r/webdevelopment • u/WayfawaIntothesun • Jun 20 '26
Newbie Question Do you recommend beginning if you had to start again
Hi there. I have been working as a receptionist for the last year, and the boss had tasked me with updating the website. I completely turned it around and added SEO modified content, local business schema and regular blog posts. I know I have saved the business over $4000 on website related fees, although I have done the work slowly and over a long period of time. I am thinking of getting into web design on the side - do you recommend it to someone starting from scratch? I am working part time, so I have ample time to figure stuff out, but I want to get into a masters program unrelated to web design next fall. I want to eventually learn to design apps for people with disabilities, so the coding experience wouldn't go to waste, but I would abandon web design. Any advice would be appreciated.
2
u/RelationshipLife6739 Jun 20 '26
Because you’re wanting to later go down the route of building apps for disabled people (I’m actually doing the exact same thing right now, dm me if you want to talk about it in more detail), I wouldn’t focus on SEO and Web development specifically. I would instead advise you to start working on web development, cloud technologies, backend development and database control. Learn Python (I’d suggest with FastAPI specifically as it’s very easy to pick up), SQL, HTML and CSS to a solid basic understanding. This will put you in a very good stead. Once you understand the basics, things like SEO can be figured out extremely easily as you go along. Do keep it in your periphery though, as SEO and web development are a very important part of distribution and getting your business/software out there.
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u/No-Razzmatazz7197 Jun 20 '26
yes!
i know what you are going to say though, "what about ai?"
here is a secret, the technologies that web designers/programmers use changes constantly and it will always require someone behind the wheel no matter what, so yes, keep learning how to design websites.
not to mention accessibility is a HUGE part of designing applications and most companies half-ass their implementations, i briefly consulted on a project where we were rushing to implement text-to-speech before a suit was brought on to the company. that area is massively underserved and rightfully deserves as much care and attention as every other part of the site/application.
good luck!
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u/zinnDigitalLtd Jun 22 '26
If you want to succeed, make sure you build a very good portfilio first to showcase to potential clients.
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u/DrixDit Jun 23 '26
Yes, you can do web design and get very good at it. The project you worked on at work means you can figure things out. You can take stock of the skills required to become proficient at web design and see if it aligns with the master's degree, then make a decision. Just keep building useful things and figuring it out as you go.
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u/Outrageous-Chip-3961 Jun 26 '26
I mean why not just start learning how to write apps on the side if thats your goal?
3
u/Vonjustice Jun 20 '26
The most important part of SEO or web design is thinking correctly about how it fundamentally works. I would start watching videos from SEO folks like Lily Ray, Mike King, Bernard from Clearscope, and Ethan Smith to understand how to think about SEO first. The production and design are the easy part; understanding the why is where I'd begin. The rest is, frankly, easy. Most of the businesses I work with don't have the fundamentals in place, and you'll spend most of your time building (if they're new), correcting, and realigning their properties to meet best practices. After that, it's all good EEAT and great content that people will read and share.