A web architect envisions the structure of a website and determines how its various components will be connected. The typical web architect’s responsibilities go beyond simply coding HTML or using a graphical web page creation program. Content management, search engine optimization (SEO), user-friendly navigation practices, and how to implement the goals of various websites are all skills that web architects must have. Creating and managing databases linked to a website, as well as uploading various types of documents for users to download and read, are all tasks that a web architect may be responsible for.
To generate traffic and revenue, complex websites in areas like e-commerce require the expertise of a good web architect. Multiple pages, links, and media such as images and videos are common on these sites. A poorly-planned organizational structure is one of the most common pitfalls of these websites. Users are less likely to return to a site that is difficult to navigate or takes too long to load. Broken links and media that fails to load correctly are two other issues that a skilled web architect avoids.
A four-year college degree, as well as relevant software certifications, are common entry-level web architect requirements. Computer science, informatics, and business information technology are all popular degree programs for web architects. It’s also a good idea to know at least one web scripting language and one high-level programming language. During the development phase of a website, web architects must also be able to troubleshoot various aspects of the site.
Once the preliminary plans are outlined, the real work of a web architect begins. A business website’s initial purpose is usually the owner’s idea, with input from the architect. Many business owners don’t have a deep understanding of how site maps work, but they usually have a good idea of what they want their new website to accomplish. Web architects use organizational charts to plan the specifics of a website with the help of a website objective and content requirements.
Web architects create detailed visual charts for a website before the first line of code is written, in addition to web programming. They use these diagrams to show how each site component will logically connect to the others. Web architecture charts can follow flat or multidimensional hierarchies, depending on the complexity of the content. Web architects frequently have to present these design charts to business owners and teams of web designers after they’ve been completed.