So, you're a web developer and need to give your marketing team just a little training on how a website works... Or, you're a marketer and not sure exactly how to best communicate with your web developer... Either way, you've come to the right place! Marketers really only need to understand a high-level view of how a website functions.

3 Basic Web Development Concepts

1. Front-End & Content Management System

With most websites, there is a front-end and a content management system.

Front-end is what the user first sees when they go on your website. The content management system (or the "back-end") is where the content is held. Content such as images, blogs, pages, etc., can be hosted in CMS systems such as, WordPress and Wix.

2. HTML

HTML is the backbone of the website.

It sets the site's "structure" and labels content using different "elements" and "tags." For example, a website's heading may look big, but it's more than just how it looks like. The heading may be in a big font-size because that's the most important part of the site.

Some important tags to keep in mind are: Source: W3Schools

Want to learn more about the semantics of HTML? Check out my blog, Think Like THIS Before You Learn HTML.

3. CSS

CSS styles the HTML code.

CSS is where the fun begins. This is where you get to style your website's design, colors, fonts, etc.

Here is an example of a CSS stylesheet: Source: W3Schools

Concluding thoughts

It's all about communication.

Understanding the 3 basic concepts can help marketers communicate effectively with developers and gain a perspective of the amount of time it takes to make updates, changes, rebrand, etc. For example, if the website's heading needs to be blue, the marketing team could say that the <h1> tag needs the hex code to be #0000FF. If marketers get the basics down, collaboration with their web developers could get a lot easier!

Thanks for reading my blog!

Izzy

Follow me on Twitter and join my Timeout Tuesday's: twitter.com/izaye_visuals