Do you know the real value of a website?
No, it's not the code. The reasons why someone would pay (you) for it.
About a week ago, we had a massive influx of rain in my area. Which was terrible, because some of that rain was leaking into our bathroom ceiling
I heard the same thing from some of our neighbors in our apartment building, so I knew we weren't the only ones. Which means we really need to get our roof fixed... but until then, I put a bucket in our bathroom so the water drips into it.
Here comes the million-dollar question:
What do you use a bucket for?
I know my first gut reaction would be to answer "to hold water". But in my leaky ceiling's case, the answer would be more along the lines of "to prevent my bathroom floor from flooding". Notice that there's a difference between what the bucket does vs. how it's used.
Websites are the same way
Ultimately, most websites operate in a basic, standardized manner. If we were to ask "what do you use a website for?", at the most basic level, you can say they're used to view text, images, documents, and/or video. Maybe we can add the need to submit some information for a specific purpose and send it through an API. This would be the "to hold water" metaphor.
But how can that text, image, document, video, or ability to submit info be used to solve a problem? Hoho, well, that's where the money is and how we're able to make the big bucks as frontend devs.
Websites can be used to:
Sell something (products, services, subscriptions)
Collect leads for businesses (contact forms, demo requests, email lists)
Provide information (help centers, knowledge bases, digital libraries)
Enable transactions (booking, checkout, donations)
Offer tools or utilities (calculators, dashboards, portals)
Educate or nurture a market (blogs, thought leadership)
Connect with people (Social media, Video call services)
Serve a community (forums, resources, hubs)
Support users (account portals, help centers)
Show your portfolio/resume
Be a creative outlet (blogs, YouTube, rock your CSS & JS skills)
Show proofs of concepts (MVPs, side projects)
Encase internal tools (dashboards, intranets, admin panels)
Recruit talent (career pages, hiring funnels, post job listings)
Host events or experiences (event registrations, virtual conferences, livestream hubs)
Create a digital presence (for businesses, personal brands, or public figures)
Capture attention or go viral (campaign microsites, interactive experiences, stunts)
A million other use cases...
This is the real value of websites and, by association, what makes you valuable as a frontend dev.
Knowing HTML, CSS, and JS is great. Knowing a framework is even better. But please, for the love of React, if you want to be an Exceptional Frontend developer, focus on the problems that you solve (preventing the bathroom from flooding). Not on the solution (the bucket).
Because that's the thing both companies and clients hire for.