Web developers require a set of skills for them to be considered good at their jobs. The kind of skills they need depends on the kind of web developer they want to become. Web design, if that is going to be their focus or scripting and coding, if they want to forego the design classes, or configuration of the security protocols. The decision to be good at one of these is a developer’s to make. Regardless of this though, there are essential skills that a good web developer needs.
The first is knowledge in search engine optimization, even if it is just the basics. Web optimization is what sells a website, and knowing how to use it is a prerequisite for every web developer. While it may not be the web developer’s place to determine which keywords exactly are to be used, they should know how the chosen ones (presumably by the client) will be applied to the pages. SEO resources are abundant online, and self-learning is entirely possible, as the concepts offered are easy to understand. In addition, there are SEO tools offered for use by web developers for making their site more optimized.
A good web developer needs to understand how to code the sites they are working on so they run on all the popular browsers, without appearing different on either one of them. A good website is supposed to run on all browsers, and this means that a web developer has to learn some cross-browser debugging. Some knowledge in HTML becomes indispensable, as this is the basis for most browsers. Carrying out numerous tests at the end of the web development process is crucial to ensure that the site is visible by all the popular browsers. Loading times with each should be consistent, though delays may sometimes be blamed on the browser and not the website.
A web developer needs to know how to process images for websites. Considering that some images are heavy in size, a web developer ought to know how to reduce the image size so that they don’t take too much bandwidth space, and compromise on the loading time of the website. Image processing is usually done using Adobe Photoshop. It allows the making of quick changes to images, without needing the expertise of a graphic artiste. Knowledge in JavaScript is considered important too, especially where animations in the website being created are considered a necessity.
It also helps when a web developer has some basic knowledge in copyrighting the websites. Duplications are common online especially with developers who run out of ideas and borrow from others without their consent. For a web content developer, knowing which online resources allow the usage of their content, especially images is important to avoid infringements and law issues that may follow.
All in all, a web developer needs a sizeable skill set for them to stand more noticeable in a crowd. The above listed skills, as initially pointed out, should be possessed by every good web developer, without exceptions.
