Web development is one of the most popular digital skills of the century and for good reason. Web development, coding, and programming constitute a constellation of lucrative abilities that open the door to the most important platform since the printing press: the Internet.

Whether you’re starting a business, doing freelance work, creating a work portfolio, conducting search engine optimization, or selling products and services, the ability to develop

There are immersive programs, including remote programs, that teach web development as a bootcamp which can fast-track you into the world of web dev. One such program is offered by General Assembly, which started as a co-working space and is now considered one of the best learning institutions out there. General Assembly reviews favorably suggest that the program’s advanced curriculum prepares students for both high-level job placement and lucrative business skills.

Here are 5 reasons to consider learning web development:

Good salary and job availability 

Web development is well-known for its lucrative earnings. In 2018, the median salary for a web developer was $69,430 and the top 25 percent made $95,020.

If the pay weren’t a big enough draw, web development jobs are pretty much always available. While San Francisco and Seattle are the top cities offering web dev jobs, businesses all across the country and world are in constant need of web developers. Basically, if you’re good at your craft and can deal with finicky clients and demanding deadlines, you are guaranteed to have as much work as you want.

Perfect for remote work

2020 will forever be known as the year of COVID-19. In addition to the heartbreaking deaths and economic strain put on families, the pandemic has changed the nature of employment and made remote work incredibly important. Web development is an ideal job for remote work. If you need to conference with clients or employers, you can always use a virtual chat service for meetings, but beyond that, there’s no real need to go into an office or work environment. You can code just as easily remotely and, in fact, many employees say they produce better results and get more work done when they work from home.

Reaching an audience

Effective web development allows you to maximize your audience outreach. Whether you’re offering a product or a service, you need to be able to make your pitch smoothly, navigate browser issues and make sure clients and customers can clearly engage with your content through their laptops or smartphones. Web development is absolutely critical in securely distributing your content.

Additionally, web development skills include back-end search engine optimization (SEO), which is also critical to expanding your audience reach. There are many aspects to on-page SEO but at the end of the day, if your backend code is not configured for optimization, you will be spinning your wheels and wasting your time and resources.

Reduces your operational costs

If you’re running a tiny company, you can save a LOT of money by doing your own web development. As we mentioned above, web developers earn an excellent income. That means if you’re the one hiring, you can expect to have to fork up a hefty salary or hourly rate to land a developer. If you can do that work yourself, you’ll be saving a ton of money.

If you’re going it alone, you will need to make some early decisions, such as whether you are developing a website or native applications. Websites are cheaper in terms of development and are generally more compatible with payment gates and third-party integrations.

Good design means good messaging

The design of a web page is the critical link in determining whether a brand effectively communicates with clients and customers. These days, if a website looks shoddy or janky, people immediately view it as unsafe. Why spend years creating an amazing product or service only to present it to the public with a sloppy user interface and an amateurish design?

Web development skills allow you to carefully craft your digital connection to audiences.