How to Become a Web Developer

If you have thought about becoming a web developer but are not sure whether to go for it or not, one thing is for sure: coding skills are in high demand and are likely to earn you a great salary. This alone is a good enough reason to make most people at least curious about pursuing a career in this field. If you are one of them, this blog will tell you everything you need to know about how to become a web developer.

First things first, what is a web developer?

Put simply, web developers build and maintain websites, such as the one you are on now. They create every site we explore on the web, and your experience can be either exceptional or not that great, depending on how good a job has been done.

So, what does a web developer do?

Some of the tasks of a web developer are:

1. Write web pages using code

2. Build WordPress sites

3. Develop web-based applications

4. Maintain and enhance all of the above

In order to do these, there are 3 development specialities you should be aware of:

1. Frontend development – This represents the features on a website the user can see and interact with such as dropdown menus.

2. Backend development – This is the ‘root’ of coding. The part you don’t see, which deals with applications, databases and servers.

3. Full-stack development – This combines both front and backend.

Why become a web developer?

Latest figures show that jobs for web developers are still on the increase and will spike by 13% between 2018 and 2028, meaning jobs in the field will continue to be in good supply.

Advantages of being a web developer:

1. You can work from home

2. You can use these skills in your day-to-day life, or to create and maintain websites for your own business

3. You can work as a freelancer

4. You are in a very profitable industry

For more benefits of becoming a web developer, you may also be interested in our blog post about the benefits of learning how to code.

How do I become a web developer?

You may be wondering, “do you need a degree to be a web developer?” Well, you’ll be pleased to know that you don’t. Although it may help with employment, all the relevant skills and knowledge can be learnt on your own with the help of online courses, classroom training or books.

Here are some of our top tips to become a web developer:

Learn basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript

If you want to be a web developer, you will need to know the key coding languages of the web, which are:

• HTML – This dictates the structure of the website.

• CSS – This controls how it looks.

• Javascript – This will make the website work.

There are plenty of introductory web development courses online which can help you get started. While learning on your own is good, these programming courses can help you to understand things you might struggle with on your own.

Get familiar with UI and UX

UI stands for ‘User Interface’, while UX stands for ‘User Experience’. While a developer does not need to be a design expert, there are some things they should know about how websites look and function. Learning the fundamentals of UI and UX will allow you to learn more about how the website is supposed to work and how to create a better user experience for all users.

Learn the basics of WordPress

58% of websites are WordPress powered, so as a web developer you need to be well acquainted with the system. The best part about WordPress is that, once it’s all set up, it’s very easy for clients to add content themselves so you won’t have to micromanage it.

Have some SEO knowledge

You may wonder why this is important, but the two domains intertwine a lot. For example, HTML can help SEO by telling search engines what to look for in order to rank the page properly. In addition, clean, well-organised code that provides a good experience to the user will always be looked highly upon by Google. Of course, you don’t need to be an SEO “expert”, but some SEO courses will be useful as a web developer to get a basic understanding of the topic.