Bad Coding and Why It’s Detrimental: The Value of Smart, Contemporary Website Design and Coding

Code is the foundation of any website–the framework of any home no matter how beautiful the aesthetics. That’s why I find it shocking how many websites are written in outdated or, at times, utterly illogical markup. Good code is the first start to any SEO or marketing and, unfortunately, does not come from website template builders or novices attempting to build one of their first sites.

First, a word about contemporary coding standards: forget PHP, HTML, or any other markup language. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) have been and remain one of the most important components to any site. If, as a business and website owner who manages everything on their own, you have no idea what CSS may be, then it’s time to hand the management of your site off to someone more specialized. As a developer, it’s hard to remember what designing websites was like prior to CSS. It’s that important and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Of course PHP and HTML still have their important roles to play within the hierarchy of markup. HTML just isn’t going anywhere in terms of web design, particularly with the latest introduction of HTML5, and PHP is the script of any CMS (Content Management System). What’s important here is not so much what tool a web designer uses (they’re going to use them all reasonably) but are they using each language appropriately.

For example, I can take a look at any website and either (1) see the stylesheet embedded on the page or (2) tons of inline style formats and just know that it could have been coded better. Worse yet, I still look at sites that utilize tables to format the layout or, even worse, still use frames!

The point of all this is that a good site is one that utilizes good code. Web design will always rely on the backend developer creating the frontend experience and who you entrust as that backend developer matters a great deal. Do any Google Map search for a web designer and chances are the screens just lights up with red dots. The relative low start-up cost and DIY approach of the industry appeals to a lot of individuals. But one simply cannot entrust their business website to an unlicensed company. It’s too big of an investment for things to get screwed up, coded poorly, or any number of possibilities.

Since good coding is the foundation of any website with a strong web presence, establishing a site with clean, contemporary code goes much further than one thinks.