| Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet | | | | modern search engines such as: Google, Yahoo |
| language that permits web designers to attach | | | | and MSN love light-weighted websites. They |
| style like spacing, color, font, etc. to HTML | | | | want to see your content; the text, not the |
| documents. Cascading style sheets work | | | | code. With CSS everything is possible. You |
| similarly to a template; permitting web | | | | practically externalize excessive code into |
| developers to label style for an HTML element | | | | external file, thus leaving the actual page |
| and after that apply it to the number of web | | | | clean and simple. |
| pages required. Thus, Cascading Style Sheets | | | | |
| (CSS) are collections of formatting rules, | | | | Website Accessibility |
| which control the appearance of content in a | | | | |
| web page. With CSS styles you have great | | | | CSS makes your website more accessible. The |
| flexibility and control of the exact page | | | | number of users browsing the web through hand |
| appearance; from precise positioning of | | | | held devices are continuously growing |
| layout to specific fonts and styles. | | | | tremendously. It is estimated that by 2008, |
| | | | one third of the world's population will be |
| There are many benefits of using CSS. One of | | | | using hand held devices for accessing |
| the major benefits of using CSS is the easy | | | | Internet. It is always important that your |
| maintenance of the website. Maintenance of a | | | | site is accessible to them also. You can make |
| website made with CSS is much easier compared | | | | an additional CSS document particularly for |
| to the ones which are table based. CSS splits | | | | handheld devices like cell phones, which will |
| the presentation style of documents from the | | | | be called up in place of the regular CSS |
| content of documents and makes the | | | | document; which is not achievable with a |
| maintenance of the site easier. Aside from | | | | tabular layout. CSS benefits accessibility |
| being able to make site extensive changes | | | | chiefly by separating document structure from |
| with no trouble through one CSS file, the | | | | presentation. By separating style from |
| clean code it generates makes it easier to | | | | markup, webmasters can simplify and clean up |
| update. Webmasters can characterize the | | | | the HTML in their documents, making the |
| appearance of a site in one place, and change | | | | documents more accessible. |
| the whole site by changing just one file. | | | | |
| With CSS, when you decide to craft a change, | | | | Increases Download Speed of Your Website |
| you simply alter the style, and that element | | | | |
| is updated automatically anywhere it appears | | | | CSS code downloads faster than tables. |
| in the site. So, if you have to alter the | | | | Browsers read through tables twice previous |
| color of all pages in your site, you only | | | | to exhibiting their contents; first to work |
| have to edit one style sheet. This saves you | | | | out their structure and then to determine |
| enormous amount of time, particularly if you | | | | their content. Moreover, tables are shown on |
| have to edit each page independently. CSS | | | | the screen as a whole, no part of the table |
| generally requires less code compared to | | | | will be displayed until the entire table is |
| table based. This makes your code lighter and | | | | downloaded and rendered. Tables support the |
| cleaner. Clean code makes a huge difference | | | | use of spaced images to assist with |
| in maintaining your site. | | | | positioning. CSS generally requires less code |
| | | | than cumbersome tables. All code to do with |
| Cascading Style Sheets Benefits and Search | | | | the layout can be placed in an external CSS |
| Engine Optimization (SEO) | | | | document, which will be called up just once |
| | | | and then stored on the user's computer; while |
| Another major benefit of CSS is that it makes | | | | the table layout stored in each HTML |
| your website SEO friendly. The reason behind | | | | document, must be loaded up each time a new |
| this is simple. The search engines spiders | | | | page downloads. Also with CSS, you can manage |
| are actually very lethargic. They do not go | | | | the order of the items downloaded into the |
| through the bundles of HTML codes to get to | | | | screen. You have the control to make the |
| the indexed codes. Font tags and tables make | | | | content appear previous to the slow loading |
| the HTML code very cumbersome; thus, reduce | | | | images, which is liked by most of the web |
| the accuracy of the results. If you use | | | | users. |
| external CSS files to design and determine | | | | |
| the design attributes; the HTML code will be | | | | Cross Browser Compatibility |
| clean and it will result to better search | | | | |
| engine rankings. With some knowledge of CSS | | | | For all webmasters out there! CSS makes your |
| you will be able to change the code layout | | | | website more professional. Taking the |
| without destroying the actual visual layout. | | | | benefits of CSS like making your websites |
| For instance, you could easily make the main | | | | load faster and easy to maintain, you save a |
| content of your site to show up above the | | | | lot of time and labor. This in turn makes you |
| header or navigation menu in the code of your | | | | lots of money. CSS makes links of the website |
| website; thus will help to show search engine | | | | look more attractive and dynamic. Using CSS, |
| crawlers the importance of your content. I | | | | you can slot in rollovers easily and |
| personally saw a huge boost in rankings in | | | | effectively, without having to use a single |
| fully CSS web sites. When I look at someone's | | | | character of JavaScript. Thus, CSS gives your |
| website that was built using old school HTML | | | | websites a professional look. It is wise to |
| code with tags such as: TABLES, TD, TR, FONT | | | | use CSS to jive with the current trends of |
| and so on, I feel awkward and immediately | | | | the industry. All major browsers like |
| convert that site to a fully table-less CSS | | | | Firefox, Explorer, and Netscape presently |
| layout. There are many tools on the Internet | | | | recognize CSS and it is definitely safe for |
| that shows the actual code over text ratio | | | | web designers to use CSS now. |
| weight of your site. Do you know why? Because | | | | |