Website Development

Website development is a huge subject and in many ways is different to website design. Web development (broadly) takes into consideration the planning and construction of your website (the building of the website), how it is put together, and taking the design of your website and physically creating the "working model" online. This is basically building your website from the plan. So if you're looking for a website builder please read on ...

What I do:

I provide website development to clients in Cambridge and Saffron Walden. In some cases I will take the design and create the website working alongside the client for instruction however for most of my clients I will take a brief and ask enough questions to gain a full understanding of exactly what they require from their website. From this plan the website design is constructed and, once you're completely happy with the result, I develop the website online.

Different types of website development

My main experience is developing websites from the ground up, bespoke for the client. This has given me the experience I need to know the workings of a website inside out.

Website development in Cambridge

Bespoke website development

Websites can be developed bespoke for you which most of my clients in Cambridge have opted for, this gives you the most control over the design and functionality of the site. From a "blank piece of paper" you can develop whatever you want in your site and have your users interact with your site how you want them to. This can include complex animation, functionality to guide users through various processes and more.

By developing a website bespoke you also ensure that it is as "lightweight" as possible which means minimum load times (and everyone hates waiting for a page to load!). This is done by ensuring that you only have what you need, not all the additional extras that a lot of template websites have.

Template website development

Other Clients want full control of their content and only require a straight forward website, this is where a template site may be suggested such as WordPress, this will give you control over the content of the website for the minimum cost.

A template site is fine for basic sites which may include blogs & news areas and encompass basic elements such as animation (scrolling images etc), contact forms etc.

Bespoke CMS (Content Management System)

If you want the best of both worlds this can also be achieved by with bespoke website development, creating a bespoke design and creating a bespoke CMS to manage the site. Yes this isn't the cheapest option but it will ensure you get exactly what you want and ensure that your website has been developed with the exact functionality you require - something that unfortunately template sites such as WordPress cannot achieve.

When to develop a CMS

WordPress & Bespoke CMS development comes into its own if you want to really administer your website yourself. However this, in many cases, is not the best option. I would always suggest when developing a website to concentrate on 3 main parts:

  1. How it looks (the design).
  2. Making sure it's as well developed and fast loading as possible (the development).
  3. Concentrating on getting your website found.