The website development work process is not as easy as you imagine. Every development has a different approach. The difference depends on the type of website, programming language, and resources you have. After knowing the types of website development, now here are the most common website development work processes:
1. Designing a Website Development Plan
First of all, determine the direction and goals of your website development plan. To make planning easier, here are the questions you need to answer. We also provide sample answers.
- What is your goal in creating a website
- e.g. kulkul.tech aims to offer its blockchain and app development services for business to get clients
- Who is your audience? What are they doing on your website?
- e.g. business owners and programmers who want to develop websites and their crypto
- Then, what type of website is right for your and your audience’s goals?
- e.g. a website for selling services. Equipped with a blog that contains informational content, insights, and tutorials.
- What content is produced on the website? What is the purpose of the content created?
- e.g. informative content, insight, and others. The goal is to provide value to the audience. So that it can increase brand reputation. When brand reputation rises, it will increase conversions.
- How to structure your website navigation to make it easier for your audience to find information?
- e.g. website structure with simple navigation menu and clear flow
- What is your budget?
To answer the questions above, you need to coordinate with several divisions—for example, website development, finance, and marketing. After the questions are answered, it will be easier for you to schedule a website design. Starting from development to the time to launch the website.
Also Read: How to Become a Good UI/UX Designer
2. Creating a Website Design and Development
A good website always starts with website design or website appearance. Well, this design consists of wireframe and a sitemap. A wireframe is the website’s visual interface that the developer will create. Wireframes do not contain design elements such as colors and logos. This feature only describes the elements to be added to the web page.
A sitemap is a sketch of the relationships between the various pages on your website. With a sitemap, website developers can assess the level of ease of finding information or services on a website.
Also Read: Best Website Development Service in Indonesia
Well, to make it easier to design wireframes and sitemaps, here’s a list of questions you can answer:
- What pages do you need?
e.g. company profile, contacts, company vision and mission, services and products, news - How to group various pages into a category?
e.g. company profile and vision, and mission are placed in the About Us category) - How would you organize categories and subcategories in a sitemap and website hierarchy?
- How are the sitemap and hierarchy displayed on the main page?
- Don’t forget to coordinate with your SEO team because the design of the website’s appearance will affect your SEO practices. The goal is to maximize website rankings in search engines.
3. Writing Coding for Website Development
The next step in the website development process is to write code. In this stage, web developers will use different programming languages and markup languages based on their parts and functions.
If by section, the example is for the front-end and back-end. Meanwhile, function design and interactivity are based on function, for example. Then, what are the programming languages and markup languages that are commonly used? Let’s start with the easiest and most important first, namely:
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language or HTML is a markup language used to structure web pages. Mark up language is a computer language that uses tags or signs. These signs will be read and translated by the computer into a website display.
The HTML will be saved in a file. There are standards or special formats in creating HTML files that must be followed. HTML is usually used to create or arrange headings, paragraphs, images, links, and others so that many people can see through web pages.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets or CSS help simplify creating a website by arranging elements written in a markup language. There’s a lot you can do using CSS compared to core programming languages like PHP. When using CSS, you can set the text color, font type, lines between paragraphs, column size, and the type of background used.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language usually used to create websites with dynamic website content. Dynamic content means content can move or change in front of the screen without reloading the page. For example, include the photo slideshow feature, animated images, poll filling, etc.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the three programming languages that foundation of website development. Apart from that, there are also server programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, and SQL. There are many other programming languages. Please read the following article in detail > 15+ Programming Languages that Developers Must Learn.
4. Create a Back-End Website
The website’s back-end manages the data to make the front-end work. For example, the back-end of the Facebook website will store various types of photos. So, the front-end can display your photo collection on Facebook.
Therefore, you need these two components:
- Database
to store, organize and process the data requested by the server - Server
hardware or software that functions to send, receive, and process data requests from clients or browsers.
The server is in the middle of the database and the client. The client will say to the server, “I need information X,” Then, the server will fetch the data from the database. Then, the data is sent to the client.
So, if you already have a database and server, a back-end developer needs to do the following:
- Coding
rules about how a website responds to server or browser data requests. - Database management
how your website will manage and process the website database. - Infrastructure
how the website is managed.
You can collect your website by buying a hosting service. You will get complete control and powerful performance to operate the website. This method costs money. Indeed, not all websites need a back-end. For example, a website that only displays text information. But, of course, now websites like that are rarely found.
Currently, almost all websites require a database. A simple website like a company profile needs a back-end to store photos. Well, that means back-end development must be learned if you want to be a website developer. Without back-end development, you can’t create a website that users need.
5. Create a Front-End Website
After designing the back end, it’s time to create the front-end of the website. In this process, web developers need a combination of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. The combined purpose of the three codings is to create website fonts, menu navigation, and responsive designs. In short, you will realize your wireframe plan and sitemap in this stage.
There are many ways to build website interfaces more easily. One of them is to use a front-end framework. You can create an attractive and professional website more quickly.
6. Using a Content Management System (CMS)
Feel like coding is too complicated? You can use CMS to create the front-end and back-end. CMS is usually automatically available in your hosting settings. By using a CMS, you no longer need to write coding. Because CMS already provides plugins to develop back-end and front-end websites.
There are many types of plugins that you can use according to the needs of your website. For example, you want to create an online store website. You no longer need to bother writing coding to add online store features. Just install the eCommerce plugin on the CMS. Your website will have features such as payment gateways, product catalogs, and more.
With these features, you will automatically have a website database, such as customer data, payment data, and product photo data. Not only e-commerce plugins. You can also install an SEO plugin on the CMS. For example, Yoast SEO and Rank Math. The goal is to maximize the website’s ranking in search results.
7. Determine the Domain Name
After creating the front-end and back-end through the CMS, it’s time to determine the website domain name. The method is relatively easy. First, you need to buy a domain from a hosting service provider. So, don’t forget to provide some fees.
We have a more economical alternative—the trick you just need to subscribe to hosting at GoDaddy. By subscribing to hosting alone, you get a quality free domain. We provide various hosting packages to suit your website needs. The duration of the subscription also varies with various attractive discounts.
8. Launching the Website
Don’t rush to launch a website after choosing a domain name and connecting it to your hosting. There are several things you need to make sure of, namely:
Website content review
First, check your website content. Make sure your content works well. For example, checking for misspellings in scope to the loading speed of images or videos. The goal is for your website to rank optimally. Not only that, make sure your content SEO strategy has been implemented correctly. For example, whether your content already uses relevant and potential keywords.
Make sure the website design is responsive.
First, check if your website is responsive. That means you need to make sure the website’s appearance can adjust to the layout of various types of devices, for example, the desktop and the smartphone. Then, how to check if your website is responsive? Calm down, don’t be confused. Read more in the following article > 6+ Ways to Check Responsive Websites.
Check website features
Check the website menu navigation and make sure the menus are working. After that, check whether the website features are working correctly. For example, the comment feature, payment gateway, and social media share feature.
Not only that, make sure your website loading speed is maximized. The goal is that later visitors will not quickly leave your website. You can see the complete method in this article > Leverage Browser Caching: Easy Ways to Increase Website Speed.
Secure and back up website data
Make sure to prevent data loss. The trick is to make sure the website security system is working properly. Don’t forget to back up your data too. Website security checks are not only done before launching a website. You need to do it regularly.
Website Development Learning Resources
After listening to the discussion above, maybe you are more determined to learn to code for website development. Therefore, consider the following recommended learning resources:
- TutorialPoints: a website that provides tutorials, ebooks, and video tutorials for coding website development. Available in the free version.
- Egghead: a website that is a group where web developers gather and share learning resources. So, you can access the material in the form of courses and podcasts for free.
- freeCodeCamp: a website that provides material in articles, videos, and interactive learning.
If you prefer to learn directly from practitioners, you can join the website development community. The following are communities you can join:
- Stack Overflow: a community where you can ask questions about coding programming. Other developers will answer questions.
- Mozilla Development Network: a community that provides learning about website development and the latest news about the world of developers.
- Reddit: a forum website where developers of all levels join. Interestingly, this website allows you to participate in more specific sub-topics, such as web design, JavaScript, or freelancing.
There are many more websites that provide free website coding learning materials. You can read more in this article > Free Coding Learning Guide.
Let’s Learn More Website Development!
Now you understand what is meant by website development. Website development is building and maintaining a website and starting from simple website creation to website applications.
With the increasing internet use, website development has become the most sought-after job. Therefore, website development is a science that must be learned to prepare for a web developer career. Interesting in developing a website? Let us know!