It is a given that every web design will need technical skills and most professionals are really adept in what they do. Upon researching what web designers and developers should have with regards to their skills, you will probably bump into articles that will give you tons of software, platform, and programming language that you should know. However, being a web designer and developer should go beyond the technicalities as there are other skills one should contain in order to be successful in this field. These skills are:

Research Skills

As a web designer or developer, you should have in-depth research skills in order to be updated with current design and development trends. However, your research shouldn’t stop there as you have to consider your visitors as well. After all, without your visitors there wouldn’t be any traffic to your site; hence, your site will be much use. Therefore, you should make it a point to know how your visitors behave in the internet, how they perceive a certain design or template, and how they navigate through the website; if you successfully determine these points, you will be able to give your visitors a good experience with your site.

With that being said, it is also important to be updated with the themes and styles that are to be utilized in a website. Designers should know which theme and style suit a certain industry to effectively reflect what a company wants to portray.

Additionally, you and other developers and designers should know how to keep your site secured and safe from hackers; thus, you should know the security measures the site should undergo as well as updated security software for extra safety.

Writing Skills

The skills with graphics, Photoshop, HTML, CSS, and whatnot are not enough when you want to be an effective web designer. Keep in mind that most of your visitors will go to your website to check the content and not how pretty the design looks. Your design is just like the eye-catcher but the content of the site is what will keep them interested. This is why developers work hand-in-hand with content writers; hence, you should have at least basic knowledge on content development to be more effective and to be in sync with the writer.

Communication Skills

Obviously, you will work with clients and probably a team; hence, you should have good communication skills. In every business, communication plays a very important role and as a web designer, you must be able to communicate, not just with writing, but also verbally and visually. Furthermore, you have to understand that communication is a give and take effort, thus, you will need to learn how to listen as well. You should be able to listen attentively to what your clients want to apply it to your work. With that, you can make them feel that you always try to understand them, which will enhance your relationship with them.

Marketing Skills

You should know that most websites will serve as an online brochure for companies when it is used for online marketing. Therefore, every developer and designer should have a basic “business sense” and knowledge when it comes to successfully attracting their prospects by using tactical design strategies and applying it on their website.

With online marketing comes the utilization of Search Engine Optimization or SEO.  Search Engine Optimization is responsible for giving websites high ranks on search engine result pages through the use of specific terms or keywords that are mostly searched by internet users. As this helps websites achieve the topmost part or the first page of results, developers and designers should have basic skills and knowledge in SEO as well. After all, it will be useless to have a very attractive site and relevant content that won’t be seen by people.

Sales Skills

Successfully attracting prospects to your websites is an achievement in itself, but attracting them won’t mean much if you are not able to convert them into buyers; hence, you should have the proper understanding of the sales funnel in order to do so.

With regards to web development and design, your sales skills can be applied to how you design and structure your website, in order to show your prospects that you have what they need. Also, with knowing how they behave in searching sites—how you will be able to give them the best experience in navigating through your site—you should be able to apply that on your strategies in order to persuade them into becoming buyers.

Every web developer and designer should be equipped with broad technical skills in order to be able to do their job. However, if you want to be successful, unique, and very effective, you should be able to go beyond being technical and have the aforementioned skills. If you do, you will surely have an advantage over your competitors. At the same time, your clients will love your work and possibly recommend you to others.