Become a webdsign master


The Power of CSS

CSS or cascading style sheets are used toreally embedded right into your cascading
create a set of styles that can be applied tostyle sheet. Lets take the rollover button
your fonts, tables and most other attributeseffect one step further. Suppose you want to
of your web page. These styles allow you tomanipulate your web page code in a way that
create a much cleaner, faster web page thatyour relevant keyword phrase(s) appear at the
search engines love and also makes life muchtop of the page. With CSS, you have the
easier on the designer when global changes toability to do this with ease. CSS allows you
these styles need to be applied. It is alsonot only to adjust font and color attributes,
always critical to always keep in mind yourbut you can also adjust the spacing and
target audience and the average internetalignment of certain elements on your web
connection speed these users have. By usingpage. So with this in mind, creating your
styles sheets to their full advantage, youtable structure usingtags allows you to
can help keep your web page size down to alayout your page in a way that the search
minimum.engine spiders see your important, relevant
keyword phrase(s) ahead of your tables and
When you sit down to think about the sitemapimages. The next step is to incorporate your
and the navigational structure of yourcascading style sheet so you can still use a
website, you should consider using cascadingheader designed using graphics, while placing
style sheets wherever possible. This includesyour important keyword phrase(s) at the top
everything from your text attributes to yourof your web page which search engines love.
table padding. Each page you create should beIn  your  style  sheet, add these two styles:
tailored around one or two keyword phrases in
order to maximize the relevancy of the#header{ width: 373px; height: 53px;
content being displayed to the variousbackground-image: url(header.gif);
internet browsers surfing your website. Usingbackground-repeat: no-repeat; color: f7f7f7;
this technique allows you to have a web page}h1{ text-indent: -100em;
which, in the search engines spiders view,margin:0px,0px,0px,0px; }
only  contains  html  and  keyword rich text.
As you can see, in the #header style, we have
Let's use an example to illustrate the powerincluded the dimensions of the image along
and  capability  of  cascading  style sheets.with including the image you want to serve as
your header as the background for this style.
Graphic Buttons with Rollover: In the pastMake sure you input the correct dimensions
we created rollover buttons using graphicsfor the header image. This needs to be
programs like Adobe Photoshop and/oraccurate as the style sheet will only display
Macromedia Fireworks, and embedded them onwhat can fit in the outlined dimensions and
our web page with all the unfriendly codewill also affect the spacing of your tables
that is needed for the rollover effect. Theand web page. On the h1 style, we have
problem with doing this can be two-fold.indicated we do not want the text visible on
First, search engines prefer text linksthe web page, rather the header image we
because text is always optimal and you cancreated which is contained in the #header
also put your desired keywords in the text ofstyle. We are able to do this by using the
the link, which can help boost your rankings.text-indent: -100em attribute of the h1
Images are also seen as inferior to html,style. You also want to include the margin
since search engine spiders are not able toattribute so you avoid any unwanted spacing
scan images as effectively as plain text.underneath the text contained in thetag.
When you create navigation with graphicalThen, on your actual web page, put your
buttons, you lose out on both of thesekeywords at the top of the page in antag and
benefits and risk having some of your webinclude the #header style. This is what your
pages not indexed by the search enginecode should look like for the text you are
spiders. This is why well-optimized web pagestrying to display as anwhile displaying only
have text links at the bottom of the page;the  header  graphic.  (
text makes it easier for search engines to
spider your site and compensate for theYOUR  IMPORTANT  KEYWORD  PHRASE
primary  navigation  menu.
). This can give you a HUGE advantage when
CSS allows you to create these buttonstrying to optimize a website for a very
without having any images visible on yourcompetitive category and achieve top 10
html code (which is where search enginessearch engine rankings by making your
spider). Furthermore, you can embed yourkeywords visible right at the top of the
desired keyword phrase(s) as the text forpage, in antag, while actually displaying a
your links. Try these steps and you will seenice header graphic to the person browsing
how easy it is to simulate the rolloveryour website. Although many changes have
button effect, how much more effective youroccurred in the last few weeks in terms of
web site will be for the desired targetedYahoo! adopting their own search engine
keywords and how much faster your web pagespider and listings, Google making the switch
will  be  to  load.to geo targeting and the ever growing
importance in maintaining quality, theme
Your CSS Code: In CSS you have the abilityrelated link partners, the placement of your
to create a background image on a particularkeywords is still an important factor in
style. Create your table with an individualadding to your search engine optimization and
cell for each link. In your CSS styles, youranking  success.
need to update the a:link and a:hover styles.
For the a:link, make the graphic you haveAnother good practice when designing web
created to act as your button and/or thepages using CSS is to make sure your web page
background image for that style. Then updateconforms to W3 standards for both HTML and
the font attributes so the text will beCSS. This is critical in ensuring your
visible on top of the background image. Onwebsite works across all platforms and
the a:hover style, put the over state of thebrowsers and also helps to ensure ALL search
button as the background of that style andengine spiders can index your site easily and
update the font attributes so you can see theeffectively. There really is nothing worse
text on the page. This is what your actualthen directing a few hundred hits per day in
CSS code should look like for the a:link andsearch engine traffic and having 50% of those
a:hover styles:a:link{ font-family: Verdana,people unable to view your website because of
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style:poor coding, corrupted style sheets or broken
normal; font-variant: normal;links. Always test your web site and have a
text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;friend navigate through your website both on
font-weight: bold; width: 175px; height:a MAC and PC to ensure there are in fact no
100px; background-image: url(imagesbroken links and all pages are easily
home-button.gif); background-repeat:accessible  and  error  free.
no-repeat; }a:hover{ font-family: Verdana,
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style:The power of cascading style sheets is
normal; font-variant: normal;incredible. The above example only scratches
text-decoration: underline; color: #006699;the surface of how much you can do for your
font-weight: bold; width: 175px; height:page in terms of accessibility,
100px; background-image: url(imagesfunctionality, speed and clean html. You can
home-button-over.gif); background-repeat:adjust your scrollbar, background image, and
no-repeat; }even the padding of your tables all in your
style sheet. The only key is that you create
This effect creates the perception of aan external css and link it from the web page
rollover image. To site visitors, it willusing those styles file ( ). This way, you
appear to be a regular rollover buttondon't add any cumbersome code on your page
created out of two graphics. The onlythat will risk confusing the search engine
difference is your cascading style sheetspiders  and  use  CSS to its full advantage.
contains the images for both states of the
link. This way when search engine spidersBy adjusting all these attributes in an
visit your website, they will only see cleanexternally linked css file, you are keeping
html code - without any images used foryour web page small in physical size along
navigation - and your keyword-rich text. Aswith ensuring good clean html code which as
well, your web page should load much fasterwe have mentioned above, search engine
and be compatible with anyone still using anspiders love! As well, css makes life MUCH
old  dial-up  connection.easier on the web designer when future
updates need to be made. It is far more
CSS Above and Beyond: With cascading styleefficient to manage a website using cascading
sheets, as outlined above, you can create thestyle sheets then one that contains good old
perception to the user that images arefont tags.
present on the actual page when they are



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