Most Important Programming Languages for Web Development

When it comes to websites and your online presence, there is an abundance of styles, ideas, and languages you can use. Some languages are more important, versatile, and common than others. These languages will make sure your website looks and works correctly in all browsers and operating systems, which will save you time and frustration. Look over the list below to see which languages you should have in your arsenal and how they are used.
First in this lineup is CSS. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used for presentation/layout of your website. This language is used in partnership with other languages to lay out tables, divs, lists, and the style or color of certain elements. Having well formed CSS can make your website have great presentation and make coding much easier and cleaner. Instead of settings colors and spacing in the body of the code, this can be placed in a CSS rule, that can just be called. This will make your code clean and easy to follow. To add to the ease of use and functionality, you can use an add-on such as bootstrap, which makes spacing and layout much easier.
Next in line is HTML. This language is the most basic and is the bread and butter of most websites on the web today. HTML uses the CSS rules you created to form the content on your website. This includes tables, divs, lists, links, and text. The syntax for HTML calls to CSS rules to add the element to the body of the code where you can then add text or links. HTML has come a long way and evolved its’ functionality over the years to do away with out dated languages.
Last but certainly not least, is PHP. PHP is a very popular, multi-purpose, scripting language. This language creates, calls, and uses function to push and pull data to and from the data base. A great example of this, that many of us use several times a day, is logging into a website. When you login, PHP controls the fields. When you enter your username and password, it checks the data base against the information you entered to either complete the login or to inform you that your information is not correct. This is the most popular example, but definitely not the only. PHP powers blogs, images, data, and the list continues. This is the most powerful and important language for web development.
These are not the only important languages for web development, but a great place to start. With these fundamentals, you can begin programming your website and add-on from there. A couple other notable languages are javascript, jquery, and ruby on rails. Initially to learn programming languages you would have to read large boring books and practice in an IDE. Recently, the learning process has become much simpler and can be done online. A great place to begin learning is codecademy.com. This allows you to start lessons on the languages you want to learn, and creates projects based on those languages. Once you feel comfortable with languages you can then use codefights.com. This site lets you code battle other users and learn from your win/loss.
Also, you will need a program to start coding in. If you are using a framework like WordPress, the coding can be done inside the admin itself. If you are looking to code directly to a server you will use an IDE such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Notepad++, SublimeText, PHPStorm, or Aptana Studio.