The last decade has seen an impressive range of software packages released that have helped a wide range of people simply and effectively build their own websites.
But whilst the likes of WordPress and Blogger are capable of delivering some striking designs and functions, there’s nothing like having a good working understanding of HTML to maintain a website that’s capable of delivering a variety of tasks whether it’s a simple tech blog or even an advanced gaming site.
This is particularly so as many websites are now built as part of a team project, and therefore it’s become increasingly evident that labelling different sections is now evermore important when creating a website. And with the new sectioning elements of HTML5 starting to grow in popularity, there’s a been a noticeable shift in the way that we’re thinking about website building and maintenance.
In particular it’s about ensuring that there aren’t any troublesome elements of HTML floating around that are going to create problems for anybody else working on the project. And making sure that a site is decluttered from unnecessary pieces of information will also have the desirable effects of helping the site to load quicker, and it will be easier for any web crawlers to find the specific pieces of data that can help raise your website in any search listings.
If you’re building a website that features dynamically created content, then the AJAX crawling scheme has long been a recommended way for keeping your site crawlable. For an example of a site using the AJAX crawling scheme the Mr Smith Casino site shows how they’ve managed to make it easy for prospective gamers to find their slots games in a way that is clean, efficient and unobstructive.
But with Google making a statement last year that suggests changes in the way sites can be crawled, it puts the emphasis back on the website builder to ensure that the basic elements of the site are in place and that any sloppy code is eradicated.
Thankfully there are some excellent resources in existence that can facilitate a relatively simple way to check that everything’s running smoothly. The W3C HTML Validator is the first point of call as it can quickly check for any browser compatibility issues, and similarly the Adobe Browserlab is a handy resource for seeing how any design problems can play out across different browsers whether it’s an online gaming site or just your friendly website building blog!