Website programming plays a leading role in propelling any business and enhancing its presence in a world that has become essentially dependent on the Internet. Now the website is considered the main interface for your business, as it helps you provide your services to all customers, regardless of their geographical location, in addition to providing them with various types of direct support and keeping them informed of everything new.

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What is meant by website programming?

Website programming is the process of writing the code necessary to complete a service or publish any information, so that everyone can access it through the Internet. The website code and all its content are placed on dedicated computers called hosting servers, and these servers have fixed addresses. These servers give each website a fixed address, so that any device connected to the Internet can access it.

Occasionally; Concepts such as: Website design Website development and website programming. Simply; Website design means setting the general appearance of its pages and the way content is displayed and distributed, to achieve the best experience for its users, in addition to determining the type of technologies necessary to accomplish the services it provides.

While website programming means putting the design into practice by writing the necessary codes, using programming languages ​​designated for this purpose. While the concept of website development is the most comprehensive concept and refers to the process of building a website; Starting from prioritizing ideas for the site, through writing its code, and ending with publishing it on the hosting server.

Why should you program a website for your business?

There is no doubt that the first thing you do to learn about a product or obtain comprehensive information about a specific brand is to search for it online or search for the website of the product or company, as it serves as the official interface for them. There are many reasons why programming your business website is vital to your business growth, including:

Reaching the widest segment of customers

You may already be running a successful and profitable local business, and you may have a significant number of loyal customers, but as in any business, business size will be your fiercest enemy. Soon, new competitors will appear in your field and share your market share, and the size of your customers will begin to shrink.

To confront this matter, it is necessary to expand your business and deliver your services to a wider customer segment. Here will come the role of website programming that will display your services or products as widely as possible on the Internet. Programming a website in a way that suits your business activity and reflects the nature of your services, which is the cornerstone of Build your business reputation Attract as many people as possible who are interested in products similar to what you offer.

Build credibility for your business

A customer's lack of trust in a product or service is one of the most negative issues affecting brands. Therefore, you will find leading brands always seeking to program their own websites that include everything that enhances customer confidence in them.

Simply put, programming a website for your business enables you to provide customers with detailed and real information about the product or service you provide, while providing the necessary support to customers regarding any problem they may encounter in using the product, thus increasing customer support for you and moving your business forward.

E-commerce boom

Studies indicate that e-commerce in the Middle East and North Africa region will grow by between 11.5% and 19.74% Annually between 2022 and 2027. This indicator indicates vitality E-Commerce In the region in the coming years, it is necessary to catch up with those who have already begun and are achieving successive successes, by programming a professional website capable of presenting your services to a large Internet audience.

Leave a distinctive impression about your business

The website is the headquarters of your business on the Internet, and therefore the more attractive and easy to use your website is and performs the services entrusted to it effectively and accurately, the more your brand will be ingrained in the minds of your visitors and the higher the rate of them converting to your permanent customers. So programming a website is extremely important, to move your business forward, improve your marketing strategy, and increase awareness of the existence of a competing product capable of achieving success.

Basics of website programming

The website has two interfaces, one of which is managed to visitors and users of the site and is called the front-end, and the other is managed to servers, web service providers and content management systems and is called the back-end. Accordingly, website programming is divided into user interface programming and server interface programming.

Front-end programming

Front-end programming is concerned with writing the code for the pages that will be displayed to the user user interface Of a specific number of pages, each of which performs a specific task, and the first page that appears when entering a website is called the home page or landing page.

The home page is usually an introductory page for the company or business, carries its logo and a glimpse of it, and is the starting point for displaying the rest of the pages and services. Therefore, it is necessary to pay close attention when writing the code for this page, so that it is clear, easy to use, and expressive of the company’s identity. The rest of the pages display products and services, provide technical support to customers, and allow communication with them.

Backend programming

Backend programming tends to be more difficult than user interface programming, because it consists of code that implements user requirements related to fetching specific content, managing an email, searching a database, or connecting to another party during a video call or live web meeting. . Here the importance of proficiently programming the backend becomes apparent, to ensure the site's operation is safe and error-free. The failure of the backend will inevitably lead to the failure of the user interface, and the failure of the site as a whole.

Basic languages ​​for website programming

Website programming does not depend on the programming languages ​​themselves, as front- and back-end programming differs in the programming languages ​​and technologies used for each of them as follows:

User interface languages

Leading the golden trio; HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the scene in this regard. Then it is necessary to use HTML language To display, distribute and organize content, it is the basic language for structuring web pages. HTML is not a real programming language, but rather a description language, whose mission is to organize content into paragraphs, headings, lists, images, and maps, to make it easier for the user to obtain information in an optimal manner.

After that, comes the turn CSS language In coordinating the page elements in terms of layout, size, color, writing fonts, margins and footnotes, and adding dynamic movements and effects to increase the beauty of the page on the one hand and ease of use on the other hand. CSS is also not an actual programming language, but rather a formatting markup language.

The previous two languages ​​program static web pages; That is, the primary task of these two languages ​​is to organize and format the display of content, but they do not provide a way through which the user interacts with the site. This is where it comes into play JavaScript language Which is characterized by great capabilities in performing various functional tasks within the user's browser, most notably transferring user requests to the backend to be executed, returning the result and displaying it within HTML pages.

Other languages ​​derived from JavaScript are used in front-end construction such as React.js , other languages ​​are also used in the backend such as Node.js language .

Backend programming languages

In addition to JavaScript, you will find... PHP language Famous is able to implement user requests related to bringing specific content, or communicating with databases or any other programming interfaces, to benefit from its services and display them on your site. Several frameworks have emerged for using PHP, such as Laravel and CodeIgniter, to provide an integrated working environment for programming websites easily.

It should also be noted that there are programming languages ​​designated for programming websites only, such as: PHP, JavaScript, and the languages ​​derived from them, and general-purpose languages ​​used in programming the back-ends of websites, in addition to any other programming applications such as: Java, JAVA, and Python. C# and others.

In order to ensure the integrity of your site’s operation and free of errors, the back and front interfaces must be perfectly integrated, and here comes the importance of the languages ​​that are used in programming both interfaces, and the experience of the programmer or programming team responsible for writing and revising the code and conducting integration tests.

How to program a professional website

As is the case with most software, designing and building a website goes through multiple phases that can be repeated until each phase achieves its specified goal to the fullest. The number of stages may vary from one site to another, but all professional websites are built according to the following sequence:

1. Identify and analyze requirements

At this stage, it is necessary to know what is required of the website and establish a general framework for work. Ask yourself: What capabilities should your website have? What tasks must he accomplish? You should discuss the answers to these questions and other key ideas you have with your team, and decide whether or not you can implement all the things you need from the website, and what other options are available if you are not able to implement a function.

For example, you may think that you need an email-based customer support system, but your team may convince you that... The live chat system is better And more popular. So your requirement is a customer support system - and this is something that must be accomplished - but how to accomplish it is a design matter that you may express an explicit opinion about, or you may leave it to the work team.

But you must make a clear decision about all the functions that the site must provide before the design stage, because returning to the requirements again will delay the work and may lead to the failure of the site launch. At this stage, the team also chooses the most appropriate back-end programming language, and the team also initially identifies all the technologies needed to accomplish the tasks assigned to the site.

2. Website design

The work of the user interface designer and the user experience designer is complementary at this stage, as it works User interface designer He develops electronic drawings and plans for the desired appearance of the site, and then proceeds User experience designer To choose colors, fonts, logo, the way page elements flow, and navigation menus between pages.

Professional website design is vital to the success of your website, so it is necessary to resort to specialists in UI/UX design To design a professional website that provides an unparalleled user experience and enhances awareness of your brand.

3. Website programming

After the completion of the previous two stages; The web programmer begins his actual work. The front and back ends of your site are being worked on at the same time, and best practices in website programming require separating the front-end code from the back-end, for ease of maintenance and development in the future and to reduce errors.

The front-end programmer first implements design diagrams, which may be just paper drawings and written notes, or electronic diagrams drawn on professional programs such as Adobe Charts.

While the back-end programmer begins writing the code to deal with the user’s requirements (communication with the front end), and writing the code units for communicating with the required database, or other services located on the hosting server or other servers. In addition to organizing e-mail, and building the site’s control panel.

The amount of work in the backend depends on the nature and type of special requirements you want from your site. The site may not need databases and may not require any content management system or control panel.

Website programming requires complex expertise in order for the website to appear in the best possible light and provide the highest performance. Writing correct code and dealing with errors that may appear during the site’s operation are very important tasks to keep your site’s performance stable. Therefore, we advise you to do so Using website programming services Provided by professional programmers on the Khamsat platform, the largest Arab market for buying and selling microservices.

4. Writing website content

The process of writing website content may occur in parallel with the actual programming process, and after the design process. At this stage, content writers write the content of all site pages, starting with the page titles and marketing content on the home page, through to the content of the “About Us” introductory page, and the site policy page, and not ending with the product or service pages, and even the blog content.

Writing website content requires deep experience in different types of content, in addition to a complete understanding of the basics of search engine optimization and writing according to SEO standards in order for the website to rank high in search results. Therefore, it is necessary to use services Professional content writers , to provide distinguished content for your site that contributes to achieving your marketing goals.

5. Website testing

Tests of the front-end and back-end codes begin separately at first to ensure that they work correctly, and then integration tests between the two interfaces begin to ensure that they are able to communicate properly without errors as much as possible. If any shortcomings appear in the code, whatever their type, these shortcomings must be eliminated in a systematic manner without affecting the operation of the correct parts of the code.

It's also a must Conduct security tests To know the security vulnerabilities that may result from the programming process, through which hackers may infiltrate your site, causing it to stop working or even sabotage it. Tests are conducted on the computers used to write the code before the site is transferred to the hosting servers, and security tests are also conducted in both places.

6. Publish the website on the Internet

The publishing phase comes after ensuring that the website is working satisfactorily. Publishing means transferring the site's codes and content to A suitable hosting server , and the process takes place as follows:

  • Choosing a suitable hosting server capable of handling and executing the site code.
  • Choose a suitable hosting plan that includes sufficient space, high or unlimited data transmission volume, in addition to some other important details.
  • Choose an address for your site and verify that it is not used.
  • Move the code files and content to the space allocated to your site under the address you chose.
  • Adjust any other settings related to databases, code execution method, security certificates, etc.

Thus, the site is ready, so that everyone can access it by simply typing its address in the browser.

How much does it cost to build a website?

If you want a personal website or a simple, non-professional website, building the website may not cost you anything if you use a web template and a free hosting server, but the website will have limited capabilities and you will not have the freedom to control the content that you publish. Not to mention that you will remain subject to strict restrictions in terms of space, the size of data transmission, the nature of the content, and the ability to update and maintain the site.

But if you want a professional website that allows you complete control over every detail of its work, it will be expensive depending on what you plan. The total cost can be limited to the following points:

  1. Website development costs (consulting, design, programming, publishing) are paid once to the company you assign to build your website, or to independent professionals who implement the various stages of building the website.
  2. Hosting costs; These are periodic costs paid on a monthly or annual basis to the company that manages the hosting servers. These costs are related to the nature of hosting, its size, and the volume of data transmission, in addition to the costs of any other services provided by the company, such as: protection from hacking, the presence of backup servers, and the provision of security certificates.
  3. The costs of managing the site, maintaining it, and updating its content, which are costs that are usually paid on a monthly basis to the site supervision team.
  4. If you have a team that manages information technology affairs in your company, you may save some website development and administration expenses after it is completed, but you may have to purchase the software used to write, test, and deploy the code, if that software is not free.

The overall cost of developing a website ranges from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands, depending on the nature of the site, its tasks, size, features, the experience of the team that will build and manage it, and the type, size and reliability of hosting.

In conclusion, the prosperity and growth of e-commerce and the need to provide the best services to customers around the clock are among the most important reasons that require you to program a distinguished website that reflects the professionalism of your brand and contributes to its spread to greater horizons, and helps you increase the number of your customers and gain their trust and constant advocacy for your products and services. .