Why Everyone Should Know the Basics of Coding
If you are a digital marketer, you should know of the importance to the basics of coding. Code is the instructions that a computer needs in order to function. Most of your coding can be thought of as inputs and outputs. You input the code instructions in order to get an output. As a digital marketer you don’t need to know what the professionals know, but basic knowledge in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are all useful. Knowing these programs can help make your digital marketing experience that much better.
With the knowledge of HTML, you are able to better execute basic A/B testing by changing simple coding instructions. In my SEO blog, I talked about the importance of keywords to help organically push your webpage to the top of the search results. Being able to use HTML can let you see the technical side of SEO which makes sure that your webpages are optimized specifically for SEO. You are able to update things like title tags, alt tags, and keywords all with code! By using code, you can change and update things like, text size, headers, colors, fonts, and themes. This will ensure you that when a visitor visits your page, they will get a great first impression. If something visual on your webpage, let' say a photo, isn’t perfect you can easily take it off by using code.
Most people are new to coding, but the site Codecademy will let you learn the basics of HTML. The course takes about four hours and teaches you all the basics to learning HTML. It takes you step by step into the world of HTML. You are able to type in your code instructions and run them to see the results.
Codecademy has many different courses to choose from, but I suggest doing the Introduction to HTML course first. After you master that, feel free to browse around the other courses. Before you know it, you'll be a master in coding!
Squarespace and Wordpress
Squarespace is an awesome product for people who aren’t very familiar with building a webpage. With Squarespace, you are able to build you own webpage with the already made templates and add your own information.
The interface of the website is easy to use and looks very aesthetically pleasing. It comes with many great features like analytics of your website, making an ecommerce store, to SEO features. With the analytics feature, you are able to view all of that information on your phone. With the commerce feature, you are able to easily see your orders you need to fill, your inventory, and even your customer information. Squarespace allows you to sign up for emails that will be sent to your customers automatically 24 hours after they have left their cart. You are also able to insert your own coding into the website, using code injection, which gives you the option to customize your site that much more. Squarespace is a great option for the user who is brand new to creating websites. It is very easy to get used to Squarespace and you end up with great looking results. Wordpress is another site very similar to Squarespace that helps you build your own webpage. While I was browsing through the features in both Squarespace and Wordpress, I noticed some key differences. With Wordpress, you are able to use a lot more coding alongside the easy to use features. Squarespace is very much for the beginner user who doesn't have much knowledge in coding, but is still able to use code if needed. And Wordpress has a lot more coding capabilities that are perfect for people who can't code an entire website from scratch, but knows code. After using Codecademy to learn the basics of HTML, I encourage you to try using those same coding skills in Squarespace and Wordpress.
As a digital marketer, you should defiantly take the time to learn the basics of coding. This will not only help make your webpage look better, but it will make your entire marketing experience that much better.