These days, building a website can be a purely design-oriented task thanks to the plethora of web builders that allow you to drag and drop various elements and use templates that can be customised to your liking. You don’t really need to focus on the technical aspects of building a website because it’s just not needed. Everything is handled for you and it’s not something you need to spend time learning.
But that’s not true for all websites.
If you’re looking to add specific features to your website then it’s extremely important that you consider learning about the technical side of website building. Here are some ways to help you get started.
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Test with free tools before you invest money
There are loads of free tools and systems that you can use to practice with before you decide to invest money. For example, an Application Programming Interface (API) can help you scrape a lot of data that can be displayed in various ways on a website or even be used to help optimise your website. You can use a public API to help you learn about interacting with different applications before you decide to invest in a paid service for a specific web API or an API for some kind of application.
Don’t be afraid to use trial and error
One of the best ways to learn about website development is often through trial and error. For example, changing something in your source code or settings, saving the changes, then seeing what it does can help you understand the various functions and programming languages that are used in website development. This is a much more hands-on approach than just reading a book and it allows you to get comfortable with the idea of coding. It can be a little discouraging at first, but once you get accustomed to all of the words used in programming, it can be a surprisingly effective way to speed through the basics of a new programming language in the future.
Have some kind of goal in mind
It’s always good to start with some kind of goal in mind before you decide to learn about the technical side of website building. For example, if you want to speed up your website, then you may want to learn about how to optimise the various web applications that you use. Similarly, if you want to offer up-to-date information on things such as cryptocurrency prices, then you should learn how to incorporate an API into your website features.
Consider taking online lessons about website development
It can be hard to wrap your head around some of the concepts of website development, hence why we’d suggest that you take some online lessons to learn more. There are loads of lessons and tutorial videos on YouTube if you’re looking for something free, and there is a plethora of blogs and websites dedicated to free learning resources. However, you can also go the professional route and consider using a skill-sharing website or academic courses.
