A Web developer, strictly speaking, builds and maintains websites. However, a lot of people who create a site from start to finish -- designing graphics and webpages, figuring out the site map, then producing the site -- call themselves Web developers, so it's a confusing term. People who conceptualize and plan out the site are actually Web designers . Developers are the people who use some form of HTML to build the actual pages. A Web developer's other responsibilities could include optimizing graphics for the Web and producing rich media such as Flash, streaming media, or online audio.

• Can hand-code HTML
• Can optimize graphics and webpages so that they load quickly
• Can handle cross-browser optimization -- making sure the site looks good on different browsers

• Familiarity with JavaScript
• Photoshop
• Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
• XML
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Familiarity with CGI forms
• Can deploy dynamic Web technologies such as XSSI, JSP, ASP, Dynamo, and Cold Fusion
• Familiarity with SSI (server-side includes)
• Has a working knowledge of JavaScript and CGI scripting. This will become increasingly relevant as DHTML becomes more widespread and more content is generated using scripts

• Has created at least one website
• Has updated content on an existing website

• At least one year of experience developing and maintaining a commercial website
• Experience with naming conventions and setting up file structures (important for large sites)
• Can look at a visual design and tell what it will take to implement it
• Can tell at a glance how a page was put together or an entire site assembled
• Knows what functions a given line of code performs