Think Before You Engage: 100 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign

70. Should I Look at My Web Code?

Semantic code is a term used frequently by web developers in their sales pitches. To the average user, this may not mean much, but in the realm of web development, it means that the code used to create a site is written in a way that a computer can understand what it is supposed to be displaying to users with as few characters as possible.

The Internet operates off of web standards. These web standards are created by an international web consortium known as the W3C. These standards are created for both developers and end users. When browsers are made, such as Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and even Internet Explorer, they are developed in a way that enables them to “read” the code for a website and display it in a styled format to the end user. If web developers write website code in a manner that adheres to the web standards, it is easier for the browser to understand what it is supposed to display. The theory behind this practice is the cleaner the code, the easier it is for the search engines to read. Having clean, concise code enables a search engine to take less time to crawl the site and results in more favorable results.

There are times when displaying websites or code in its styled format isn't possible. Sometimes images don't load properly, there is a broken link to style settings, or a browser isn't enabling the images or styles to show. In ...