Although the internet has been around for a couple of decades, over the last five years it has really taken off with people from every generation using the world wide web. People are using the internet to play games, communicate with friends and family, build relationships and sell their unneeded stuff, companies are been created in response to this. Businesses concentrating on website design; development, hosting and SEO are flourishing. Careers which did not exist twenty years ago, like graphic design and web development are popular.

All of the activities mentioned above can be grouped under the general heading of web development. If an activity contributes to the design of a website it can be called this. Some professionals, however, insists that web development refers more to the technical side such as coding and networking.

Web design is how the website actually looks. Web design determines what visitors to the page will actually see. There are four aspects of design: the content (basically this is the information on the site), the usability (the functions and features of the website), the appearance (should be enticing to readers) and lastly, the visibility (people must be able to find your site!). The main goal of a good website designer is to make information readily available to his readers in a form that is very easy to understand.

SEO is how websites market themselves to get more traffic, or people visiting their website. Your site will become popular if you build links to it, which is one of the main roles of SEO. The best companies will incorporate web design, web development and SEO into the services they offer. Looking on the internet for a company near you, for example, website design Leeds, is a good way of finding businesses near you.

Understanding how the internet has changed our lives is fascinating. More people spend time on the internet than watching TV, listening to the radio and reading the newspaper combined. For the first time ever, you can do all these three things while sitting in front of your laptop. The internet allows you to shop online for anything you could possibly want from food, clothes, garden furniture and antiques.

Surely, we are entering a new world, one where everything has its virtual counterpart. Help with homework, access to our savings, even a date for dinner, we can find everything we want and need on the internet.