New web developers often try to learn everything at once without mastering any one skill. But before you learn the latest JavaScript framework, make sure you know the fundamentals of HTML and CSS.

Colby Fayock is an experienced front end developer and prolific freeCodeCamp contributor. He has been teaching others to code for many years.

Colby recently gave a remote talk about how to level up your web development skills at the Byteconf React 2020 conference. And we've collaborated with Byteconf to publish Colby's talk.

In his talk, Colby emphasizes that developers need to understand the fundamentals – or this ignorance will forever hold them back from achieving their projects' potential.

For example, without some basic knowledge of HTML, you might inadvertently exclude people from using your website due to poor accessibility.

And if you lack a full understanding of CSS, you might opt to use unnecessary libraries that can add to the weight of your website, and slow down your page load speeds.

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In Colby's Mario Bros.-themed talk, he covers a lot of the HTML and CSS fundamentals that all web developers need to know.

He also discusses some basic HTML and CSS strategies that you can immediately use for better accessibility, simpler code, and improved SEO.

Even if you think you have the fundamentals down, it can't hurt to get a refresher and check for gaps in your knowledge.

You can watch the full talk on the freeCodeCamp Talks YouTube channel (22-minute watch). And while you're there, hit the 'Subscribe' button so you don't miss any of the great talks we post there.

And in Case You didn't Know About freeCodeCamp's Talks Channel...

There are hundreds of coding-related conferences around the world every year. And you can often hear insights about important projects through tech talks – straight from their founders and maintainers.

Our nonprofit recently launched a second YouTube channel focused on technical talks from conferences around the world. It has become one of the best places to find full-length tech talks on the web. And we publish new talks by developers Monday through Friday.

Our nonprofit has partnered with PyCon and dozens of other tech conferences to bring you awesome tech talks for free – right from the convenience of your phone or laptop.

You can incorporate these talks into your daily routine. Or you can just Voltron them all together into your own mini tech conference, and binge-watch them over a weekend.

What are these Tech Talks like? And what topics do they focus on?

Most of these are about 30 minutes long. Here are some of the topics we've published on:

  • Functional Programming
  • Penetration Testing
  • Front End Development
  • Python Libraries
  • Web Assembly
  • Robotics
  • And a whole lot more.

Sounds rad. Where can I subscribe to freeCodeCamp Talks?

You can subscribe to this channel for free.

Also be sure to click the little “bell” to turn on notifications. YouTube will let you know when we post new videos.

Again, we plan to continue publishing new talks Monday through Friday each week. We already have 35 talks live, and we hope to eventually have thousands of talks.

Imagine a virtual Library of Alexandria overflowing with developer wisdom goodness. That's what we're aiming for.

If you yourself have given a tech talk at an event and would like for us to publish it and publicize it to the global freeCodeCamp community, be sure to email Beau Carnes, who runs the Talks channel. He may be able to feature it.

What about the original freeCodeCamp YouTube channel?

It’s still going strong!

We are publishing several videos each week there, including lots of full-length programming courses. You can subscribe to it for free here. (Again, be sure to ring the bell so YouTube will notify you when we publish new courses.)

Happy coding.