Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allows you to create fast loading pages, increase your search engine rankings, and modify your whole site with one style sheet. So why don't more people use them? This is because they got so used to html design and are afraid or too lazy to upgrade their skills. Some will also use ready made templates that contain flashy graphics, bloated code and sometimes even contains hidden code embedded in the page.
In this series of articles I will show you how to create a simple web site using CSS, so you will have no excuse to begin incorporating them into your future designs.
What are Cascading Style Sheets?
Cascading Style Sheets is the name of a simple language that allows you to add any style (font, colors, graphics, links, layouts) to your web pages.
Benefits of Cascading Style Sheets
1. Separate content from presentation ? you can separate your HTML markup, text, graphics and multimedia from presentation.
2. Consistent site wide look and feel consistency ? you can apply one style for 100s of web pages all at once. So if you had to change the color of all pages on your site, you only have to edit one style sheet. This saves you a huge amount of time, especially if you had to edit each page separately.
3. Web site maintenance - apart from being able to make site wide changes easily through one CSS file, the clean code it generates makes it easier to update. Properly marked up web pages permit them to be maintained by more than one person. It will also work in more browsers. Web site redesigns will take much less time.
4. Improve search engine rankings ? search engines generally spider the code at the top of your web page first. For most sites that means the navigation bar will be spidered first (resides at top of page code). CSS enables you to position the code for your content at the top making your page search engine friendly. Properly marked up HTML pages can easily found and properly categorized by search engines
5. Fast loading ? CSS reduces the amount of tags used therefore producing clean code. Tableless design can reduce your load time by 25% to 50%.
6. Reduce bandwidth ? compacting the amount of code used will reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to host your web pages. Therefore you won't have to pay higher fees when adding more web documents to your site.
7. Accessibility - increasing accessibility with CSS means being able to serve web content to a larger audience, increasing web site usability, even for non-disabled people. Content can easily be formatted for projection as well as screen display. Tableless layouts display well on hand-helds.
8. Improve the printing of web pages ? most printers will only allow you to print a portion of the web page. With CSS your whole document can be printed.
When you use CSS it becomes quick and easy to apply new styles that can not only effect all styles on your web page but even your whole site.
In the next article I will explain how to layout a web page using CSS.
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.isitebuild.com Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting. Subscribe to his "Marketing Tips" newsletter for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com. You can read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com
Alto Pass chicago limos ..To build a website, there are four methods to choose... Read More
You may not bother with html validation or writing simple... Read More
Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing... Read More
If you are designing a web site for which the... Read More
Creating an appealing, functional, and effective Web site is much... Read More
What is a Website Template?Many smart and savvy businesses are... Read More
Ever wonder how HTML color codes are put together? For... Read More
There are several graphic software packages available to help you... Read More
There are two camps when it comes to flash web... Read More
It's a fact, Page Not Found, known as a 404... Read More
If your website is falling through the cracks, the chances... Read More
Surfing the internet is basically an information-fest! From intellectual discussions... Read More
1. Repackage your web site content in to different products... Read More
So you need a website. You are not sure if... Read More
You may not believe it, but people still judge things... Read More
Your web site is like your car. Both are significant... Read More
What the heck is going on lately? Most internet websites... Read More
Choosing a web designer can seem like a daunting task.... Read More
As a webmaster, you want to keep your visitors content... Read More
Flash is a powerful technology that can help you create... Read More
Argh, where's the contact button?! Believe it or not, some... Read More
Due to the large number of people offering web design... Read More
When I purchase something from a web site I first... Read More
I get the occasional web design lead from my website.... Read More
Making a successful online business can be a long and... Read More
Alto Pass cool limo ..See, works every time. Seriously now, for some reason people... Read More
You know... Before purchasing your product a person comes to... Read More
~A man [woman] is a success if he [she] gets... Read More
So you've decided to take the plunge. You know that... Read More
Your web site should always adhere to standards!A professional web... Read More
Nope. You certainly don't need a website.But you don't need... Read More
To create your own great banner, you only need five... Read More
One product, one long web page: this kind of web... Read More
Before I discovered the concept of Web site templates, I... Read More
Well, you've got your product, started your home business, and... Read More
In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of... Read More
What do the key words represent?Key words - these are... Read More
You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're... Read More
If you need a web designer, but have no clue... Read More
When you begin the design of your Web site, one... Read More
I see a lot of mistakes, but here are the... Read More
Yes, in a world that is obsessed with makeover madness,... Read More
Creating your own website is actually easy in today's world... Read More
Seeing is believing.One trick to increase your visibility as well... Read More
10 Ways Web Site Text Can Impact Your Reader's Buying... Read More
A Double Ad Tracker is an Ad-Tracker that points to... Read More
Read the title of this article over a couple of... Read More
Last Thursday afternoon I was working on a garage door... Read More
Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple... Read More
Your business website tells a lot about your company. A... Read More
Web Design |