Best practices for web development in 2022

Web development, in today’s fast-paced world, is constantly changing and evolving. It is not a secret that technology is necessary for our lives and web development is a necessary skill for creating online projects in 2022.

The web development industry is no exception to this constant evolution. This is a thriving market that is growing at an exponential rate. In the last five years, the number of web developers has increased by 15% each year. The demand for skilled workers in this field is also high, and many employers in the Western countries are willing to pay more than $100,000 per year for employees with experience.

In today’s article, we will present the best practices for web development in 2022 to enhance your customer engagement.

 

What is web development and what does it mean in 2022?

The process of building and managing websites is known as web development. It is the work done behind the scenes to make a website seem nice, function swiftly, and give a consistent user experience.

Web developers are in high demand and will remain so for the foreseeable future. There is now a shortage of web developers, and this situation will only improve for individuals who choose this career. They are in charge of creating and developing websites and applications. Individual pages, e-commerce websites, and platforms are all created by web developers.

 

Best practices for web development

Every business wants to increase site traffic and user engagement. To grow your business, there are some practices to take into consideration. Even if you are an experienced professional or a web developer beginner here are the 8 best practices you must follow.

1. HTML, CSS, JavaScript are still the fundamentals of front-end development

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a computer language that is used to create most web pages and online applications. A hypertext is a piece of text that refers to other pieces of text, whereas a markup language is a set of symbols that notifies web servers about the style and structure of a page.

Developers employ HTML code to specify how browsers display web page components such as text, hyperlinks, and media files.

HTML is used to add text components and establish content structure. For building a professional and completely responsive website, on the other hand, HTML is insufficient. To produce the majority of the website content, HTML also requires the assistance of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript.

CSS is used to create style elements such as backgrounds, colours, layouts, spacing, and animations. JavaScript adds dynamic functionality to the website, such as sliders, pop-ups, and photo galleries. These three programming languages are the foundations of front-end development.

2. Write only by using the coding languages you master

If you're interested in working with a website, it is important that you understand the coding languages of the site you work with. Not understanding them could result in poor quality work or a bad experience for your readership.

Web developers embrace technologies in a variety of ways to assist them in the development of websites. These include:

- Using HTML and CSS

- Using CSS and JavaScript

- Using PHP, ASP.NET, or MySQL

- Using Ruby on Rails, Python, or Node.js

All these have advantages and disadvantages. Some coding languages apply better for certain projects, others for a different kind. Each one offer the web developer skills he should master for getting the project done. Sometimes he even has to combine two or three different programming languages.

But it’s always up to you for the path you want to take on while learning the skills to become a web developer.

3. A good navigation system improves the UX/UI of your websit

Navigating websites doesn’t have to be a challenging task. To make websites easier to use, a navigation system that is simple but also intuitive is needed.

Navigation systems have evolved significantly over the years. They now provide users with a better experience with a lot more information and options at their disposal.

The homepage of your website contains the most crucial information, including all of your company's brand assets and contact information. The homepage should also have an image thumbnail or high-quality photo that captures the essence of what you sell and what makes your company worth visiting.

More importantly, your website should be as mobile-friendly as possible. Don’t forget that 70% or more users access the majority of the websites from mobile devices, smartphones or tablets. It is important to have your website rendered correctly on each device.

4. Take UX/UI into account- user experience and user interface

A mock-up is more affordable to modify compared to the cost of deleting a project that your users do not wish to utilize. A useful tip to remember is that 70% of development efforts should go into research and design, with the remaining 30% going toward programming. The development step will be much less complicated if you understand the potential audience and build a user-friendly design!

Whenever building a new website or a new platform on web, have in mind the use of that project. UX/UI is about the experience the user has when navigating on your website. If the user is happy, then the time spent on the platform increases, along with the chance of him interacting with the pages that bring revenue.

So, test the early version of your project with a group of friends, with some beta testers or with the help of professional testers, if you allow this. Thus, the project can offer its future users and clients a good experience.

5. High performance in web development is also about the download speed

People cannot afford to wait for a slow internet connection, nor for a slowly loading website. The 2-second-rule means that a website should load in 2 seconds or less. Pretty challenging, right? Yet, studies show that this is the rule in 2022.

It is critical for high-traffic websites to have a high performance and a quick download time. A user will not have the patience to wait for the page to load and will close the tab and choose another competitor’s website. This will affect your website optimization and your site will not rank high on Google.

You have to optimize the database for large websites. For example, there is no need to load scripts on all of your website's pages. If a function isn't essential but somehow still loads the system, you could wish to remove it.

Check your website in Pagespeed Insights from Google. You will notice a score pops up in relation to the performance of your project. The higher the score, the higher your chances to optimize on Google.

Apart from that, please take into consideration the mobile-first-indexing rule: Google ranks websites based on their performance on mobile. So, fix your mobile rendering issues first.

6. Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of business success online. With the help of SEO, companies can become more visible to consumers and establish brand loyalty. Businesses no longer need to rely on word-of-mouth marketing since consumers may now find them through search engines and social networking sites.

We cannot possibly offer you all the SEO tips here and probably you, as a web developer, will not be in charge of SEO optimizing the project. Yet, it is advisable for you to understand that, for a website to get a better score on Google, it is important for the optimizations to start in the very early stages of the development.

Our advice for you is to work with an SEO expert when developing the platform, or at least ask for his expert opinion before making it live.

7. Protect your website database at all times

It’s like in contact sports. The referee tells both the contenders to protect themselves at all times. We play the referee’s role here and this is what we tell you to do, especially in 2022, when the phishing or ransomware attacks have been increasing year after year.

When you store sensitive information on your website, you want to make sure it is secured. You will definitely want to protect your site by implementing security measures such as using two-factor authentication and encryption settings.

Better start with very good hosting. It is the first step to secure your project. If the hosting doesn’t have security protocols implemented, then all your work can vanish overnight, not to mention the costs with the lost clients and with developing a new project from scratch.

Moreover, if you want to ensure the safety of your database, you will need to implement a backup plan. The backup plan should have a mechanism in place which will restore the content from an external source if anything happens.

Other data protection measures to consider and apply in the development process include database protection, access rights allocation, and HTTPS (Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol) connection.

8. Use CSS Resets

CSS resets were designed to solve incompatibilities between user agent style sheets. A CSS reset is a set of styles that are applied to a page before any other custom styles, with the goal of creating a more consistent base across browsers. A CSS reset is a regular practice in web development, however many inexperienced developers fail to do so. As a result, the UX can be destroyed because of the cross-browser rendering problems.

 

Final thoughts on the evolution of web development in 2022

A web developer should go through all the practices listed before. If he needs to grow his online business, though, he also can use some ways to increase the website traffic such as:

- Content marketing - Create content that is relevant and helpful for your audience.

- Social media - Engage with followers on social media and make sure you're posting regularly.

- Search engine optimization - Make sure search engines know where your site is found and be consistent with the content you provide.

- Targeting certain keywords - Use tools such as Google Analytics to figure out what people are searching for when they visit your website.

- Keyword research tool - There are also software tools that can help you find the most relevant keywords for a given website such as Keyword Planner.

At MCRO, our team of top notch architects & full-stack engineers works with the latest technologies and tools to help you accomplish your business goals. We build modern, scalable web applications that are custom tailored to your needs and growth goals.