This article was originally posted on Codica Blog.

How to make a website appealing to customers? What should be done to increase its profitability? Questions like this became pressing issues for many owners of online business.

Luckily, there are web app development trends that help entrepreneurs build modern software solutions that users will love.

So lets proceed to the top 6 most influential trends in web application development for 2021 that you should take on board.

1. AI and chatbots

Artificial intelligence is one of the most influential technologies in the tech landscape for 2021. AI chatbots, virtual assistants (Alexa, Siri, Cortana), and voice bots are gaining momentum now. Their benefit for businesses lies in their ability to engage with customers more efficiently and boost user experience.

With chatbots users can get immediate responses to their queries. Also, customers get personalized tips and recommendations. As a result, chatbots serve as a great tool to drive sales and bring businesses more profit.

Given the wide spread of AI chatbots, businesses of all sizes should use them to provide continuous customer engagement.

Are you doubting whether AI-powered chatbots are here to stay? The statistics below can dispel your doubts.

2. PWA (Progressive Web Apps)

Progressive web applications have been the talk of the town for several years. In 2021, they remain highly relevant. It is all about their ability to provide users with an almost full mobile application experience.

The core benefits of PWA development for users and companies are as follows:

• Lower app development, maintenance, and support costs;
• Offline capabilities;
• Faster time to market;
• Effortless distribution and installation;
• Reduced device power and storage usage.

Thus, this website technology can save the day for those businesses that need to widen their mobile audience. To learn more, check our article to discover what PWA development means.

Though PWA technology was created not long ago, it has already proven its effectiveness. By turning their websites into PWAs, companies can boost conversion rates, search rankings, and website usability. For this reason, all web projects Codica team delivers are PWA by default.

To get to the crux of the progressive web app, we recommend checking some successful implementations of this technology. For instance, heres a PWA of an activity booking platform PlanMyKids developed by Codica team.

3. Voice search optimization

In 2021, more and more Internet users prefer communicating with audio over using text information. The remarkable popularity of Clubhouse audio social media tells us that audio will play a bigger part in the future. Even though this app is available only for iOS by invitation, it has already reached 8 million downloads.

How to take advantage of this trend in web development? You can boost your web projects with voice search capabilities.

Voice search optimization brings advantages for both users and business owners. The most significant ones are as follows:

• Time saving;
• Facilitation of analyzing customer behavior.

How to optimize your website for voice search? You can try the measures below.

• Create natural language content;
• Use schema markup and snippets;
• Get rid of duplicate pages;
• Keep your contact information up-to-date;
• Monitor search rankings;
• Integrate Web Speech API.

4. Cloud architecture

In 2020, we saw a mandatory shift to remote work due to the spread of Covid-19. As a result, cloud, or serverless, applications have grown even more. And the Web, as one of the most cutting-edge domains, has seen a significant increase in the demand for cloud solutions.

The recent data provided by Flexera states that 98% of enterprises use at least one public or private cloud. Below, you can find a chart from the report.

Cloud computing can boast of many benefits:

• Cost-effectiveness;
• On-demand scalability and flexibility;
• Quick time-to-market;
• Delegated maintenance;
• Better disaster recovery and loss prevention options.

Serverless architecture allows developers to build and run applications without thinking about servers. These cloud solutions still run on servers, but they are supported by cloud providers.

5. Mobile-friendly websites

The recent findings by DataReportal show that the number of global mobile users is 5.22 billion as of January 2021. This statistics emphasizes the importance of mobile-friendliness for the future of the web. With websites optimized for mobile devices, companies get better chances to cover a greater number of mobile users and improve the conversion rate.

How do mobile-friendly websites look? Basically, they have the following key characteristics:

• Easily readable and digestible copy;
• Clickable links and navigation;
• Short and userful menu.

User experience boost is not the only one benefit of mobile-friendly websites. They also get the higher position in search results.

6. Blockchain

Blockchain is a highly-secure technology that provides transactions verified by a decentralized network. With this technology, all your transactions are carefully protected.

Speaking of web development, Blockchain can boast of the following advantages:

• Intelligent prediction system;
• High interactivity for web pages;
• Data safety;
• Security of digital payments.

Want to implement Blockchain technology to safeguard your web app but do not know how? Check our PWA case study to find out how Codica team integrated Blockchain in an insurance web app.

Final words

In 2021, the current web development trends play a big part in helping businesses stay afloat. However, you dont need to rush into implementing all of them, as some of them may not fit your goals. But you need to be aware of the most influential technologies that shape the web development domain in 2021.

In our brief article, weve listed the top 6 hottest web development trends for 2021. Do you want to delve deeper into that topic? Visit our thorough article that will answer your questions about the web dev domain: 9 New Web Development Trends to Outline 2021.