Web design isn’t always organized or clean, but it really should be. When designing templates or themes for a website, messy coding is the absolute worst thing for your business. Not only is it more difficult for search engines to understand, but it also causes quite a few problems for SEO.

Most people seem to think that is OK to have a jumbled code, “as long as it works.” This is far from true, and will likely get you penalized by popular search engines such as Google.

So what is clean coding? Clean code will be simple, straight to the point, and easy to read. Messy coding will be long, drawn out, and contain tons of useless attributes that is difficult to read and manipulate. Some people do this on purpose so that their code isn’t easily changed after they sell it. This is tricky and unethical, and should be avoided.

To start a clean coding and template, you should always write down or sketch out a plan. Starting your “web design layout” folder first will ensure that you are organized and prepared. After making the necessary files and folders, you can begin the coding process. If you are familiar with coding, you know that the first part of the code should contain title tags and other relevant information. After that you can begin mocking up the header and other important parts of code.

Some clients want their coding done quickly. That means that you will feel pressured to create a fast and therefore, sloppy code. Unfortunately this doesn’t provide any benefit to you or the client. If you want to be ethical about your services, you should master the art of creating fast and organized templates. You can even be savvy about it and develop your own method for structuring and organizing your code.

As you can see, some people completely skip the very important first steps of web design. If you plan to be a professional in this field, mastering the art of organized code and design is extremely important. Not only can you market yourself better, but you can also prove to future clients or employers that you are worthy of their business. No one will want to purchase “messy” coding that may be rejected by search engines. This is extremely bothersome and will definitely make potential clients run from you like they are running from a natural disaster.

In the example above the designer of 31Three (http://www.31three.com/) does a great job of keeping his design very simple and in turn keeping the code very clean. The ability to make clean, minimal designs is often overlooked but these kind of designs really allow the content and message to shine through.

Always remember, if you do it right the first time you won’t have difficulty editing the code in the future. Getting things done in an accurate and efficient manner greatly minimizes errors on the webpage once it is launched. It also keeps clients from pestering you about fixing a specific part of the code to reduce the frequency of error, and it makes them more willing to come back for the future template needs! After all, every aspiring professional designer needs more business to make themselves well known!