HTML vs. Wordpress vs. Dreamweaver ?

[mysticwater]

Hi.

I was wondering what the difference btw these ways of making a site are?
Why do people even type up html when they can often get prettier sites with other technology?

I coded this site: http://rblog.net16.net/

How would it have been any different in terms of SEO if I had used ie. wordpress?

Thanks.

[Jamison Bryant]

In terms of Seo, there wouldn't have been any difference, assuming you set up Dreamweaver, Wordpress, or whatever you use to apply searchable tags to your website.

On the other hand, I have found that using an IDE to design a website can and will cause your code to be totally crappy, because the IDE doesn't know exactly what you're trying to do.

If you ever want to, create a website using Microsoft Publisher, save it out to an HTML file, and open it up in a text editor. Beware: you will cry.

[JKing]

HTML is the basis of any site.

Whether you use dreamweaver or wordpress you are still creating html.

It is the combination of HTML, CSS and Javascript that makes sites look pretty. Javascript and a server-side language like PHP, ASP.NET or Cold Fusion add functionality to sites.

People like myself prefer to hand-code HTML because of the control it gives you.

[tharden3]

Jamison Bryant is right. I've looked at code from Microsoft Publisher and it is a giant mess. It isn't even close to standards-compliant.

You are talking about three different ways to design websites:

1.) Software like Dreamweaver and Microsoft Publisher let you design a website by "point-and-click." This sounds great, and some of the sites designed with this software even looks cool, but it is almost never completely standards-compliant. It often ends up creating messy code that is difficult to fix, and even harder for search engines to database or query.

2.) WordPress is a little different than the software I discussed above, because it usually ends up with clean, valid code. Many people don't "design" websites with WordPress from scratch. They usually pick a template, and insert content like images and paragraphs into the template. I know this sounds like the other software, but it really isn't. It has websites already built basically, and you just add content/tweak it. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) and it allows you to edit/add to the site without diving into code.

3.) HTML and CSS are the two basic internet languages. There are many other languages used in web design, but most static sites only require HTML and CSS. Options #1 and #2 above do their best to "edit" the code for you, so that you can change things visually without having to know the languages.

You can always use a mix of CMS and pure HTML coding to get the results you desire, or just try one or the other.

If you are really serious about web design, you are going to need to know HTML and CSS inside and out. Luckily, they are two relatively simple languages to learn.

Cheers,
Tim

[kovik]

WordPress is very powerful. If you are building a website that doesn't need a lot of "advanced" features (such as database-driven scripts), then WordPress is for you. Hell, even if you do need those features, you could build a plugin in WordPress to handle it for you. It'd just be slower.

Basically, you build your theme, install the plugins you need (they have a database full of them), and put in your content. I use it for clients that need a CMS with a blog, since that's what WordPress basically is.


There are SEO-focused plugins out there for WordPress as well, if that's what you are interested in.