So what are the basic knowledge and skills you or your staff must have in order to design and develop a website?

• HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). This language is most used for web pages building. This language is used to code information to explain a web browser how to display a web page and even to tell the browser that it is actually a web page. Even if you are using special software (such as well known Adobe Dreamweaver) which helps you automatically create HTML code, basic knowledge of HTML is indispensable.
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Today’s web design trends dictate usage of CSS, as it gives a unique possibility to easily control the web page layout and appearance for unlimited number of pages. CSS also allows creating advanced visual effects for the latest web browser versions and at the same time to make quite a different design of the same page in case it is displayed in web browsers of older versions or those which do not support certain effects. Today’s latest CSS standard (CSS2) also allows creating of certain interactive effects which used to be done by other more complicated scripting languages (such as JavaScript). Therefore knowledge of CSS/CSS2 is a must if you want to keep up with the latest web design “fashion” and with what is called Web 2.0 design.
• Graphics editing software. Web design requires using a lot of graphics, that is why you are very likely to require expert graphic designers who would be able not only to create high quality graphic elements, to mix different images and to place them on a web page effectively but also to optimize graphics in order to attain the smallest possible size of a web page without sacrificing much on quality. The most popular graphic software used by web designers is Adobe software products such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, however they are not the only choice.
• Artistic eye and taste. Nowadays designing a website is like creating a piece of art and requires good sense of colors and ability to mix and match various colors and graphic elements in order to design a well balanced and attractive color scheme which would also correspond to company’s branding and look and feel.
• Writing skills. Content is one of the most important parts of any website. Webmasters have a saying that content is king and this saying actually reflects importance of good content. It is essential to have an original content on your website. The text should contain a certain percentage of keywords related to your business niche for your website to have chances in getting a good page ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) which will help your website to be found by targeted visitors who are interested in what you are selling and can become leads or customers. Therefore it is advisable to hire a copywriter who can professionally write informative and at the same time optimized for search engines texts for your website.

I have listed above only the basic skills and knowledge necessary for static web pages design. If you want to establish a professionally looking business website and organize the online selling of your products you will certainly need something more complicated than a static site. On-line stores require powerful functionality which may comprehend the intricate back-end (server side) programming to ensure more interactivity. You will have to have expertise in database programming which requires good knowledge of at least such scripting languages as PHP.

When building a professional website it is rather important to take into account usability issues. A professional web designer or developer is very likely to know how to create a website which will be correctly displayed in various browsers of different versions. A professional web designer will make sure the website’s navigation is user friendly and the whole site is convenient for using including easy-to-read text, well-balanced and eye-pleasing color scheme, easy to understand functionality and tools.

As you can see professional website designing and development requires involvement of a highly qualified team preferably with quite a long experience in the web design field. It’s only a small number of individuals having expertise in all aspects necessary to build a website which design and functionality are able to sustain the toughest competition. That is why it is advisable to hire both a specialist who can create a professional visual design for the website and the one who can make front-end and back-end programming.

So if you care about having a professionally built website to represent your business on-line, hiring a professional is a very wise decision. We can recommend you our team of professional web designers and developers to fulfill your web design projects of any complexity. Being located in East Europe, our prices for web design and development services are lover than those of companies in the USA, Canada, Australia and Western Europe while the quality is on the same high professional level. Please, feel free to contact us with your inquiries and we will be happy to assist you in building a unique website specially customized for your target audience and your company’s feel and look.