If you’re looking to learn how to design a website then with all the many web design courses available, just how do you decide which is the best for you?
Maybe you’re looking to learn how to design websites so that you can start a new career as a web designer or maybe you’re a business owner who wants to design a website or blog. Let’s have a look at some of your options.
Should I Look For An Online Web Design Course?
Online web design courses can be really useful however you can’t beat having face to face interactive tuition. Think how long it would have taken you to learn how to drive if you were being taught online. How long would it take to learn to swim or talk or read? Face to face tuition is always the best and learning how to design a website is no different.
If you can find a web design course in your area then that is always the preferable way of learning.
Which Web Design Software Should I Learn?
If you’ve already looked into this then no doubt your head will be spinning! Let’s break it down to make it easier to understand.
Traditionally, websites used to be created locally. By that I mean that they would be designed on a computer or laptop much the same way as a Word document or presentation would be created. Once the website was complete the designer could then upload it to the hosting package by the way of an FTP program.
The downside to this of course is that it was static content. If you needed to make an edit you had to download the file that you wanted to edit, do the changes and then upload it back to the server. This limited the development of the website as generally the changes could only be done by the person who had the local copy on his or her computer. It wasn’t ideal.
The software used for this type of static website was predominantly Dreamweaver by Adobe. In it’s time it was market leader but following the advent of CMS based web design (content management system) this has fallen by the wayside a little.
What Is A CMS Website?
A CMS is a platform that allows people without programming skills to create, administer and edit websites. Unlike traditional static websites that needed software on the users computer, a CMS has software on the remote server. This allows anyone with a login user name and password to access the CMS and create or edit content.
This feature alone makes the CMS perfect for blogging as it allows many collaborators to add content. Depending on the privileges of that user they can either publish content or submit it to the main administrator for review before publishing.
Generally a CMS can be accessed from any device including mobile telephones therefore removing the restrictions of traditional legacy web design software.
Most new websites around the world are now created using CMS. As you can imagine, there have been several different CMS systems that have developed over the past few years. These are split into two distinct groups. Open source and proprietary.
Open source CMS systems are free, they have been developed by a community. Proprietary CMS systems are commercial and therefore have to be purchased and very often have a subscription fee.
Now normally the rule in business is “nothing is ever free” and generally that rings true however in this case the three main CMS contenders are indeed just that! Free! The most notable CMS systems are Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, the latter being the most popular. In fact 25% of all new websites created are running on WordPress. That’s one incredible statistic!
Large well known brands are using WordPress for their online presence. Well known names such as The Rolling Stones, Ford Motor Company, Sony Music, Katy Perry and The Metro News are all running websites and blogs powered by WordPress.
Why Is WordPress The Best CMS?
There are many answers to that question, the main ones being
- WordPress is widely supported throughout the world
- WordPress has thousands of plugins and themes available which add more functionality
- WordPress is highly configurable and is perhaps the best CMS system for search engine optimisation.
- Most professional web designers now use WordPress
- WordPress is simple to use
The Best Web Design Course In Liverpool
We run what we consider to be the best web design course in Liverpool, a one day course that enables you to learn how to use WordPress. In just one day, during the course you’ll learn the basics of how to configure and use WordPress to design your own website or blog. You’ll work hands on throughout the day to build your own functioning website.
The course is delivered by two experienced WordPress web designers and internet marketers and you’ll finish the day confident enough to create, edit and manage a WordPress website or blog.
Click the link for more information on our WordPress web design course in Liverpool.
