Web Development as a Tool for Small Business Growth in Nigeria

Before now, early website builders struggled with learning a programming language to code. Every aspect of their site had lines of code that made website development more herculean. Not only that, but without scripting languages like JavaScript, websites were static with no interactivity.

In fact, there were no standards in HTML (Hypertext Make-up Language), and developers had to write specific codes using guesswork and hacks to navigate.

Nowadays, creating an amazing website can only take you a few weeks to set up because of the welcomed innovation!

With CSS designs, you can easily style and maintain your websites. Unlike before, that requires a table-based layout, which is time-consuming. Additionally, jQuery new frameworks, like React and Angular, have made JavaScript more efficient than ever.

One can now embark on website development and birth to live beautiful blogs and websites without going through the stress of writing codes. Thanks to innovation!

To start a successful website development, you need a knowledge of HTML for search Engine Optimization and how to manipulate it. Also, cascading style sheets (CSS) for the website layout and fonts. Hence, this article will help you fully understand the basic requirements for website development, the types of websites, and other tips to build a beautiful and outstanding website.

What is Website Development?

This is basically the creation, design, and maintenance of a website. Most functional websites you see today are products of various tasks, which involve planning and designing the layout and testing the codes to suit the website.

With the help of basic web tools such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML, web developers can solve the puzzle, applying their expertise and creativity to create interactive websites.

The user-friendly experience and glitch-free access you have when browsing the web are only the product of a skilled web developer. Web Developers and designers alkie can creatively combine their ideas using different web development tools to make the site as functional as it could be without any moving parts.

Types of Website Development

Three types of website development contribute at different stages in the website development process. They focus on specific aspects and require specific skills.

They include:

• Front-end web development
• Back-end web development
• Full-stack web development

1. Front-end web development

Front-end web developers major in developing the client’s side of the web. When you come across a website, they’re responsible for the web contents using HTML, the page layout, fonts and design using CSS, the welcoming interactive elements and visual features using JavaScript to give you that outstanding satisfaction. A bad or good experience is when you visit a website that solely depends on the front-end web development and how best it was done.

The use of JavaScript built-on languages like React and Angularan help to provide better structure to your site. They save developers the stress of building or coding from scratch.

A typical example is the prebuilt navigation menu that React can offer. Using the React library, it offers already prewritten codebase that can be freely adopted in as templates in new projects. This helps to simplify the process of building web applications.

2. Back-end Development

The success and functionality of a website depends corely on the robustness of its backend. Back-end development is largely server-side aspect of the web and resolves the communication between the front end and the server.

With the use of programming languages like Python, Ruby, PHP and Java, developers handle database management like MySQL and MongoDB, work with web servers and handle server scripting.

They work at the back end, solving, manipulating and building logistics and functionality of the website. Owing to this, a functional site can receive, store and retrieve data due to the content management system tools used by the back-end developers. They improve the performance and reliability of a site to handle complex operations and meet human demands and users’ requests.

3. Full-stack web development

“Full-stack,” as the name implies, is a complete web development set with a combination of both front and back end. By hiring a full-stack web developer, you’ll save yourself the stress or cost of looking for a front-end and back-end. These developers know all the processes and can build a site from start to finish.

They are highly sought after because they are proficient in all aspects of website development. They are familiar with front-end tools like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, back-end programming tools like Express.js, and content and database management tools.

Now that you know the different types of website development, you may want to know what it takes to build a successful website. If you desire to build a website, you must have a concept and a need for it. The process starts with a concept or a purpose and ends with a launch. Here are seven Key Steps in website development.

Web Development Process

Have a Purpose and a concept

Writing codes or using programming languages is definitely not the first thing to do when developing a website. Define your purpose and have a concept. A clear purpose and message will help you select your target audience. If possible, create an avatar specifying the gender, age, problems, and solution you have to offer.

You can model a website you like or choose a desired feature and other specifications for the concept.

For instance, an educational website should offer options for course enrollment, payment methods, contact forms, and an email funneling system for follow-ups.

If you’re hiring a web developer, whether front-end or back-end, ensure to share your purpose and concept with them. They should be able to catch the vision and reproduce. They should also be able to use their expertise and recommend the most suitable options to you.

Create the Interface and back-end

Now, the development begins. The user interface is the first page users come across when they click on your link or follow the URL. A website User Interface (UI) is expected to be appealing and interactive. Not to disappoint customers’ experience, your front-end developers and web designers should team up to produce great visuals for your site.

Layout, colors, fonts and typography, and infographics can be achieved using tools and software like Adobe XD, Figma, or Canva.

Front-end web developers should be strategic about placing navigation structures and call-to-actions so as not to misdirect users and make them confused.

Tandems help to create stylish reusable components like add-ons and buttons, forms that are easy to navigate and utilize. It helps to keep the users glued to your website because of the interactive page and access they experience!

Even more, the back-end development. Programming languages and tools are used to set up a functional web server, such as Apache or Nginx. Also, depending on the requirements and client specifications, scripting languages such as Python and PHP are used. Remember, APIs, i.e., application programming interfaces, enable different elements of your site to relate to each other.

Securing data is also required and done through proper authentication, authorization and encryption. This is to protect user-sensitive information and details. So, with back-end development, these mechanisms can be achieved.

Test-run your website

When you perform a test on your website before deploying or launching, you’llyou can fix any bugs, glitches, or network issues being observed.

Not just that, testing enables you to assess your website’s User acceptance, it’s stability and competence in delivering effectively.

Another reason why you should test-run your website is to be assured of its functionality and compatibility with different servers, browsers, and devices to assure users of an awesome experience.

Creating a website is not enough, how is your website SEO performance? Is it friendly enough to rank and be visible to users on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)? A quality assurance check can help you evaluate this by aligning with search engine guidelines for a better experience.

Improve Website Performance

A lot of tools and techniques help you optimize your website performance by solving glitches and server delays and improving overall efficiency. Such techniques include code minification, caching mechanisms, cookies etc.

It also enhances the website’s speed and smooth website user experience by using tools like CDNs– content delivery networks.

Additionally, improve Website security to avoid hackers or cross-site scripting and forgery by using authentication and validation of user input. This will make users or visitors trust your websites and give out sensitive information.

Get ready for deployment.

This is the final stage of website development before your website goes live. Deploying is the transfer of files in the development stage to the server, ensuring all libraries and dependencies are installed. The server must be configured and necessary applications are installed and functioning.

With this, final testing is carried out to fine-tune and assess the server performance in order to guarantee quality. Check also for the functioning of the link, forms, and navigation menu and ensure the integrations are working properly.

Now, launch your website and set up feedback mechanisms and maintenance. A good website wasn’t made perfect in one day. It’s out of place for feedback to improve on, customer reviews and maintenance. Maintenance requires that you monitor your website performance, remove potential vulnerabilities and address technical issues that may arise.

Wrapping Up!

Website development is about the technical performance and functionality of a site. To succeed in web development, you need skills in programming languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby etc., to solve problems, enhance the site and improve its performance. This is a profound guide that will help you understand, build and launch your website!

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