WYSIWYG editors

and the code they churn out

[Buckley]

Hi everyone,

I have heard that using editors like web plus generate code that isn't exactly search engine friendly and that the use of them could effect rankings adversly.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Many thanks in advance

[schwartz]

Unfortunately, this is true quite often. Dreamweaver and GoLive have made good strides in this areas the last release or two.

[bill]

Most modern WYSIWYG like Dreamweaver and FrontPage leave your code pretty much alone. They only use proprietary code when you use certain add-ins. For general page building the WYSIWYG of today is quite respectful of your code.

I don't know that DW or FP ever generated code that was search engine unfriendly to begin with. Even when they inserted proprietary code I can't recall any specific instances when a WYSIWYG generated page was responsible for a drop in the SERPs, ever. Maybe the page didn't validate to W3C standards, but that's a recent concern for most. Where did this rumor start?

[Buckley]

I'm more talking about editors like webplus that dont require you to know any html at all. Im not familiar with dreamwaever or FP. So there seems to be some debate as to whether this could cause adverse rankings.

Anyone esle got any thoughts on this?

The reason i ask is i want to know whether to keep using an editor like webplus or similar or if i need to bite the bullet and use a web designer. I know some SEO, but i dont have time to learn html, im just way to busy. I want to do my own site but i dont want to be behind the 8 ball from the start re ranking high for important keywords. Its hard enough as it is without starting behind the pack.
Thanks again

[bill]

If you aren't going to learn HTML then you could get into trouble with any WYSIWYG. You'd be better off hiring someone to set up a standards compliant CMS and then you could just enter content via a web browser.