What Is Web Development?

Date First Published: 13th July 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Development

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 2/10

Learn more about what web development is in this article.

Web development, also known as website development, refers to the process of creating, building, and maintaining websites for the World Wide Web or an intranet that is hosted on a server. Web development includes all the tasks that are completed for building a website, which may include markup languages, client and server-side scripting languages, CMS and database management, and web design. Web development can be as simple as developing one static page of plaintext to developing complex online applications, such as web-based stores, social networking services, cloud computing services, and webmail.

Types Of Web Development

• Frontend development - A type of web development that focuses on what users see and the visual elements of websites that a user interacts with. Front-end development refers to the work involved in the graphical user interface of a website and what users see on their end. It can also be known as client-side development.
• Backend development – A type of web development that focuses on what users don't see when they use the website. This may include the databases and programming aspect of creating a website that works behind the scenes to deliver information to the users. It can also be known as server-side development.
• Full-stack development – A type of development that focuses on both frontend and backend development. It is a combination of the work involved in the interface, which is what users see and the databases and programming aspects that users don't see. Full-stack developers can create a website from start to finish.

How Are Websites Developed?

Websites are developed using a range of markup, client and server-side scripting languages, database management systems, and a CMS. The web development process includes the following below. For simplicity, the stages are Plan, Outline, Code, Test, and Publish.

1. Plan your website and decide what it will be about.

Before coding a website from scratch or creating any designs, you will need to know exactly what it will be about and what type of website it will be. You can write your plan on paper or in a word processor. Consider the following:

• What is the aim of your website?
• What is the target audience of your website?
• What type of website are you going to develop? (e.g. ecommerce, non-profit, elearning, news, blog wiki, social networking, media sharing, entertainment, search engine, business, mail, mirror, archive)
• What pages will your website have? List the pages that you are going to create.
• How will your developed website meet the needs of users?
• How will you ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including those with visual impairments and disabilities?
• How will you ensure that you meet the principles of web design, such as white space, consistency, ease of use, compatibility, responsive web design, golden ratio, and the rule of thirds?
• Will there be any risks and constraints in the development of your website?

2. Create website designs.

Website designs are not the final look and feel of a website. They are a blueprint, useful for thinking and communicating about the structure of the website that you are developing before any code is written. They are useful for understanding where the content, text, and images will be located on individual webpages. A website wireframe is most helpful for creating a design. You can manually draw the wireframe on a whiteboard or in graphics editing software or use online tools, such as app.diagrams.net.

You can also create a sitemap to outline a design. A sitemap is an illustration, showing a list of pages that a website will include. The homepage will always be at the top of the sitemap and below it will be the hierarchy of the website, which includes the directories and pages. It is not to be confused with a sitemap.xml file, which is what search engines use to find, crawl, and index website content.

3. Start coding your website.

Once you have finished writing plans and creating designs for your websites, it is then time to code your website. This is the main process of developing a website. You can code your website using programming languages of the web. Once you have finished coding a page, you can evaluate it through the W3C to check it for any syntax errors and deprecated elements. Markup and programming languages of the web include:

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

The basic and most widely used markup language on the World Wide Web. This achieves font, colour, graphics, and hyperlinks on the World Wide Web. HTML consists of hundreds of different elements and tags, all of which instructs the web browser on how to display content.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

A style sheet language used to define how HTML elements are displayed in a web browser. They can be used to adjust the layout, text size, font colour, background colour, and more. Without CSS, it would be much more difficult to create an eye-catching website and websites would be much harder to navigate.

JavaScript

A scripting language used to create interactive effects within web browsers. JavaScript can perform calculations, update and change HTML and CSS, display notifications in a web browser, and more. Almost all websites use JavaScript on the client side to control the behaviour of websites.

These are the 'big three' markup and programming languages of the web. Other programming languages include:

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor)

A server-side scripting language that is embedded in HTML pages. PHP is often used to create dynamic content, interact with databases, and perform calculations. Because PHP is a server-side scripting language, it is run at the web server before it is delivered to the end-user. This means that PHP code cannot be viewed in a web browser.

Ruby

An open-source programming language used to build desktop applications, data processing services, and automation tools. It can be used in web development.

Node.js

An open-source runtime used to run JavaScript code outside a browser. Node.js is often used to build backend services, also known as APIs. It is ideal for building highly scalable, data-intensive, and real-time apps.

jQuery

An open-source JavaScript library used to simplify JavaScript programming.

CMS

A CMS (Content Management System) is a web application allows users to create, manage, and edit content without having to code it. WordPress is an example of a CMS that allows users to write their content in a graphical user interface that looks similar to Microsoft Word. No knowledge of markup and scripting languages is required.

Users can drag and drop elements to their site in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface and edit their webpages in an appearance that looks the same as if it was published online. Plugins allow webmasters to extend the functionality of their website without having to write the code.

A lot of people ask 'Why spend all that time hand-coding webpages when I can just use a CMS to develop my web content?'. Using a CMS is a good idea when you need to quickly publish a website and don't have time to code. However, it is recommended to write your own code. Professional webmasters write website code and markup language from scratch. Creating a website using a WordPress or Wix template will give you limited design options as they do not allow you to edit the HTML of the template. By writing your own code, you will have full control over how your website looks and functions.

In addition, if you wanted to learn the markup and programming languages of the web and used platforms or templates to create a website, you would not be learning anything. All that you would be learning is how to use that platform.

4. Test your website

Once you have finished coding all of your webpages and have made a clear hierarchy, you are ready to test your website. Before you publish it, it is always recommended to inspect it to ensure that it works properly, it has no broken links, errors in the HTML markup, design flaws, missing tags, spelling errors, and other mistakes.

5. Publish your website.

This is the final step. Once you have finished coding all of your webpages and have made a clear hierarchy, you are ready to publish your website. You will need:

• A domain name. You can buy one from a domain registrar, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Google Domains. Domain names usually cost £10 a year. If you are building a temporary website, you can use a free subdomain, such as mysite.wordpress.com.
• A hosting provider – Hosting providers are what provide hosting services and allow you to make your website accessible to the public. Most hosting services will offer limited options for free and offer extra features for a monthly fee.

Difference Between Web Development and Web Design

Although the terms 'web development' and 'web design' are sometimes used synonymously, they do not mean the same thing. Web development refers to the creation, building, and maintenance a website on the World Wide Web, which can include both the backend and the frontend, whilst web design is a category of web development that refers to designing and managing the look, feel, layout, visual appearance, usability, and theme of a website (frontend).

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