How is your website doing for your business? Does it need a boost for the new year? If so, maybe you should change the way you think of your site and your content.
Many business owners get web design mixed up with web development. The two are not the same. We turn to some experts in the field to illustrate the difference and offer a few tips in this post as to how you can promote your site and create winning content.
Understanding Design and Development
One designer on a web design site worded it like this:
“A web designer is graphic artist who develops and styles objects for the Internet.” He stated that web developers tend to be highly creative and energetic professionals who know how to apply their specific design tools to a project.
He goes on to define a web developer as “one that develops applications and functionality for the web.” (WebDuck Designs)
When we analyze these two definitions, we see that the main difference between the web designer and a web developer is that the designer is more about the creative process of creating a site that focuses on the visual aspect of the site. The developer is more involved in the functionality of the site. It is up to the developer to make sure everything works correctly and follows the technical specifications of a project or web server.
We could say that the developer is more involved in the web responsiveness aspect of a site and the designer is more into the graphics aspects.
But the differences don’t stop there.
Web Development Goes Beyond Your Website
Web developers also are more comprehensive in their approach to the content that they put out for websites. A web developer may be a business owner who is working on his or her site or it could be a web designer that is asked by a customer to help them add content to their site and other online properties.
The web developer takes a broader approach to creating content that will help the customer with their branding and seeks to create an entire web of material that will accent the brand of a particular company.
Can a Web Designer be a Good Developer, Too?
This is a good question and gets us thinking about what it takes to create a good website and then to take that concept and attach it to the branding of a company. A website is never a standalone entity. It does not work in isolation. Instead, it serves as the entry point for your product line or services. It is the ultimate place you want visitors to go to look into your brand.
But it also works along with other aspects of your web development efforts such as your blog, your YouTube channel, and much more.
How To Implement a Web Development Strategy
To create a successful web development plan, you should include at least the following elements:
- Front end elements– One of the essential elements of a website is the front end aspects. This is basically what a visitor or customer sees when they enter your site. It is the overall visual view of your website and includes your design, checkout system, and other elements.
- Navigation– How do your customers get around on your website? Is it easy to maneuver from one thing to another? Do you have the prominent components easy to find? Your navigation should be user-friendly to both desktop and mobile customers and should offer limited frustrations for your visitors to avoid bounce rates.
- Page layout– The way your page functions is partly due to the way it is laid out. Does it function well based on the current layout? If not, this would be an aspect of web development that should be seriously looked at and altered to increase the usability factor.
- Structural components– Structural components involve a variety of different components that have to do with the functionality and usefulness of a site.
- Graphics– Graphics use pictures rather than words to communicate and connect to your target audience. They should be strong and communicate something important to your visitors. They can include photos, images, buttons, and infographics, as well as your logo. These are all critical when you are trying to increase the level of engagement of your visitors and turn them into customers.
- Content(various)– Here is where the overall development supersedes the design itself. The design only involves your website itself. The content requires you to think beyond the confines of your website to your off-site content, including blog articles, YouTube videos, podcasts, and every other type of media that you use to promote your brand.
When you think about the differences between a web designer and a web developer, it begins to become apparent that the best scenario is to use both the strategies of a sound designer and the strategies of a developer to create your website and web content.
The site is the primary focus of your business. It includes your logo, graphics, your products that you offer on your site, and all of the components of your website. They should work together from both a visual aspect and a functional aspect.
But you should also focus on the content outside of your website. You should brush up the look of your blog, YouTube channel, and infographics to fit your brand. Having consistency with your content will help your visitors identify you over different platforms.
The Importance of Social Media to Your Website
Pay attention to your social media presence as well. Make sure that you are creating an appealing presence on social media that promotes your credibility and increases your engagement across different platforms.
Make your site (and all of your web content) “mobile-friendly.” You will be penalized by Google is you do not create content that works on mobile devices as well.
When it comes to choosing a web design company, make sure they understand the importance of and the differences between web design and web development. They should have the skills needed to create stunning websites using all of the technology required to achieve this. But they should also pay attention to the broader aspect of creating dynamic, user-friendly content that works.
Finally, your web designer should have a sense that you need more than just a website to have success on the web. They should have access to some different tools that will help them to utilize the best techniques that include coding, graphics design, and multimedia applications.
If you can avoid frustrating the customer and provide them with a positive experience on your site, you are going to be able to make a better impression on your target audience.
At webdesignteam.com, we do have an understanding of web design techniques and web development. We know that, while the two concepts are different, they must work together in ways that complement each other.
We can help you create winning content that will please both search engines and people and combine the best elements of design with the best of the development end to create the perfect site for your business.