The 8 most common skills for a web developer

There’s always going to be a demand for web developers as their skill, knowledge, and experience heavily contributes toward your online presence, and ultimately, how much money your business makes online. But are the essential web development skills enough, or should employees have more advanced knowledge?

Developers need a combination of hard and soft skills, and should constantly be developing their own knowledge by undertaking frequent training. Web development is such a fast-moving industry, with changes occurring almost weekly, that upskilling and refresher training is imperative. 

In this post, we’ll take a look at the eight most common skills your web developers should have (on top of the basics, of course).

What skills are essential for web development professionals?

Before we take a look at the most common skills a web developer should have, we first need to consider the basics, regardless of their deeper understanding:

• A high level of computer literacy
• Strong attention to detail
• Numeracy skills
• Creativity
• Communication (written and verbal)
• Time-management
• Motivation
• Able to take constructive feedback
• Team-oriented

Without these basic web developer skills, even the most technically-gifted developer will struggle to work as part of a team. Teamwork should be the focus of any web developer who wants to succeed.

The 8 skills every web developer needs

On top of the above key skills, which any employee should look to develop regardless of their role, web developers should focus on the below eight important skills. With these skills, web developers position themselves as invaluable members of your team and put your business in the best position possible to deliver the best service to your clients and customers.

Languages: HTML, CSS and JavaScript

HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the bread and butter of any web developer. CSS and HTML complement each other in the creation of web pages, with HTML working as a foundation and CSS adding style.

JavaScript is used in the creation of visuals, such as images, graphics, and videos. This helps make your website engaging, which greatly increases traffic and conversions.

For anyone looking to start a career in the industry, upskilling in coding is one of the first web developer skills you should learn.

Libraries and Frameworks: Bootstrap and jQuery

Libraries are helpful because they’re valuable, time-saving resources. Why write code every time when you can borrow parts of what you’ve already written? JavaScript and CSS are both frequently used with libraries. Frameworks is similar, and provides a more standardized option.

However, it’s important to note that these tools aren’t designed as a shortcut or workaround - they shouldn’t be used as an alternative to learning to code. They exist to help make a web developer's job easier and faster.

Knowledge of Git and GitHub

Code versioning tools such as Git and GitHub can help restore order when changes made to your website don’t quite go to plan. They’re also great tools for collaborative working, which can be invaluable as more and more businesses embrace remote and hybrid working.

Because your developers will be making regular changes, having the ability to revert to previous versions will save your website from unnecessary downtime, and therefore stop you from losing revenue.

Responsive & mobile design skills

In an age where people can view your website on a variety of different devices, responsive design is critical. Not only will people visit your site using a desktop computer, mobile phone, or tablet, but they could browse via a games console, smartwatch, or even their refrigerator.

Because of this, your website needs to adapt to any screen size, because if it doesn’t your bounce rate will be high which will cost you revenue.

Testing & debugging skills

Testing and web development go hand in hand - it’s how developers identify whether pages contain any errors. It’s also up to the developer to fix any potential errors, and ensure everything works as intended. A web developer should strive to be a perfectionist so they can ensure your website is fully functional.

Cross-browser development

Similar to how your site needs to adapt to screen size, developers also need to make sure the site is responsive to all browsers with cross-browser development. This doesn’t just include popular browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, but other lesser-known and uncommonly used browsers (and those used on smart devices too).

CMS and e-commerce platform knowledge

Many sites will be centered around a CMS (content management system) or e-commerce platform. Having CMS developer skills is especially important, as it enables the site to manage and publish content - such as blog posts - quickly and easily. Using a CMS also allows for multiple users to work on the site at any one time.

Problem-solving skills

One thing a web developer is guaranteed to face is problems. That’s why all web developers must have strong problem-solving skills. From figuring out implementation to fixing errors with the code, there are many problems faced by developers on a daily basis - all of which require creative thinking. That means resilience and determination are also important, with some problems requiring far more effort than others.

Go1 has an extensive library of web developer training courses

Go1 offers a range of online web developer training courses to upskill your web developers. For more information on how Go1 can help your business provide cost-effective training for your employees, book a demo today.