What are the 7 major steps to designing a website?

A clean 7-step flow: 1) goals and constraints, 2) audience and positioning, 3) sitemap and content plan, 4) wireframes, 5) visual design system, 6) build and content integration, 7) QA + launch. The exact labels vary, but the point is the same: decide before you decorate. When the structure is correct, design is faster and the site converts better. When structure is missing, you end up redesigning the same section repeatedly.