Building a Website for Your Business on Your Own
By: Ryan Attelle
The number of people using the internet is at an all time high, and there is no prospect of it declining. Any serious business needs to understand that if they plan on staying a head of the pack, they must have a website. This, of course, is something a business could try to take on it self, but the reality of the situation is that web design is not that easy. In fact it can be down right difficult. Lets take a look at the very basics of web design to get a better understanding of everything that is involved.
At the first mention of code, the average person just pictures lines and lines of meaningless strings of numbers, letters and symbols. This can be difficult to wrap your head around at first sight. These lines and lines of “code” actually have a set structure to them, that to the trained eye, make a lot of sense. What can be tricky however, is that there are a number of different, what are called “languages”. That is, there are various ways to write the code, and different ways to read it as well. When looking at the “front end” of web design the most common languages can include HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIT and PHP. There are lots and lots of other languages that stem form these and yet even more that exist on there own. Learning these languages is comparable to learning how to read any forging language, like Spanish, or German.
One could argue that web design is more difficult that other forms of coding. It is at the front end portion of a web design project that everything has to come together. It is were all of the other pieces of the puzzle need to properly fit. This is where both Spanish and German have to get translated into English, all at once. Lets look at the different pieces that make up most websites.
The HTML is the foundation of the website. This is the place where all the elements of a web page are listed. It is were all of the pieces get put together. HTML works hand in hand with the CSS. This is how you add style to the page. The CSS tells the web browser, internet explorer for example, what the page is suppose to look like. For example, if I wanted the title of my web page to be in black letters, the CSS would contain this information. Then there is Javascript. Javascript controls the functionality of the web site. It can take care of various actions. For example, if you want an animated button, a button that changes size and color when hovered over or clicked, this would be accomplished by utilizing JavaScript language. Lastly we look at PHP, which controls most of the web sites back end code. This code can include validating forms, storing information in data bases, and much more. Many would consider PHP the backbone to any website that has a sophisticated level of functionality to it.
When all of these elements are put together, it can get quite complicated, and nearly impossible for someone who was no prior knowledge of programing. This is because your putting all of these various pieces together to form one web page that functions in unison. It is a task that many have take on them self's. Some have been successful but many wast a lot of time only to get very frustrated. In cases like web design, sometimes it better to leave it up to the pros. With so many internet users these days everyone needs a website for there business. It's just a question of how you go about getting one.
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