Web designers/developers these days are still using builders that output pretty poor code. They prey on unknowing clients who are in need for a website and then charge them ridiculous prices for incredibly poor sites that often engage in significant divception. Divception is HTML code that is riddled with a lot of div elements around content to the point that it causes DOM issues. To go even further, they often use little to no optimization on the code, fonts, or images… etc. This results in further issues.

When we use excessive div elements to wrap other elements, we end up with an excessive amount of divs being rendered into the real DOM. This can cause the size of the HTML DOM to increase, which can lead to high memory usage, style processing to lag, and slow page rendering.

The follow up segments of this review will include me also reviewing several websites plus the newly redesigned Nasa.gov site. I will not be directly mentioning the developer/designer behind the sites as it’s not my intent to imply anything about them or the business owners of the websites themselves. In some cases the builder used is professional, while in others…. definitely not. In every instance the websites will be based on a Content Management System (CMS) and I will also make a comparison review of a website I’ve built as well to ensure fairness.

This review will cover the following points for every site:

• General Code Structure Review: Is the code output in a readable structured layout or is it a jumbled mess? Specifically does the Body tag contain the Header, Main, and Footer tags and are they structured at the beginning or somewhere else?
• Size Unit Review: Does the code output responsive size units such as REM, Clamp, or Calc… or does it use fixed sizing such as Pixels.
• Image Optimization: Are optimized image types such as WebP or Avif being used?
• Font Serving: Are fonts being served locally or through a third party service such as Google Fonts?
• Cache, CDN, or Both: Is the website using a Cache? Is the website delivering files by CDN? Or, are they using both (Ideally usage of both is what I’m looking for).
• Site Security: Last but not least, does the site have a working SSL Certificate? Far to many websites have an expired SSL which causes all sorts of issues.

Web design can be a difficult thing as things are constantly changing. CSS which is the code behind a lot of the cool look styling and design you see, is constantly being improved. However the goal of any true designer/developer should be to always keep moving forward. In other words, to never stop learning and growing so that they can provide the best possible work. This is a never ending cycle, but unfortunately to many designers/developers settle and become complacent. This results in websites that are subpar.

Mistakes happen and even with extensive testing it’s impossible to find every single issue on a site. Sometimes it’s a typo, or a slight spacing issue. However purposely making the choice to not grow in your understanding of web design/development reflects poorly on the person building the site. Web design/development is constantly improving, so should those building websites.

The sites we built yesterday should not be the same as the sites we build today and tomorrow.

Unfortunately, this has become the norm across not just this industry but many others. I do want to address a common criticism/argument that some will try to make, the usage of WordPress for websites. So let me state this clearly, WordPress is Content Management System first and foremost. Just like any other CMS, it’s intended to be the core of how the content on the site is managed. Second, the limitations of WordPress directly correlate to the tools used to for the styling and the person designing/developing the site.

If the person building the site uses poor tools and doesn’t understand the basics of page building, they will deliver a poor site every single time regardless of what CMS is used.

So the underlying issue IS NOT with WordPress being used, but ultimately the person designing/developing the website because they have chosen to not embrace the web design/development standards of today.

Again, the sites we built yesterday should not be the same as the sites we build today and tomorrow. If we are constantly seeking to improve our skillset, the websites we build today should reflect that improvement even if it’s done in baby steps…. because the ultimate goal is to: Keep Moving Forward!