Much like a woodworker has go-to tools and processes to turn a nondescript piece of lumber into a beautiful piece of furniture, a web development team will use different tools to take a website’s design from a blank page to a fully functional site. Each of these has a role to play in the broader picture of digital marketing, where website responsiveness, page load speed, and scalability all have a part to play in reaching and moving consumers.
Why so many tools?
Back in the early days of web development, a developer might only have used a basic text editor, HTML, CSS, and an FTP client to upload website files to the internet.
Now, the landscape of web development tools has become more complex. Ironically, all this added complexity makes the process of creating websites more efficient. Conversely, it demands a deeper knowledge and a broader skillset than ever before. Our web development team works tirelessly to stay ahead of these developments, and we’re always looking to the horizon for what’s next.
Why do we use the tools that we use?
There are many, many more tools that you can employ to build a website, but here’s a few reasons why we use the above-listed software and languages:
- Community Backing: It is incredibly helpful to have an online community you can tap into for the purpose of troubleshooting, asking questions, and learning about the tools you’re using. Every tool we use has great documentation and a dedicated community base.
- Efficiency: Since we use WordPress, we rely on a few important plugins to handle complex tasks. Gravity Forms, for instance, makes a turnkey task out of adding complex forms to a website.
- Organization: Building a website can be a daunting project, so it’s important to stay organized. Certain tools are implemented to help with version control, file structure, and collaboration.
- Portability: Let’s say you move your website from one team to another, or decide to radically change your content management systems. It’s crucial that new developers and those in charge of your web presence understand how it’s built, so we focus our efforts on industry-standard tools and practices.
What do the tools do?
We’ll spare you from the murky haze of detail about exactly what each tool does, but here’s a list of things our tools help us to achieve:
- Speed
- Flexibility
- Manageable code
- Versatility
- Organization
- Optimization
- Security
- Simplicity
- Scalability
- Testability
- Non-developer comprehension
- Search engine optimization and friendliness
Pay attention, for the industry’s a’changin’
The Web Development team at Gruen Agency works hard to stay educated on the latest trends in web development. The world of digital marketing changes as quickly as the technologies that empower it, and some of the tools we use today are probably not the same tools we will be using a year from now. Because the internet is still relatively new, it’s natural that web technologies are constantly improving and being tweaked. It’s exceedingly important that, as digital marketing professionals, we stay at the forefront.
