Many of the current web editors have a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. You don’t need to really know HTML, CSS, or any other code. You just move things around, click on the icons, and build your website.

Dreamweaver, Frontpage, and others all have this. If you have this, do you really need to learn to code?

I would say… definitely yes. Let me give you 3 reasons why you need to learn HTML, CSS, javascript, or whatever:

First, the code is more simple. If there are two programmers who design a web page that look very similar – one did it by coding the page – the other did it by using the WYSIWYG editor – here is what I found.

The person who did the coding would have almost half, if not less, actual code on the page. If you look at the actual source code that a WYSIWYG produces, it is at least twice as much code than the coder’s.

Simple code is easier to manage, easier to edit, and simply looks better (which would be important if you are not the only one viewing the code).

Second, coded pages rank better than WYSIWYG pages. While this is a very general statement, if all things were equal, and you had the same two near-identical pages again, the simpler page would rank better because it loads faster and is more easily read by the browsers.

I have seen this when I go to Google. I can find two pages that are similar. The coded page gets ranked higher.

Granted, there are many, many, many ranking factors when it comes time to get your web pages ranked in the search engines, but why not put things in your favor and learn to code.

Third, learning to code will get you a better job. Again, a general statement, but, who would you rather hire if you were the boss? If all things are relatively equal, except that one guy coded his pages and the other guy was a WYSIWYG guy… hands down the coder gets the job.

Why? Learning code takes extra work. It takes extra commitment. It demonstrates you will go the extra mile to get the job done right, and best. That is the kind of guy that gets hired and promoted, over the lazier person who plays with his WYSIWYG editor.

Take it for what it’s worth… but learn to code. It will not be a skill you’ll regret having taking the time to learn.