This is the fourth of a 6-part website design and development series. The series covers creative web design, website SEO and marketing, user experience design, quality website development, stellar performance, and regular website maintenance.
What is quality website development? Start with a strong foundation, use best practices for quality website development, and 3 tips to build a great WordPress website.
Start with a strong foundation
Building a website on a strong foundation ensures it will last for many years. A strong foundation enables easier updates to the website and improves the user experience and performance of the website. These benefits span all screen sizes and devices, including screen readers and assistive technologies.
Best practices for quality website development
Quality website development can be implemented for all size websites and budgets. Here are 3 best practices in website development that result in a quality website.
1. Semantic HTML for good website structure
- Semantic HTML introduces meaning to the web page. For example, a <p> tag indicates that the enclosed text is a paragraph. Other examples are header tags <h1> through <h6> for headings and <blockquote> for quotes.
- Website structure is improved with the correct use of HTML5 tags. These include <header>, <footer>, <article>, and <nav> for navigation. Correct usage of these tags improves the website structure and organization.
- Search engines understand the content of a web page with good structure and this improves SEO.
- Assistive technologies work better on a well structured websites.
2. Attention to accessibility
- Accessibility is the practice of making your websites usable by as many people as possible. We traditionally think of this as being about people with disabilities, but the practice of making sites accessible also benefits other groups such as those using mobile devices, or those with slow network connections. — from the MDN web docs — What is Accessibility?
- More information on website accessibility can be found in the third part of this series on website design and development.
3. Stay focused on website goals
- The business goals of a website are not just for marketers, developers should build a website that works best for the target audience.
- Focusing on the target audience can mean developing a simpler website that will do the job well. It will load faster, work well on the devices most commonly used by the intended user, and using only the bells and whistles needed.
Build a great WordPress website
In addition to the best practices in website development above, here are a 3 tips that apply to WordPress websites.
1. Use quality WordPress plugins and themes
WordPress is easy to customize with themes and plugins. I look for themes and plugins that are well-coded, frequently updated, have good support, and perform well. In addition, I use as few plugins as possible to get the job done. This results in a faster website. It is also easier to maintain a website with fewer plugins (or you could say moving parts).
2. Keep WordPress, the theme, and plugins up-to-date
WordPress release updates several times a year. Themes and plugins have frequent updates as well. It is important to keep these up-to-date to keep your website secure and take advantage of new improvements.
3. Implement good security
Security issues can be prevented by keeping WordPress up-to-date as noted above. In addition, use a secure username and password, use a spam filter, like Google reCAPTCHA, on forms, and use a security plugin or service.
Summary
In conclusion, quality website development will result in a website that works well for the user and performs well across all devices. A well developed WordPress website will use plugins only as needed to deliver the best experience for website
Read more about working with me for quality website development on the website design and development page and contact me for a free estimate.
This is the fourth of a 6-part website design and development series. The series covers creative web design, website SEO and marketing, user experience design, quality website development, stellar performance, and regular website maintenance.