In a (very simplified) nutshell, web development involves the planning, creation, execution and ongoing maintenance of websites. A web developer may be either a sole trader or an entire company. Regardless of their size, their scope will include all website elements; the design of the homepage, layout, navigation, site structure, functionality and user interface of a website.

A web developer should be able to write customised scripts to in response to specific client briefs. This requires professional training and education or extensive industry experience in scripting languages.

A good web developer will ensure that a website is customised for a client’s products and services, meets the client’s brief, is functional and caters for the intended audience or customer base. A website should promote products or services in a dynamic way that highlights the company’s unique selling point.

Web design and development requires knowledge of many different aspects including CSS, HTML, Javascript, Flash, Quick Time, XML, PHP, Coldfusion scripting, Search Engine Optimisation, e-commerce, online marketing, effective web content and information architecture.

There are also a couple of different types of website pages which web developers will need to be savvy with. The first type is dynamic pages. Dynamic pages can be modified or changed quite easily, usually through the use of a Content Management System. The second type is static pages. Static pages cannot be easily updated. They are hard coded which means that only web programmers can alter them (using that tricky web code stuff).