How to Build an Optimized Website: Website Development

Spock is perhaps the most famous left-brained character--he'd be a great choice for a website developer (photo source). 

In a prior post, we introduced a simple method for inexperienced website owners to build and optimize a new website. To build a successful website, consider four key jobs:

1. Website Design

2. Website Development

3. Content Creation

4. Conversion Optimization 

To successfully complete these jobs, a new website owner may need the help of one or more experienced professionals. Unfortunately, many professionals--especially web design and development professionals--do not know how to build and optimize a website for online success. 

As we noted in our previous post: For aspiring website owners, it is essential to guide the work so that optimization is considered from the beginning. To do so, you should possess a basic understanding of design, development, content creation, and conversions.

Today we will discuss website development. 

Website Development

If website design describes a website's “front-of-the-house” appearance and usability, website development describes the “back-of-the-house” programming.

Working in tandem with your designer, your developer should make your website work for both users and search engines like Google.

Many new website owners presume the same person can perform both design and development. Of course, this is possible. In reality, most design folks have no aptitude for development, and vice versa. 

Since these tasks are so different, requiring different parts of the brain, you will rarely find a pro who can perform both with skill. 

Dominant right-brain folks are often more intuitive and creative. Website design is about the appearance and feeling of your website, so the best designers are often right-brained.

Dominant left-brain folks are often more logical. Since website development is about the technical background of the website, the best developers are often left-brained people. 

The Work of Web Development

When your designer is finished creating the look and feel of your site, your developer will take control. The developer's work is based on the designer's work.

Guiding this process you must assure that the designer creates a site that can be easily optimized. In certain cases, a website can not be optimized because the designer included unworkable elements. Web crawlers, for example, cannot index Flash technology.

Coding each page, the developer will make the site browser-compatible while assuring the site loads quickly. Many developers can make a site work for browsers, but many of the same developers make mistakes that prevent search engines from crawling your website. As a result, your site will not be added to the search engines' databases--not because your site violates SEO guidelines, but because search engines have no access to your site.

Simply put, many web developers simply do not know what they're talking about--especially in terms of website optimization.When hunting for a developer, make sure he/she can explain the technical elements to you in simple language. And, of course, make sure you learn a little about development so you can hire only the most intelligent, logical website developer--someone like Spock!

Quality website development is the second step to a fully-optimized website Check back for part three: Content Creation.

If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

Contact us