- Give Final Design Approval: You will give the final, written sign-off on the mockups. This is a critical step, as it "locks" the design and gives the agency the green light to start building.
What the agency will deliver:
- A "Keyword Gap" Analysis: A simple report showing which valuable keywords your competitors are ranking for that you currently are not. This gives us a "shopping list" of content to create.
- A Backlink Profile Review: We'll show you who is linking to your top competitors. This reveals their "votes" of authority. (e.g., "Your competitor has links from the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, three local RVA blogs, and a 'best of' list. This is our target list.").
- An On-Page & Content Plan: We'll show you exactly what content your competitors have that Google likes. (e.g., "They have a 1,500-word blog post on 'Local SEO Tips for RVA Businesses' and separate, detailed pages for 'eCommerce' and 'WordPress.' We need to create our own, better versions.").
- A Google Business Profile (GBP) Audit: We'll compare your GBP "storefront" to theirs, looking at reviews, photos, posts, and service listings.
