Web development is the broadest possible term to describe all areas of developing a web site, or page to be published on to the World Wide Web. This can include e-commerce business development, web design, web content development, client-side/server-side coding, and web server configuration. Given the broadness of the term most people, when referring to web development, actually mean the process by which a web site is created, or developed.

The first stage of the web development process is deciding what site to build, what it is going to contain, how it is going to be published and who is it for. You will need a web host that can store all the files, images and extras that you wish your site to contain. This process will also involve registering a domain name, which is what a client would type in to the address bar of a browser to find your web site. Once all of these stages are complete you can start to visualise what you would like the site to actually look like.

The next stage of the web development process is design. The easiest method to creating a web site is to use a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop and build the site exactly like you would like it to look on the web, including structure, colours, fonts and images that are going to form the basis of the page. The more in depth this stage is the easier it will be to create a web site.

Once the design stage is completed the site must then be "coded" or written in a programming language that the browser can interpret and display as a web page/site. This is the most difficult aspect of web site creation if you are not familiar with programming. You can employ people to build the site for you, and even design it. There are specific web design companies that will build everything you need, all you have to do is give them the specifics of what you require. This can, however, be quite costly as the process involved takes time and talent.

The final stage of web development is one that should be a continuing process, updating your site. Once the site is built that is the most difficult part over, but the web site still needs to be maintained and kept up to date, otherwise browsers of your pages will not return. This of course is for dynamic pages that contain changing content. You may have created a site that simply requires new pages adding. However, you will have to think about the navigation structure and how easy it is to link to these new pages.