Coding - where to start?
-
I've been working in digital marketing for a few years and over the past 2, I've concentrated on getting my head around (or trying to!) the world of SEO.
Everything from reading this forum, listening to webinars and re-reading the beginners guide to SEO has provided me with the confidence to put in actionable insights into my work such as on page optimisation, keyword research, link build and passing this knowledge onto co-workers
However, one area I am beginning to realise is just as important is having the ability to code for yourself.
Can anyone out there point me in the right direction of where to start, what I program I should concentrate on? and what I shuld focus my energies on?
Any help would be great
Simon
-
Brilliant, thanks guys - much appreciated
Simon
-
Hi
Try some of these places to start.
Lynda.com is excellent. They have some free courses available, but full access is a monthly subscription.
Sitepoint has some great stuff, including this HTML reference
O'Reily has excellent books.
Also, searching on YouTube is good, sometimes way easier to see someone walk through a screencast.
As a language, I would choose PHP/MySQL because its so common, and especially where WordPress uses PHP, that's probably the web language you'll be looking at most.
This is the official PHP site. - Although it can be a bit intense for beginners, but it is the official source.
-Dan
-
W3Schools is a very good source to start w/ HTML/CSS/XHTML.
-
I would definitely get up to speed with Javascript too, a lot of sites use that, you might not need to be able to code it but being able to read it and understand it's implications would be helpful.
Also flash, whilst it is a pain, understand how this works with SEO (you can do some things around it) would be good.
But definitely get yourself on a basic HTML and CSS course!
A
-
I found this site helpful for learning the basics http://www.html.net/
-
Thanks Sha
Any good basic sites/forums you'd recommend?
simon
-
Hi Simon,
I would suggest starting with the basics - getting a good grounding in HTML and CSS will make a huge difference when you are not restricted to getting someone else to make every change for you. You will also find it easier to work with your tech people once you know the basics.
Once you get a taste for it I suspect you'll find yourself seeking out other languages to learn.
Hope that helps,
Sha
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Crawl errors - 2,513 not found. Response code 404
Hi,
Technical SEO | | JamesHancocks1
I've just inherited a website that I'll be looking after. I've looked in the Search Console in the Crawl errors section and discovered thousands of urls that point to non- existent pages on Desktop. There's 1,128 on Smartphone.
Some are odd and make no sense. for example: | bdfqgnnl-z3543-qh-i39634-imbbfuceonkqrihpbptd/ | Not sure why these have are occurring but what's the best way to deal with them to improve our SEO? | northeast/ | 404 | 8/29/18 |
| | 2 | blog/2016/06/27/top-tips-for-getting-started-with-the-new-computing-curriculum/ | 404 | 8/10/18 |
| | 3 | eastmidlands | 404 | 8/21/18 |
| | 4 | eastmidlands/partner-schools/pingle-school/ | 404 | 8/27/18 |
| | 5 | z3540-hyhyxmw-i18967-fr/ | 404 | 8/19/18 |
| | 6 | northeast/jobs/maths-teacher-4/ | 404 | 8/24/18 |
| | 7 | qfscmpp-z3539-i967-mw/ | 404 | 8/29/18 |
| | 8 | manchester/jobs/history-teacher/ | 404 | 8/5/18 |
| | 9 | eastmidlands/jobs/geography-teacher-4/ | 404 | 8/30/18 |
| | 10 | resources | 404 | 8/26/18 |
| | 11 | blog/2016/03/01/world-book-day-how-can-you-get-your-pupils-involved/ | 404 | 8/31/18 |
| | 12 | onxhtltpudgjhs-z3548-i4967-mnwacunkyaduobb/ | Cheers.
Thanks in advance,
James.0 -
Where is Schema, Twitter cards and OpenGraph code need?
Hello, I've adding OpenGraph, Twitter cards and Google's Schema code to my website to help these services pick the correct information about my website. I'm doing this as per the Moz SEO cheatsheet. Does these rich snippets need to be on the index page only, or should they appear on every page?
Technical SEO | | popcreativeltd0 -
If content is at the bottom of the page but the code is at the top, does Google know that the content is at the bottom?
I'm working on creating content for top category pages for an ecommerce site. I can put them under the left hand navigation bar, and that content would be near the top in the code. I can also put the content at the bottom center, where it would look nicer but be at the bottom of the code. What's the better approach? Thanks for reading!
Technical SEO | | DA20130 -
Re-using site code.
Hi, I'm looking at launching a new website, and am keen to understand whether re-using the basic code behind one of my other sites will cause me an issue. I'll be changing the directory structure/ file names, etc - but it will basically leave me with a very similar-looking site to another in my portfolio - using code thats all ready out there, etc. Thanks, David
Technical SEO | | newstd1000 -
No crawl code for pages of helpful links vs. no follow code on each link?
Our college website has many "owners" who want pages of "helpful links" resulting in a large number of outbound links. If we add code to the pages to prevent them from being crawled, will that be just as effective as making every individual link no follow?
Technical SEO | | LAJN0 -
Will invalid HTML code generated by WordPress affect SEO efforts?
Hi all, I'm new to SEOmoz and SEO in general really. I run a small but well regarded freelance website and graphic design business, and until very recently had an employee who handled the SEO side of things. I'm now looking to step into this role myself and hopefully learn the in's and out's of SEO. I've no doubt there will be much to learn, but the SEOmoz tools and it's community seem excellent and helpful. My question then is basically, if WordPress generated HTML code can have an effect on SEO, when it's reported as invalid by tools such as the W3C HTML validator? I'm used to hand coding the majority of my websites for clients, where creating valid HTML and CSS code is something I can do with relative ease. A new client however wants to use WordPress - for ease of updating the site content themselves. The client does however consider any potential SEO implications to be a very important factor in choosing a hand coded vs. WordPress based website. I am aware that WordPress itself is just a means of generating HTML code, and that to the search engines there is no difference between this and the hand coded websites I usually produce. However if WordPress is generating HTML that is being reported as invalid, would this make the search engines penalise the site? On a second note, will the search engines look negatively on a WordPress site where it is being used as a standard website, and the content may not be updated as frequently, as say, a blog? Thanks for your time, and I look forward to hearing your suggestions.
Technical SEO | | SavilleWolf0 -
Schema coding
Hi, I was wondering if you may know if you have to keep to the and coding when adding schema code to the site. For example if I'm already using H and P tags can I add the "itemprop" to those or do they have to be in aor as in the example below: <span itemprop="name">Kenmore White 17" Microwavespan>
Technical SEO | | DragonSearch
Product description:
<span itemprop="description">0.7 cubic feet countertop microwave. Has six preset cooking categories and convenience features like Add-A-Minute and Child Lock.span> So could I code it like this? <h1 itemprop="name">Kenmore White 17" Microwaveh1>
Product description:
<p itemprop="description">0.7 cubic feet countertop microwave. Has six preset cooking categories and convenience features like Add-A-Minute and Child Lock.p> Thank you,
Etela0 -
What code do I need to remove Comments Rss from Wordpress?
Guessing I need to put something in functions.php file to remove site wide the "Comments Rss" link under "Meta" in sidebar?
Technical SEO | | bozzie3110