Defining Web Development And The Web Development Process

Web Development

Web development is a process of either creating a brand new website from scratch or improving an existing website by adding to or enhancing what already exists. Web development may also require the skills of a web designer to improve the way the website is interacted with. The Web developer may also be the same person as the web designer, let’s for simplicity assume he is.

At the start, of course you need to decide what your website is for, and who will be using it. Web development is done with purpose in mind, in most cases. Also of note is that web development is a creative process, not just a matter of lines of code, although that’s generally what it ends up as.

Web Development - Ruler, plans, design

The path that a web developer usually takes on any project is thus :

  1. Plan – What’s the website’s purpose, and what is the demographic who’ll use it ? What are the customer’s requirements and specification for development of the website ?
  2. Posts And Page – What needs to go into the website in terms of content ? Written articles, images, graphics, terms and conditions, contact forms ?
  3. Web design – Look and feel of the website – Does the project require custom design or is there already an “off-the-shelf” solution ?
  4. Building The Site – Putting it all together, the nuts and bolts – May involve installing “off-the-shelf” components or writing new code.
  5. Making It Work – Testing is a vitally important part of web development, and web design. Simply, does this site work as intended, and work properly ?
  6. Where To Put The Website – Does the customer want to host the website on their own web hosting space, or do they require this to be done for them ? Do they have a domain name, if not then they’ll need to acquire one !
  7. Publicising – The whole point of making the website was for people to visit. In order for this to happen, the website needs to be publicised, promoted and perhaps marketed. SEO is a complex field, but with an understanding of the customer’s needs and skill of the web development firm’s SEO expert, anything is possible.
  8. Measure The Effectiveness Of The Website – Periodically measure how well it’s all performing. Does the site need further development or enhancements, to achieve it’s full potential ?

Obviously, it’s probably apparent that’s it’s important for the person who needs the website to define what their goals are, what the purpose of the website is, who they expect their visitors to be and how they’d like it to look. This helps keep the costs down in web development, because the process will be more efficient, and usually leads to a better end solution for the customer.

Web development, design and SEO is complicated for most – we’re here to help. If you’d like a reliable professional web development firm to undertake your project for you, please do not hesitate to contact us.