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Over the past decade, web design and SEO services have grown to be one of the most profitable solutions in the digital marketing industry. This comes as no surprise, given that 86% of small businesses in Australia now own a website. But of course, as with any thriving industry, there is also tough competition.
If you want to succeed in website design and development today, you can’t get by with just a basic understanding of the discipline. There are many moving parts to oversee and specialists need to master a broad range of techniques.
Aside from possessing an extensive skill set, providers of web development services also need to keep an eye on current trends, as well as understand how audiences navigate websites and how this influences their decisions to convert.
To ensure your success, here’s a list of the essential skills needed for website design and development.
Essential Skills for Website Design and Development
To cope with the eternally evolving technologies and trends of the digital marketing world, here are the essential skills that developers need to not just survive, but thrive in the industry.
A pulse on the industry
To become a great provider of web development services, you need to stay ahead of the curve. This entails learning new technologies and programming languages, as well as keeping up with industry trends.
Quora and StackOverflow also have a plethora of discussions that will give you insights on upcoming technologies. Of course, you can also head over to the SEO Services blog for industry updates. You can check those out during breaks or read them during your spare time.
In-depth understanding of users
Ask any seasoned web development and SEO company and they’ll say it’s not enough to just follow the industry. Web designers and developers also need to understand their users and how these users will use their product.
Analytics tools such as Google Analytics and StatCounter are long-time favorites for gathering basic metrics on user interactions. For instance, if a huge percentage of your website’s visitors are mobile users, then maybe it’s time to think about optimizing for mobile.
Checking your site’s analytics will trickle down and facilitate other skills, as you have an overview of all the things you need to work on to ensure a great browsing experience for users.
Programming expertise
Of course, you can’t provide web development services if you don’t know how to code. Aside from mastering HTML and CSS, the fundamental pillars of Web development, you’ll also want to learn JavaScript.
JavaScript is one of the higher-level programming languages, preparing websites to be more functional and interactive. It will help you create better experiences for users, letting you write special features directly onto your sites.
Graphic design
You can’t offer great website design and development solutions if you don’t have a mind for the visual elements that make up a website. A stellar web agency is skilled at translating an organisation’s attributes to the web by working with elements such as colour, images and even the right amount of ‘white space.’
Great graphic design will give a huge boost to any website by increasing its professionalism, visual appeal, usability and brand value. Visual appeal, specifically, is vital to a website as it promotes communication of concepts and ideas to viewers by stimulating the senses and increasing a feeling of connection.
Content creation
Web development and SEO go hand-in-hand, mainly because what goes onto the pages (be it text-based content, infographics, vidoes) affects the SEO quality of a site. In fact, content is considered one of the top ranking on-page SEO factors.
Many web developers focus on web design and SEO but let poorly developed content creep into the site. To ensure you have a fully developed website, you can hire experienced writers to collaborate with your website design and development team to create compelling, engaging and traffic-driving content for your site.
Platform-specific development
Once you’ve got design and content, your web developers will translate all the various files into the website’s code for the different platforms to read. At this stage, it’s important to ensure that the people who are building the site have expertise in the platform you plan on using for your clients.
Additionally, make sure you develop your site in a specific way that all content types appear beautifully on the smaller screens of mobile devices.
Time management
Yes, you also need soft skills in website design and development. Time management is especially key, especially when deadlines are always just around the corner. In order to stay efficient, it’s vital you manage your time as best as you can. Even the best developers struggle with it, so here are some quick, actionable tips that you can do to manage your time wisely.
- Make a to-do list. As a web developer, you have to maintain a regular checklist. It will help you accomplish each and every task in an efficient and streamlined manner.
- Set reminders. Reminders will help you perform specific tasks at the right time.
- Use the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule states that the relationship between input and output is rarely ever balanced. When applied to your website design and development work, it means that approximately 20% of your efforts produce 80% of the results. If you find some daily tasks eat away too much time without producing desirable results, do away with them. You’ll be surprised at how much time you spend every day doing things that take too much of your time without you getting enough out of them in return.
- Communicate. In a web development and seo company, remember that you’re part of a team. If you get stuck on a task, don’t waste your time trying to fix or proceed on your own. Communicate and collaborate with your teammates to get a better solution.
Testing
All providers of web development services should be able to test their code in various browsers. It may be easy to test for your own personal browser of choice and ignore the rest but remember, online users visit websites using different browsers. After all, the world wide web is all about diversity and the browser landscape is vast and diverse.
JavaScript testing also falls under this category. Web developers need tools to detect and debug errors in scripting. Browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari all come with built-in tools that let developers step through JavaScript and execute code in an interactive console. It only makes sense that if you are going to write code, you must be prepared to ensure it works.
Responsive design
Today, many modern consumers use their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to conduct online searches. In fact, around 45.2% of internet traffic in Australia occurs on mobile devices.
In turn, websites need to adapt to this trend. When sites aren’t consistent with mobile devices, they won’t display well. The results? Searchers will instead go to a competitor’s site.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
In modern-day marketing, web design and SEO services work as a tandem. Often, they’re the driving forces behind a successful website.
SEO is currently the most effective way to increase a website’s rankings on Google and gain more organic traffic. Websites that don’t implement SEO won’t show up high enough on the search engine results. If a website isn’t on the first or second page, it may as well be invisible.
Page upload speed, site navigation and domain credibility — these are all website design and development elements that affect the SEO ranking of a site. Optimise these and it won’t be long before the website you’re working on shoots up in the rankings.
Security
Last but definitely not the least — security. Security is a top priority. Every web development and SEO company must understand how cybercriminals and malicious people can use their products to attack the sites or even users.
If your web developers keep up-to-date with the latest industry trends, they should also be familiar with the industry’s security concerns and common yet effective defenses.
Stay Ahead of the Website Design and Development Game with SEO Services Australia
As previously stated, web design and development is a discipline that continually evolves. In order to stay competitive, you’ll need to add new skills to your arsenal. But as providers of web development services continue to increase, standing out is going to get tougher.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do this alone. If you need help strategising and developing a great website for your clients’ brands or businesses, consider reaching out to experienced web developers to drive your goals.
At SEO Services Australia, we have an experienced team of web designers and developers who build company websites, online stores and more. From front-end development down to content management, we have all the skills to ensure we launch great websites.
Fore more information and enquiries about website design and development, don’t hesitate to contact us today.