Web Development 101: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

If you want to have a better understanding of how the Internet works and some basics of web development, you came to the right place.

We created this beginner’s guide for those who are just getting into the world of the Internet. Even though it sounds like it is something hardly understandable, it really isn’t.

This guide consists of basics about how to create websites, how the Internet works, and a couple of other things that will help you as a beginner to understand these basics better and easier.

What is web development?

In order to better understand how it all functions, you have to understand what is web development. The term web development usually refers to the main non-design aspects of building web sites such as coding.

So the main part about web development is actually coding. Coding is a programming process, aka the implementation of algorithms in one of many programming languages.

It is actually the main part of web development, as coding is responsible for everything you are able to see, read, and click on while using any website. Coding is also responsible for making websites mobile-friendly.

There are even 3 types of web developers:

• front-end developers – They make visuals that the user sees in a browser.
• back-end developers – They deal with the servers and are responsible for coding.
• full-stack developers – They work with databases, servers, systems engineering, and clients.

It is best that you deepen your research on your own about this topic. Figure out which type of developer you would want to be.

But it is best that you know a little bit about everything as it is all connected together. Web development is a deep subject with a lot of things to cover but we won’t delve too deep since this is a beginner’s guide.

What is a web page?

Web pages are an everyday thing for all of us, but not many of us know what a web page actually is. In order to understand it better, you have to look at a website like it is a book.

A web page is only one of the pages that contain a combination of text, images, videos, and links. In a way, programmers are like writers. And while writing (codes), programmers deal with a lot of issues, for example, broken links.

In order to open a web page or a website, you will need to have a browser on your computer or any device that you are using. Web pages and websites are identified by a distinct Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

What is a browser?

Browsers are actually software applications. These are the things you used to get to this guide: Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc.

What browsers do is retrieve URLs from a web server and they then display them on a user’s device. But keep in mind that browsers and search engines are not the same things. 

What is a search engine?

You need browsers to access the Internet but you need search engines to conduct a search like “A beginner’s guide to web development” or “should I use CRM and keep things organized?”.

You type in phrases and keywords into a search engine like Google. Imagine that the World Wide Web is a library and the search engine is the person who works there and will help you find what you are looking for as fast as possible.

IP address? Have you heard of it?

Of course, you have heard of it, but what exactly is an IP address? It is a unique numerical address that identifies every computing device. This IP address helps you receive the information you are searching for.

The browser you are using connects to the server using your IP address and then the server sends back the requested page back to your IP address. Sounds as simple as finding where to store your photos online when we put it that way, right? 

What is a domain?

You have probably heard the word “domain” before, but you probably don’t know what it is. A domain is like space on one of the bookshelves in the World Wide Web library.

You purchase this space and that is the only space your book (website) can have. A website can’t possibly have two different domains the same way there can’t be two websites on one domain. The URL carries the domain name.

.com, .net, .org are just some of top-level domain extensions. This extension shows you the purpose of the website you are visiting. .com is used for commercial purposes, .edu is used for educational institutions, etc.

So how to create a website?

Now that you know the basics of the Internet and how it works, you are almost ready to start making your own website. You will need to do a lot more research and studying, but even what you know now is enough to understand how you can make a website on your own. Read more about the web development companies on theymakedesign blog.

The easiest way to create a nice looking website is to use a CMS (Content Management System). WordPress is the most popular CMS. But if you are more into coding, you will need a text editor.

This is where you type in your code. There are many text editors and choosing the right one is very important.

Atom, Brackets, and Sublime are just a few of the most popular ones people use on a daily basis and love. They all offer different features and we suggest you do some research on that as well before choosing the one you think is for you.