Responsible for both the appearance of a website and its technical components for optimal performance or capacity, web developers are experts at designing and creating websites.
Often working on the development of a website from the planning stages through completion, web developers are tasked with deciding which basic framework, application, design, and quality content will best drive consumer traffic as well as make their client’s vision a reality.
Daily Duties for a Web Developer:
- Meeting with clients or managers to discuss the needs of the website and its audience
- Creating various applications and advanced graphics for a website
- Writing code for the web design programs in the computer programming languages of HTML, XML, or JavaScript
- Collaborating with other team members to determine the content for the site
- Working alongside graphic and web designers to determine an optimal layout
- Integrating graphics, text, audio, video, and links into the website
- Monitoring the search engine optimization and amount of traffic
- Ensuring that websites operate correctly without errors or broken links
Web Developer Job Description
What do web developers do? While the majority of web developers work full-time, around a quarter are self-employed to work on building websites for all types of businesses from a home office. Other web developers can find employment in computer systems design services, data processing services, information technology services, finance or insurance companies, academic settings, or grant-making organizations.
Most web developers must work closely with clients, managers, website users, web architects, computer programmers, web designers, webmasters, and are other members of the team involved in building a new website.
Skills Needed to Be a Web Developer
In most cases, web developers have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in web design, computer science, information technology, or another related field. Web developers must have a thorough knowledge of programming languages, graphic design, and multimedia publishing tools. Since technology is continually advancing, it is also essential that web developers keep up-to-date on the newest tools and computer languages throughout their career.
However, being a successful web developer means more than just possessing the essential computer background knowledge. In their daily duties, web developers must demonstrate concentration to write detailed code at a computer for long periods, use creativity in designing an innovative appearance for a website, and be detail-oriented to avoid any minor HTML errors that could stop an entire page from working. Web developers should also possess strong communication and customer service skills to respond correctly to user requests or questions.