Introduction

The world’s technological advancement has changed everything. The moment everyone could access the internet on April 30, 1993, the World Wide Web became more widely used. Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, mostly known as CERN, stated that the World Wide Web would be free for anyone to use and develop, with no fees to pay, which made a revolutionary impact on the world.

Even though the total number of websites that existed then is like a speck of dust compared to the present figures, more and more websites have appeared, whether for personal or business purposes. These contribute to the history of the world wide web and influence web content, including the website development process—not just in Singapore but in the other parts of the world.

According to Internet World Stats, the number of internet users in 1995 was only 16 million, which is 0.4% of the global population. Compared to the current figure of internet users, it is safe to say that everyone is becoming more connected 24/7, especially now that anyone can access the internet with mobile devices.

Proper website development requires building a fundamentally responsive website, which implies that everyone may view and read the entire page without pinching the screen to zoom in on the text and images.

What Exactly Is Website Development?

The term “website or web development” refers to the process of building a website.

A website developer created every website you have visited over the years, including the one you are reading right now. Website developers ensure that a website works well and visitors will have a great user experience. They accomplish this by programming the entire website using various coding languages and testing the user experience before launching the website to go live and becoming accessible to the general public.

LEARN MORE: Everything You Need To Know About Web Design And Development

Before anyone can perform proper website development for a company in Singapore or anywhere else, they must have a solid knowledge about it, from its importance and basics of website development to how it works and how much it would cost.

Part I: Importance Of Website Development

Even though the existence of the internet is relatively new, it is here to stay for good. Besides the continuous growth of global internet users, it has become an integral part of everything. Professionals, students, and essentially everyone use the internet to conduct research, educate themselves, communicate with others, and keep themselves entertained.

Given the wide internet usage, it is no wonder that the website development industry is becoming more in demand. Since 62.5% of the world’s population is online, investing in website development has become a necessity for businesses. This process will help them create a website where they can interact, connect, communicate, and persuade their customers to take action.

What Does A Website Developer Do?

A website developer in Singapore is someone who excels in programming. To construct a website from the ground up, they use coding languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, Python, Ruby, jQuery, C#, and many others. They bring the web design ideas and concepts prepared by website designers to life.

Besides that, it is also their job to guarantee that a website will remain fully functional even when there is a large number of visitors browsing through the web pages. A website developer will usually perform web maintenance once the website development process ends and the website become accessible to the general public.

How To Become A Website Developer?

Becoming a website developer is not as difficult as it seems. Besides having the willingness to learn the coding language, you should not be afraid to put everything you have learned into practice. Doing so will help you improve your programming skills and become a better website developer.

You need to go through these two steps to become a website developer.

1. Determine The Skills You Will Require

Before becoming a website developer, you should choose the skills you need for website development. The coding language used highly depends on the type of website developer you want to become: front-end, back-end, full-stack website developer.

Below are the coding languages used by each type of website developer.

2. Join Website Development Projects To Gain Experience (While Learning)

Once you determine what type of website developer you want to become, start learning the coding languages mentioned above. This will help build the necessary skills and knowledge you need so you can perform website development.

Besides learning from home by watching online tutorials on YouTube or enrolling in a coding school, consider joining website development projects. You can also be a part of the coding community to learn the tips of other website developers and be inspired by their works. Doing so will help you gain experience and hone your skills and knowledge more.

Types Of Website Developers

Similar to how different the coding languages that each type of website developer uses, their job in website development is also different from one another. Below explains how different their roles are in website creation.

Front-End Website Developer

They are the ones responsible for the visual elements of a website. These are the features that visitors will see as they navigate the web pages. Even though the job of a front-end website developer most likely overlaps with website designers, their primary role is to build excellent interfaces that can lend a hand in the user experience of website creation in Singapore.

Back-End Website Developer

Back-end website developers are programmers who work behind the scenes of website development, and their primary responsibility is to ensure that the entire website functions well. To ensure that a user’s action goes well, the back-end website developer will verify that the coding connects the website to the web server and that data flows without interruption.

Full-Stack Website Developer

Unlike the first two types of website developers, this one is often known as a jack of all trades since they can work as front-end and back-end web developers. That means businesses who will hire a full-stack website developer in Singapore can rest assured that they can perform front-end and back-end website development.

Part II:  Understanding The Basics Of Website Development

 

The key to an aesthetically pleasing and well-functioning website is to understand the basics of website development.

Understanding each factor involved in website development will offer you a better understanding of how it works. Your broad perspective would aid in the website creation of the professionals you plan to engage with to help build a website for your business.

Become familiar with the basics of website development by taking notes of the following:

Website

A website is a collection of files stored on a web server that connects to the internet and shares the same domain name. For example, this page where you are currently at is a website. You can access this because that file is on a web server, saved and stored for the general public to see and on a computer.

Web Page

A web page is like a chapter of a book that anyone can access online. However, a web page may contain text, images, and videos, depending on what the website owner wants to publish and launch live.

Web Browser

It is a software application that allows anyone to access everything on the World Wide Web as long as they have a stable internet connection. Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge are some examples of web browsers.

Website Domain

A domain name is a portion of a web address that specifies the actual location of a website on the internet. They are the universal resource locators (URLs) that anyone can type into the address bar of a web browser and go to a known website, such as www.google.com.

LEARN MORE: The Anatomy Of A Website Address: What Is A Domain Name?

Search Engine

After opening a web browser of a user’s choice, they can use search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing to find relevant information about the search intent they type. After clicking on entering or the magnifying glass button, the search engine will show many results related to the search inquiry.

Website Hosting

It is the next step after the website development process. A website needs to have a good website hosting so it can connect to the internet and become accessible to the general public when they type a website’s domain name online.

Text Editor

It is a computer programme that allows a website developer to write the code to programme a particular feature or an entire website. To increase the productivity of website development, a website developer must choose which text editor to use.

Sublime Text, Notepad++, Atom, VS Code, Vim, and Brackets are some commonly used text editors by website developers.

Web Server

A web server is a software and hardware that responds to website owners’ and web visitors’ requests via the World Wide Web using HTTP and other protocols. The primary function of a web server is to display website content to users by storing, processing, and distributing web pages.

HTTP

HTTP is an acronym that stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is an application-layer protocol for transmitting hypermedia documents. The purpose of HTTP is to connect web visitors and websites to the web server that houses all the data saved on a website.

As the HTTP reads a website request to access information, it will send a code to the web server, will receive a response from the web server, and translate the reply by showing the content of the website’s web page.

Part III:  Grasping The Website Development Process

 Whether you want a website developer to build a simple blog site or a complex e-commerce store, the website development process is not an easy feat. From conceptualising the web design to the deployment stage of a website will often take five to six months. If you are not tech-savvy and lack knowledge in programming, the result may be different from what you imagined it to be and might not be on par with professional website developers’ work.

ALSO READ: Website Design & Development 101: All the Basics You Need To Know

Here are the steps a website developer goes through in the website development process.

8 Steps of Website Development Process

 

STEP #1: Forming A Plan

For a website developer to form a plan, they need to establish their goals: the website’s purpose, the type of web visitors, and budget. Knowing the answer to these factors will help a website developer determine what structure to create to improve the user navigation experience, content to post on a website, and how much the website owner is willing to spend for the website creation in Singapore.

STEP #2: Creating A Wireframe

Setting up a website is like constructing a building since it also starts with a blueprint, which most website developers call a wireframe. However, unlike a blueprint, a wireframe is just a vision of what a website developer plans to create based on the suggestion and objective of the website owner.

 

 

A wireframe will help website developers monitor their progress in website development. It will help them visualise where the text and graphics should appear on particular web pages. For a website developer to know how these will show on the front-end, they will use “blank boxes” and “dummy text”.

Creating a wireframe during the website development will help the website owner know the draft version of their website. They can ask the website developer to make some changes based on their feedback.

STEP #3: Drafting A Sitemap

You might think sitemap and wireframe are the same, but they are different from one another. The main difference between these two is that the wireframe has to do with the visual elements of a website.

A sitemap, however, demonstrates how web pages relate to each other. It is like a flowchart that shows and describes which web page a visitor is on a website. Think of it like a book that has a book title, chapters and title of each chapter, which helps the readers know which part of the story they are reading.

 

In short, visitors will be able to grasp the entire layout of a website using a sitemap.

STEP #4: Writing The Code

The next step a website developer will need to do in the website development process is to create the codes. These codes are instructions written using the coding languages mentioned above.

Depending on which part of the website development process a website developer is working on, use a different coding language for the front-end and back-end. Even though the coding languages are different from each other, they work harmoniously to build a website.

Below are the coding languages most commonly used by website developers.

HTML

The acronym HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, which is now the standard coding language to create a basic framework for a website since December 1999. Most front-end website developers use HTML because it can help them design highly interactive web pages.

CSS

This acronym, on the other hand, stands for Cascading Style Sheets. This coding language adds life to the website’s appearance by setting the style behind the HTML structure. The website would be unattractive without CSS, which is why it has become commonly used by website developers.

JavaScript

JavaScript, also known as JS, is a coding language that enables every website developer to create dynamic web content by adding various elements. If you stumble on a website with 2D or 3D interactive maps, the website developers who built that use JavaScript in the website development process.

STEP #5: Building The Front-End

You are ready to develop the back-end and front-end website development process of your website now that you have the wireframe and code. If you hire two different website developers for each area, you need to guarantee that they can work together simultaneously.

As mentioned above, the front-end plays a vital role in a website’s visual elements since that is what visitors will see and interact with when they are browsing through the web pages.

To build the front-end, the website developer in Singapore should decide the font type, site navigation tools, and other user interface components. It is also the part where the website developer will check for browser compatibility and maximise website responsiveness.

Throughout the process of front-end website development, you should be able to see the initial vision proposed by the website developer using wireframe and sitemap.

STEP #6: Building The Back-End

Unlike the front-end, website developers who are responsible for the back-end areas should be able to understand the relationship between web servers and databases. Otherwise, they cannot programme the data that enables the function of the elements shown on the website’s front-end.

For example, your followers on Instagram can view your images and reels on your profile account since the back-end of the social media platform stores it in their back-end ecosystem.

This scenario works because the website developers initially programme the back-end with a logic code, which is the one that defines how each element will interact with the user once it sends and receives approval for its request.

To successfully build the back-end, website developers should decide on the type of infrastructure they should use.

STEP #7: Acquiring A Website Domain Name

You are a step away from publishing your website now that you have completed the front-end and back-end areas of the website development process. The next step you need to do at this point is to acquire a website domain name.

As mentioned above, a website domain name is like the physical location address that helps people find where your business is online. To guarantee that your potential customers can access your website quickly, you should ensure that your domain name is easy to remember.

Here are some tips for choosing a memorable domain name for your website.

• Make it easy to pronounce
• Keep it shorter for faster recognition
• Opt for .com since it is the most popular

STEP #8: Readying To Go Live

Once you have acquired a domain name for your website and linked it to your chosen website hosting, the entire website development process will end. That means you are ready to launch your website.

However, you should know that having a website does not guarantee instant exposure. Even though most online experience begins on search engines, you still need to promote your website using digital marketing campaigns to others to raise your brand awareness. Implementing digital marketing strategies will help your target audience know that you exist and consider browsing through your web page.

ALSO READ: Is Your Website Going Live? Here’s How Digital Marketing Can Help

Conclusion: Outsource Your Website Development Needs

Since almost everyone is online, it only makes sense for businesses to do the same. The rule of thumb in the business world is to be where your customers are. Without proper website development, it would be impossible for a business to have a website where they can interact, connect, communicate, and persuade their customers to take action.

In that case, consider outsourcing the website development needs of your company in Singapore. Engaging with the right experts with years of experience in website development, you can rest assured that your website will be aesthetically pleasing and well-functioning.

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Need help with website development? Look no further! As an award winning digital marketing agency, OOm can help you with website creation and website revamp. Contact OOm at +65 6690 4049 or leave a message on their website if you are interested in our website development services.