Coding websites has gone a long way since the days when every page was a single html file. Now there are all sorts of different coding languages at work on modern websites. When we code sites for our clients, we use the newest techniques in html, css, and php, to give you the most state of the art website possible. We also build you a fully customized content management system so that you can update your site yourself if you want to, without having to know anything about coding. But for those with more of an interest, here is a simplified explanation of what these types of coding do, and how they work together.

HTML – Stands for Hyper Text Mark-up Language, and is the foundation that all websites are built on. Every website uses HTML. Odds are you’ve probably seen some before. When you click view source on your browser, this is what you see. HTML is used to structure your websites. For many years it was also used to style your pages, but that type of HTML is now long outdated.

CSS – Stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is the current way of styling web pages. If it has to do with color and text, it’s probably CSS, and it offers a lot in the way of customization of how a page looks and feels. CSS is what gives your website personality. CSS has also made updating web pages much easier than it was in the past. For some types of styling, one value can control many elements throughout the entire website, so if you want to change the background color throughout the site, you may only have to change it in one place and the CSS does the rest. This isn’t the case with everything, but nonetheless, it is very useful.

PHP – Is a language that allows many complicated functions to be performed on the web server, as opposed to live on the site, and then be communicated to the live version of the site. This has enabled all sorts of new ways that parts of your website can interact with each other. It allows websites to be much smarter than they used to be, and in a lot of ways, automate them. PHP is what makes modern websites with responsive design and content management systems possible.

These are the three major building blocks that we use to create a website. The three types of programming obviously do get quite complex depending on what you are doing with them, but their concepts should be something that the average person can grasp. Check back next Tuesday for our next video blog and next Friday to learn about the future of SEO.