A Complete Guide to the Web Development Process: How to Build a Website

April 26, 2024

A Complete Guide to the Web Development Process: How to Build a Website

Web development is one of the most basic requirements for almost all enterprises and companies nowadays. It is critical to have a strong online presence with fully functioning and optimised websites that provide end-users with easy access and an enhanced experience. With the fast transition towards digital platforms over the last two decades, having feature-rich web apps and websites is crucial for driving digital development.

Digital marketers and Atlanta web design company owners must also strive to understand web development better. Although experienced web developers can build their sites, they should be able to work closely with these developers to design a website that genuinely expresses their brand. Web development jobs are profitable, with a typical annual salary of around $77,200. Furthermore, according to Bureau of Labour Statistics industry statistics published in April 2021, web developer employment is expected to expand by 8% between 2019 and 2029. This is faster than the average growth rate for other jobs. In this guide, we'll cover the basics of web development and creating a website.

Key Takeaways on  the Web Development Process

  1. Web Development Vital for Enterprises: Establishing a strong online presence through well-designed websites is essential for modern businesses to thrive in the digital landscape.
  2. Understanding Web Development: Digital marketers and business owners should comprehend web development basics to effectively collaborate with developers and create websites that align with their brand.
  3. Lucrative Career Opportunities: Web development offers profitable career prospects with a median annual salary of $77,200 and an expected 8% job growth rate between 2019 and 2029.
  4. Website Development Process Overview: The website development process involves planning, wireframing, content creation, coding, front-end and back-end development, domain acquisition, testing, launching, and ongoing maintenance.
  5. Importance of Planning: Effective planning is crucial in the website development process, considering aspects like website purpose, target audience, content strategy, and budget allocation.
  6. Wireframing for Structure: Creating a wireframe provides a blueprint for the website's structure, ensuring alignment with user expectations and business objectives before visual design and content integration.
  7. Continuous Improvement: Website development is an iterative process that requires regular updates, testing, and monitoring to maintain functionality, user experience, and relevance over time.

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What is website development?

"Website development is a catch-all term for the work that goes into creating a website." This comprises everything from network configuration to HTML and CMS development and code to scripting.

While web development often refers to web markup and code, website development encompasses all associated development tasks such as server-side scripting, eCommerce development, client-side scripting, content management system (CMS) development, and server and network security settings.

"The Website Development Process"

illustration of a team of web developers

"Creating a website is more challenging than 1-2-3. Each development process is unique depending on the type of website, programming languages, and resources. The following section gives an overview of the web development process and a brief review of the most commonly used languages and CMS systems."

1. Planning:

The first stage in the website creation process is creating a plan for the website. This provides you with a road plan to help you reach your goal.

Here are some questions to consider when creating your first site:

  • What is the purpose of your website?
  • What types of websites are you creating? (e.g., basic informative, membership, online store)What material do you want to publish, and at what volume?
  • Who is your target audience, and what do you want them to do on your website?
  • What is the objective of this content?
  • How would you arrange your website to provide the optimum navigating experience?" What is your budget?"

The answers to these questions might assist you in deciding what structure to build to optimise the navigation experience. It will also help you determine what content to post.

Include additional stakeholders in your planning for maximum effectiveness. This stage of the development process necessitates coordination across the development, marketing, and finance departments."

2. Creating the Wireframe:

A wireframe provides the basic structure of your website and serves as your blueprint throughout the development process. Before adding your visual design and content, you must have this to ensure that the Atlanta web design company site you build can match user demands.

Your wireframe must reflect your vision for your website. It should give you an idea of how individual pages should appear and how they should connect. It is a sitemap of your website's categories and hierarchies.

3. Content:

The content of a website is one of its most essential aspects. Your content will encourage your audience to use your website by conveying your message.

4. Write your website code:

Writing code is the next step in the web development process.

Developers will employ several coding languages for the front-end and back-end of websites and other site functionalities (such as design, interactivity, and so on). These several languages work together to construct and maintain your website.

"Let's begin with the most commonly used languages.

HTML: Since the 1990s, HTML has been in use. It is the cornerstone of all websites and represents the minimum needed to construct a website. While designing a website using only HTML is possible, the results would be unpleasant. "Below is the HTML code for a simple Bootstrap button." Below is the HTML code for a simple Bootstrap button."

CSS: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) was developed in the late 1990s. It enhances the "look" of websites by including design elements such as fonts, colours, and layouts."

"Here's a snippet of code for customising the jumbotron element with Bootstrap CSS."

Javascript: JavaScript is the cherry on top of coding languages. JavaScript, developed in the mid-1990s, adds functionality to web pages. Developers use it to generate animations, automate operations within websites, and add interactive components that improve user experience.

"Below is a snippet of JavaScript code for automatically opening links in a new window in WordPress."

Building the Front End:

With your wireframe and code complete, you can start working on the back-end and front-end of your site. If you have two separate teams for this, they should be able to work in tandem.

Front-end design is essential in website development since it is what users view and interact with. It will represent your vision for your Atlanta web design company site and will be critical to your consumers' experience.

Building the Back End:

Back-end work is typically focused on servers and databases. These components are in charge of processing data and requests.

While building your back-end, you'll require logic code to specify how objects on your site will interact and how your site should reply to requests. It would help if you also had excellent database administration to store, organise, retrieve, and process data.

Getting a Domain:

"At this point, your site will have an IP address." It also necessitates the purchase of a domain name, a memorable site name that your visitors may use to find your website.

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Testing:

The website still needs to be ready for launch after it has been successfully constructed. First, it must be tested. Testing the website might be time-consuming, but it is vital to ensure that the website is operational. During this step, you will test the website's links and buttons, double-check spelling, and confirm that the website looks the same on a phone as on a computer.

Launch:

Your website is nearly ready for publication. You now have your entire stack built, a domain name registered, and a host. However, before you go live, test your site to find any problems or faults that may damage functionality and user experience.

If there are any bugs, first modify your code to eradicate them. You should also optimise your site for search engine optimisation and have enough content to keep visitors on your site. When everything is in place, you may formally launch your website.

Updating and monitoring:

Even after successfully launching your website, it's critical to revisit it occasionally. Mistakes might occur, and it is essential to maintain the website in excellent working order. You want to solve any issues as soon as possible and always keep your website current.

Conclusion:

For businesses, web development is essential. As a result, understanding the web development process and the technological stack necessary to build robust and dynamic websites is crucial. We have supplied vital web development insights ranging from the various stages of the process to employing web developers to help you fine-tune your process and develop a well-rounded strategy for your development project. The Chicago web design company is an expert in providing excellent services of website designing.