Web Development, The Forgotten Hero

— April 7, 2017

Have you ever looked at a beautiful building a bridge or any other structure and thought to yourself, “Wow that’s amazing!”?

Well if you talk to the designer involved they’ll probably tell you about what their inspiration was for creating it. But the engineers are the ones that actually worked it out with the math in order for that piece to stay erect and not collapse in on itself.

Web Development, The Forgotten Hero

That does not negate the need for design, or quality design, but behind every designer is a developer, engineer or team to make the creation usable and a reality. Development is somewhat of an unsung hero, especially in web. Your website may look good but have you ever thought that the reason why it works on mobile devices across all screen sizes? The short answer is because the developer took the time to ensure that it does.

Another example of behind-the-scenes work is HTML mark up. This is the code responsible for the nice way your site looks. However, it needs to be written in a specific way, otherwise it looks awkward and Google actually counts that against you. Search engines no longer just look at your HTML markup and then judge where you are placed on SERP (Search Engine Results Page). They look at ALL your files on your website.

And then there’s the big one, SEO

Search Engine Optimization is something that is paramount when launching a website if you want to get found on the Internet. The web developer understands how these things need to work beyond the front-end design (what you only see on your monitor). Front-end developers use different APIs (Application Program Interface) in order for your website to be it’s best for users and search engines. They ensure that your website loads quickly so that Google favors you over your competition, because people don’t like to wait for things.

The truth is, everything is in the little details. In fact, some of these details you will never see because you’re not a web developer. Let’s look at this from my personal angle. I’m not a carpenter. I have no idea what’s the best nail, screw, or tool to use to put up a wall and ensure that it doesn’t collapse on me in the middle of the night. I trust the carpenter and people that are experienced to do the job and build a structure correctly. It is a must that it lasts and can withstand the weather.

Makes you wonder about all those houses that were built in a week on that one show that used to air on TV.

An average day for a Web Developer

An average day for a web developer is juggling more than one thing at a time and solving more than one problem at once. We don’t build one website at a time, and never get to work on one thing steadily. Developers typically have many things moving at once through their workflows as they wait for things on clients and submit things for review.

March 30th is love your web developer day. So if you know one, give a shout out to them or thank them for what they do. Appreciate all the details they tie up and take care of so your online presence is working well. Not just in front of you on your website but to the search engine’s and for all the visitors that will come to it in the future.

OK, so March 30th is not web developer day. I just made that up.

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Author: Jason Davis

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