As a website developer, having the right tools in your toolbox is essential for efficiently building, testing, and launching great websites. With new web technologies, frameworks, and best practices emerging constantly, developers need to stay on top of which tools are most useful.
Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting out, the right set of tools can help you streamline your processes, write cleaner code, and build better websites. In this article, we’ll explore eight essential tools that every website developer in Melbourne should have in their arsenal.
Chrome Developer Tools
Debugging issues or testing responsiveness without slowing down your whole development flow is where Chrome DevTools comes in very handy. Instead of needing to constantly reload pages, you can immediately see changes with Chrome’s live-editing capabilities.
Elements like the console, media queries inspector, network analyser and integrated Lighthouse reports make DevTools invaluable for quickly diagnosing problems or testing performance without leaving your browser. As website projects grow larger, having robust browser tools like DevTools can shave hours off development.
GitHub
Transitioning to hosting code on distributed version control systems like GitHub has become a must for sharing, reviewing and deploying web projects collaboratively. Developers should know how to use Markdown, manage branches and pull requests, and set up CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions.
The network effects and public project visibility in the GitHub community enables faster innovation and contribution for open-source website developers in Melbourne. Even solo developers can leverage GitHub Pages for instantly deployed portfolio sites. Overall, deeply integrating GitHub into your web project workflow unlocks huge benefits.
Figma
More website projects now require at least basic design mockups before development starts. Figma has established itself as the most full-featured online graphic design and prototyping tool that also facilitates smooth handoff to engineering teams.
With capabilities for animation, interactive component libraries, design systems and real-time multi-user collaboration, Figma bridges the gap between designers and developers better than any other platform. The vector based approach also allows for responsive design at all sizes. Developers should learn Figma both to create their own mockups and seamlessly receive specs from designers.
WordPress
In 2024, WordPress still powers over 40% of all websites. As one of the original disruptive content management systems (CMS) for the web, WordPress introduced millions to web publishing through its plugins and themes. This massive ecosystem means demand for WordPress developers isn’t going away anytime soon.
Even as newer or static site generators gain adoption, the sheer scale of sites running on WordPress means developers should grasp concepts like custom post types, hooks and Theme development. These skills translate to either building custom WordPress sites or even migrating legacy ones to modern stacks.
WebPageTest
Testing websites under realistic network conditions is vital to diagnose performance issues before they impact site visitors. As a free tool, WebPageTest provides detailed analytics on all facets of page load speed such as requests, connections, render blocking and much more.
The visual filmstrips and request waterfall charts quickly show improvements or degradations. Advanced uses like multi-step navigations and custom metrics generation help developers fully understand real-world user experiences pre-launch or on live sites needing urgent fixes.
Lighthouse
While WebPageTest focuses on backend metrics, Google’s free Lighthouse tool highlights user-centric speed and UX problems. As part of Chrome DevTools, Lighthouse generates graded reports on elements like first meaningful paint, time to interactive and accessibility. Website developer in Melbourne should constantly check Lighthouse reports during feature development as well as for overall site health checks.
Combined with WebPageTest data, Lighthouse ensures your website meets modern standards that impact conversions across desktop and mobile. The actionable optimisation insights help prioritise technical work based on real visitor impact.
Ahrefs
Understanding your website’s visibility in organic search results is key to driving sustainable traffic, leads and sales. That’s why Ahrefs has become an invaluable SEO toolkit for analysing competitor domains, discovering untapped keywords and fixing technical problems hurting rankings.
While premium features truly maximise effectiveness, the free tools in Ahrefs highlight issues to improve site crawlability and indexation. A website developer in Melbourne may not always be responsible for content strategy, but optimising code and architecture for search visibility and performance is now basically required.
Conclusion
Mastering essential website development tools may require upfront time investment, but efficiently leveraging them to build better websites pays dividends across all projects. Developers skilled in utilising these 8 vital tools for code editing, responsiveness, prototyping, testing and analysis will boost both skills and marketability.
The ever-evolving web technology landscape means developers must continually learn new tools over time too. But having this robust starting toolkit enables adapting to and evaluating new frameworks, design patterns and best practices much faster.
What other must-have tools do you find critical as a website developer nowadays? Share your thoughts and tool suggestions in the comments below!