Brooklyn residents may be known for their tech-savviness, certainly compared to other parts of the country, but this doesn't mean that they always have the skills to perform more advanced online tasks. Given the well-paid jobs in web development these days, gaining these skills is something of a priority among many New Yorkers who are starting out on a career in tech. What are the key skills you'll need to become a professional web developer or to come up with your own site for your own business? Read on to find out.
Front-End Coding
To begin with, web development is an applied discipline in computing. Therefore, you won't need a degree in computer science or the ability to code in ones and zeros to become a successful web developer. Instead, you'll need to acquire co-called front-end coding skills. These include a basic understanding of HTML or CSS, the tools that web developers use to alter the layouts, fonts, sizes, and more of webpages. You can try this yourself by web hosting your own site and trying out different page arrangements with these tools. They take a bit of getting used to but aren't particularly difficult to master from a technical perspective. Remember, too, that hosting your own site will mean you have a digital home, somewhere you can use to showcase your burgeoning skills as a web developer.
Responsive Design Skills
When websites were new, they needed to meet the demands of static computers. People would typically visit sites from a desktop computer with a monitor displaying the contents. Nowadays, more people visit websites on smartphones and tablets, and they interact with them in different orientations. Therefore, you'll need to gain responsive design skills which means the sites you develop will function seamlessly no matter on which sort of device it is visited. The rise of mobile web surfing has caused a headache for some web developers but it has also created opportunities for forward-thinking ones who have updated and adapted sites to meet today's demands. In some cases, you can even get paid to acquire the necessary web development skills as you learn, such is the demand for developers nowadays.
Search Engine Optimization
Websites might look great but that's only useful if they attract the attention they deserve. Being noticed online means only one thing, optimizing a site for search engines, such as Google or Bing. To go about this as a web developer, you need to learn SEO, or search engine optimization, methods. There are many different tools to help your websites get noticed so learning them all takes time. No single method is a winner. Instead, they work together to help get sites ranked higher and higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). When you provide good backlinks, high-quality content, fast-loading pages, and metadata on each part of your website, you should find it starts to function better with more and more visitors.
Conclusion
With a combination of SEO, front-end coding skills, and knowledge of responsive design principles, a career in web development is just around the corner. Few people regret learning these skills which look set to be in demand for many years to come.
