In the previous content of this series, we understood the value and importance of the website. The major part and presence of your brand in the digital world and the online market is your website. In this part of the series we are going to dive deep into the website development. We will discuss why website development is important and understand some basics, types of web development, the website development process, traditional and modern websites, and simpler tool for web development.
What is Website Development?
Website development is a catch-all term for the work that goes into building a website. This includes everything from markup and coding to scripting, network configuration, and CMS development.
While web development typically refers to web markup and coding, website development includes all related development tasks, such as client-side scripting, server-side scripting, server and network security configuration, eCommerce development, and content management system (CMS) development.
Why is website development important?
The internet became a portal and primary method of research, connection, education, and entertainment in the world. As of 2021, there were 4.66 billion global Internet users—more than half the world’s population. (source - financesonline)
Given the rapidly increasing number of Internet users, it’s no surprise that web development is a rapidly expanding industry. Between now and 2030, the employment of web developers is expected to grow by 13%, much faster than most other technology careers. (source - U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)
As digital marketers, we are not going to dive deep into the advanced web development to become developers, but we surely need to understand some basic ideologies and information regarding how the web actually works. We will be understanding some basics regarding web development. And trust me, the web is also a part of your digital presence, so if you are looking to set up your first online journey, this is also the way to do it.
Let’s talk about some fundamentals of
What is a website?
What is coding?
What is a domain and IP address?
What does HTTP mean?
What is CMS?
A website is a set of related pages combined together to serve on the internet under a common domain. Websites are hosted from a server, which is connected to the network that we call the Internet.
The domain and IP address are the identity of your served files, collectively called a website. Think of an IP address as your Address and a domain as your name. Every time any user visits your name on the internet, it reaches your address to get the files/related pages you have served on the internet.
Coding in website development refers to the languages used to make the internet understand what actions to perform and what to show on the internet. It is a language with the collection of grammars and rules that is understandable by the internet and the servers so that it can perform as expected.
HTTP is a set of rules (a protocol) that defines how messages should be sent over the Internet. It lets your request on the internet connect to the specific site. Think of HTTP as rules defined for every device on the internet before connecting with each other.
Now let’s talk about the main part of the website development. However, while establishing your brand, you can hire some developer to build up your website and leave everything in the hands of the developer to handle everything. However, we are living in a fast-paced technological world. There are so many tools developed so far in the internet era that ease out the work in a simpler manner.
One of the tools to develop websites for a solo person without extensive knowledge in the tech world is CMS.
CMS stands for content management system, which is a tool, or rather, we can brief it out as a web application or a series of programs that are used to create and manage web content. This is quite popular to use because it helps digital marketers keep their hands away from diving deeper into the website development at the code level. It helps in directly creating and managing content online and focusing on the main aspect of the brand.
It provides the building blocks (like plugins and add-ons) and lets you create the structure with your code. CMSs are often used for e-commerce and blogging, but they’re useful for all types of websites.
Important note: CMS are not the same as website builders like wix or squarespace. Website builders are different; We can develop websites using website builders as well, but the use cases are different. We will talk about the website builder tools sometime later in another blog where we can differentiate between website builders and CMS tools.
Right now let’s just focus on getting information regarding the development of the websites. There are various types of web development, e.g., frontend, backend, full stack, embedded, and Security Development.
All the types of development work in their specific areas, such as frontend development, work only on the visual part of the website; backend works with the functionality; full stack works with the one-man army phase; embedded works with some IOT implementation with the live sites; and security works with keeping your site safe.
There is no hard-and-fast rule to choose which one is the best; it is always preferred to choose based on product needs and purpose along with the budget.
Note: The main objective of this blog is to spread awareness about website development for the individual owners of the brand and businesses who are handling their work or expanding their presence online with the help of websites and personal branding. This will help you get aware of what things to choose based on the present status and investment capacity.
Website Development Process:
Now we are aware of the website development and its type; now let’s break down the process of website development. To create a good and functional website that is attractive as well as rich in content with smooth working, you must follow these 6 steps to build and set up your website.
Form a plan
Create a wireframe
Draft up a sitemap.
Write website code
Acquire domain name
Launch your website
Let’s break down every step one by one
1. Form a Plan
Here are some questions to consider before your first site draft:
What is the goal of your website?
Who is your audience, and what do you want them to do on your website?
What type of website are you building? (e.g. basic informational, membership, online store)
What content are you aiming to publish, and at what volume?
What’s the purpose of this content?
How will you structure your website for the best navigational experience?
What’s your budget?
Answering the questions requires interfacing with your web development, marketing, and financial teams to determine your priorities and make informed decisions.
2. Create a wireframe
All good websites start with a blueprint. Developers call this a wireframe. It doesn’t have to be an official document; it’s simply a vision for your site that’ll give both you and your developer(s) direction and a place to start.
You can draw it on a whiteboard or use a tool like Invision, Slickplan, or Mindnode.
3. Draft a sitemap
Just like a business plan gives a potential investor insight into your goals and deliverables, a sitemap gives a developer the information needed to meet your vision. You can create your sitemap on your own or work with your developer(s).
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when planning your site:
What individual pages do you want?
What content will be on those pages?
How can you organize those pages into categories?
What is the hierarchy of pages on your site? How will the pages link together?
What pages and categories are essential to your site and user experience?
Which pages or categories could be removed or combined?
4. Write your website code
The next step in the web development process is writing the code.
Developers will use different coding languages for the front-end and back-end of websites, as well as for different functionalities of the site (such as design, interactivity, etc.). These different languages work together to build and run your site.
This step mostly focuses on building the backend and frontend of the website.
If you feel overwhelmed by working on this part all by yourself, it is highly recommended to hire professional developers to do this job, as this is by far the most complex and the most dedicated part needed to be done in a smooth manner, as writing code might be one of the more complicated parts of web development, but it’s hardly the only component. You also have to build your back-end and front-end site structures and design.
The back-end handles the data that enables the functionality on the front-end. For example, Facebook's back-end stores my photos so that the front-end can then allow others to look at them. It’s made up of two key components: Databases, Servers
Server-side scripting languages like PHP, Python, and Ruby facilitate back-end development, and databases such as MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL store and manage website data.
The front-end stuff is important—it’s what your visitors, customers, and users see and how they’ll use your website. Front-end (or client-side) development includes a combination of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It also controls components such as typography and fonts, navigation, positioning, and browser compatibility and responsiveness. Libraries and frameworks like Bootstrap, jQuery, and AngularJS aid in front-end development.
This part will reflect more of your initial site vision and what you included in your wireframe.
As a business entity, the overall website development part can be outsourced, or a specific person can be hired to do the work because this process takes time and needs a little attention to detail. Also, server setup and hosting the website live online are tedious tasks, which can be done by professionals easily, saving a large amount of time.
If you are looking for an easy web-hosting service, we would recommend HOSTINGER,which is quite affordable to setup your websites.
5. Acquiring the domain
At this point, with the complete website setup serving from the hosting servers, it also needs a domain name, a memorable website name that your visitors can use to find your site. Perhaps you’ve heard of sites like Hostinger or GoDaddy.
These services help you purchase a domain name and register with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Most domain registrations are good for a year before you’re required to renew.
6. Launch your website
Once you’ve set up a domain name and linked it to your host, you’re almost ready to unveil your work to the web.
Now let’s talk about some differences between traditional and modern web development. After the dot-com bubble started and the internet was revolutionized, there have been more and more websites live on the internet today. Every day new websites are created on the internet to grow the business. With this change in the internet, the website development also changed with time.
Traditional Web Development
Traditional development involved manually writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.
Websites were primarily static, with limited interactivity and functionality.
Websites were primarily static, with limited interactivity and functionality.
Websites were primarily static, with limited interactivity and functionality.
Modern Web Development
Modern development leverages advanced technologies and frameworks like WordPress, Joomla, and various content management systems.
Websites are dynamic, interactive, and responsive to different devices and screen sizes.
E-commerce, multimedia integration, and complex web applications are common in modern development.
Development is faster, thanks to the use of pre-built templates, plugins, and modules.
Tool for Simpler Web Development
Let’s focus on building and developing the website in an easier and simpler way. If you are a one-person business or running a solo brand as a person and are constrained with your budget and investment, the most recommended form of website development is through CMS. CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal simplify website creation and management. They allow users to build dynamic, content-rich websites without extensive coding knowledge.
These tools are specifically designed to make the website development process easier and for specific use cases, which is useful to startups and to create an MVP for your brand/product.
The most popular CMS platform we recommend using for solo workers is WordPress.
WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS), which allows the users to build dynamic websites and blogs. There are many plugins and templates available for free to use, and users can customize them based on their needs. It offers several SEO tools, which makes on-site SEO simple, and customization is easy according to the user's needs.
Various free-to-use themes and setups are also available online on the internet to set up your first website live on the internet.
WordPress setup is an easy process, and you can do it with two approaches.
Set up WordPress online using hosting services online. Eg: Hostinger, Bluehost, SiteGround
Customize wordpress based on needs and host it based on your choices.
The steps to set up are also easy:
Buy the domain and hosting
Set up the site.
Start updating content.
We will be helping people out by setting up the wordpress website live online with both approaches from start to finish.
After the website is created and live on the internet, make sure to check the optimization of the website with the help of site optimization tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to assess and enhance website performance, loading speed, and user experience, and use security scanners and firewalls like Sucuri and Wordfence to protect websites from threats, malware, and attacks. We will discuss each tool one by one later sometime in another series of content.
With this content we are one content away from completing this series. With this specific knowledge about digital marketing, you will be aware of starting and setting up your brand identity personally online.
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