5 WEB DEVELOPMENT INSIGHTS

Web development is crucial for any business since your website has become such an essential hub of information and interaction with customers. You won't develop your website yourself, but you will ultimately be responsible for the final product and how it represents your business. You need to know as much about the industry as possible to have a good conversation with your web developer, find a good match, and help shape the future of your site.

It is imperative that you work with a web developer who is competent, reliable, and who you can trust to help you grow and succeed online.

You will be working closely with your developer for a long time, perhaps spanning many versions of your site as your business evolves. Therefore, it is critical that you have a good working relationship with them and feel confident that they understand what your business is trying to accomplish.

Here are five key things you should know about web development before you embark on any development project.

1. Web development is not a one-time project

"How long will it take to finish our website?” It is one of the most common questions small business owners ask eagerly to consider this job done. There is no easy answer and it denotes that you don't understand the importance of maintaining a dynamic online presence in order to remain competitive and grow.

You should recognize that the initial creation of your site is really just the first step of its lifecycle. Growing businesses require evolving websites that can accommodate growing needs. There may be a need for additional functionality, the site may need to be divided into different segments, or you may need to offer new ways for visitors to interact with content.

The website will also need to be developed over time to meet the ever-changing demands of the digital age. It's hard to believe that a site that met cutting-edge specifications fifteen years ago looks so dated now! Then there are the technological changes in devices, browsers, and multimedia formats that all affect how your website is viewed by users.

It is possible today's best practices that will become outdated, ineffective, or even unusable a year from now.

There's more to it than just the code. Humans need to be considered in all aspects of a project. Your web developer should be able to discuss your business and ideas with you without fear. You want to choose a team that feels comfortable, communicates well, and understands your core objectives.

Web development is probably going to be a long-term relationship, with multiple projects to keep your business updated. You can be certain that they will offer you full maintenance and improvement support.

2. Put user experience at the center of web development

Don't let looks fool you! Web design is a very appealing field - especially if you're moving from an older to a new one. Look for some sites that are slick and stylish.

However, appearance is only one aspect of the whole picture. Your website needs to perform if you're going to gain customers.

It's undeniably important for your website to look great and reflect your branding, but don't focus too much on aesthetics at the expense of performance.

You should avoid:

• Pages that load slowly due to fancy animations. What is the use of stunning and stylish effects if the visitors leave before they can see them?
• File sizes that are too large, such as videos or code, can also slow down your site. If you are working with a web development team, they will be able to provide you with some valuable advice on how to minimize bloat and calculate how to only load items as they are needed.
• Browse with innovative options. Interactive videos, pictorial menus, and sliding horizontal tabs can enhance your website and make it stand out from the crowd, but they still need to be intuitive and inviting enough to keep visitors browsing.

Functionality is important, and it matters a lot. Visitors should be able to find what they are looking for easily on your site, and the site should guide them through any transactions or marketing funnels in an intuitive way.

All of the business activities that you need to perform should be handled by it. Thus, it is important that you communicate these needs to the web developer clearly. Your business may serve various purposes. Think carefully about them before launching them.

Which shopping features are important to your e-commerce website design if you are selling online? Will your website provide you with real-time inventory counts through a connection to your stock management system? Is it necessary to assign barcodes to your parts or products? Can you keep customer information secure without additional security or encryption?

Perhaps your site will need interactive elements, like allowing customers to customize their products. Maybe you have complex product variations that customers will have to choose from during their purchase, such as size, color, or material.

Don't assume your web developer will automatically include the features you need. Be as specific and descriptive as possible when you describe your needs to avoid confusion, frustration, and unforeseen costs.

Remember that you know your business better than anyone else - including the web developer.

You will have to tell them what you think is best for your business so they can know. They know websites, but they don't necessarily know what is best for your site. developers will be able to design a site that suits your company's needs, but it is important that you outline your organization's objectives and processes to them.

3. Develop a management plan

Having a web development team you can rely on for support is great, but you will gain greater value from your website if you can manage ongoing content updates yourself. By doing this, you can better control your costs and spend your money on more technical aspects. This will also make changing your plans much easier since you won't have to wait around for others to adjust their plans.

It is therefore imperative that you choose a content management system (CMS) that your team and SEO company can use to regularly add new content such as blog posts, products, and web pages. Similarly, it should be simple to manage and update existing content, so you can keep the information up to date and fresh.

Have you ever visited a website in July to see their Christmas holiday hours? Do you remember seeing a Mother's Day promotional message when you visited in October? Sometimes it has not been posted for 3 months or more! These things do not give the impression that someone from your business is watching. Visitors might question the accuracy if there is no recent, up-to-date, and current content. Whenever there is a small amount of doubt, your competition will end up winning. This will only lead to losing customers!

Although adding and editing content may seem difficult, there are many popular CMS platforms that are easy to use. The most popular platforms for small business include:

• WordPress
• Drupal
• Joomla
• Sitefinity
• Concrete5
• Prestashop

You can consult with your web developer about which platform is appropriate for your site. If they make any recommendations, ask them how they feel about each. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses.

In addition, if you use a larger, more established CMS platform such as WordPress, you will be able to find plenty of training and support to help you and your staff.

4. You don't have to begin from scratch

As we just mentioned, there are already a number of high-quality CMS platforms available for development. The core platform of a common CMS is the same, but the appearance and behavior of websites built on it vary drastically. Customizing a site begins with the theme - the overall appearance. Themes can be customized to give you the look, feel, and functionality you desire. A developer can also create a new, unique theme for you.

Plugins and apps can be used to add additional functionality to your site.

There are so many ways to customize a CMS, that there is really no need to reinvent the wheel, and a custom-coded website has several drawbacks:

• more expensive
• and difficult to maintain without the help of the original web developer
• no support community

On the other hand, content management systems such as WordPress have been used for hundreds of thousands of websites for years and are robust and well tested.

In addition, there are existing communities and experts ready to offer advice and help with just about any problem.

Furthermore, these CMS platforms will reliably adapt to ongoing digital changes, allowing for future scalability to meet the requirements of your growing success!

5. Ensure You Maintain Ownership

The final point is one of the most important, but also one of the most commonly overlooked by business owners during a web development project.

It is always important to make sure all elements of the business are in your name. The following are included:

• purchase of domain name
• registration of domain
• hosting
• any purchased extensions, plugins, or apps,
• stock images, videos and audio elements
• licenses for the CMS or other software used to build your site

If your web developer makes these purchases for you and bills you, make sure the purchase is done in your name and that any receipts or license agreements accompanying the purchase are given to you.

These documents will allow you to prove ownership of the elements, but they will also allow you to easily upgrade or renew any items that need to be replaced in the future.

In situations like these, your web developer may need to take care of these technical issues on your behalf, but ultimately, you ought to be able to manage the whole site.

In this case, it's about controlling the property of your business, not about trust issues. Can you imagine if your web developer had registered your domain name in their name but then fell ill and was unable to provide you with the necessary renewal information? The company may be sold or cease to be operational - what happens to the website? Perhaps their business is sold or stops trading - what happens to your website? In the case of a disagreement with them, access to your site could be blocked altogether. Sadly, it's not uncommon.

When developing a new website, understand these five factors to save time, money, and frustration.

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