| Relevant Education | | | | - CSS saves a lot of time. Using HTML and CSS |
| When choosing a web designer / developer to work | | | | together separates the "data" section (HTML) from |
| with on your project, it is recommended that they | | | | the "presentation" section (CSS) of the site. For |
| have relevant education in web design / | | | | instance, if you wanted to change the font and the |
| development. This ensures that they learned how to | | | | color of the title that is wrapped in h1 tags on all 40 |
| put together and "code" a website properly. I have | | | | pages of your website, you simply go and edit the h1 |
| seen all too many times freelance web designers that | | | | class in the CSS style sheet and it will automatically |
| have taught themselves how to "code" etc., and | | | | make the changes to the title on all 40 pages at |
| they are not following best practices procedures. This | | | | once. CSS allows you to make "global" changes to |
| can make it much more difficult to later make | | | | the presentation of your site. |
| changes to your website (due to poor coding), and it | | | | - Pages load faster in browsers. There is typically less |
| can also affect the way search engines (like Google) | | | | code when using CSS, which results in faster page |
| rank your website. | | | | loading times. |
| | | | - Easy maintenance. As stated in point #1, you only |
| Another very important attribute for a web designer | | | | have to make a presentation change once within the |
| developer to have, is the ability to "code" websites | | | | CSS and it will be applied globally throughout your site. |
| using "semantic mark-up". This involves the proper | | | | - Better styles to HTML. Using CSS gives you a |
| use of h1 through to h6 tags, utilizing the paragraph | | | | greater array of attributes over using tables. |
| tag properly and also using the list tags ol and ul | | | | Cross Browser Compatibility |
| efficiently etc. Below are a few advantages to using | | | | Since there are many different browsers and |
| semantic mark-up: | | | | operating systems out there, it is imperative that the |
| - It will be more accessible to people seeing the | | | | web designer / developer is educated in ensuring that |
| document where CSS cannot be applied. | | | | the website displays correctly in all browsers. |
| - It will be understandable to people having it read to | | | | Different browsers sometimes render the same |
| them with the help of a screen reader. | | | | website in different ways, so if not done correctly, |
| - It will help to get a better search engine ranking, | | | | your website may look like a mess in certain |
| since search engines can easier distinguish the | | | | browsers. Using a "conditional comment" is often |
| importance level of the documents different parts. | | | | required for Internet Explorer 6, due to the way it |
| - It will be much easier for web developers to | | | | renders code. This basically means that another CSS |
| maintain the code, and to separate content (HTML) | | | | stylesheet written specifically for IE6 is sometimes |
| from presentation (CSS). | | | | required. |
| - In most cases, there will be less code, meaning that | | | | SEO (search engine optimization) Knowledge |
| the web page will be faster to load. | | | | If the web designer / developer has knowledge of |
| Using CSS instead of tables | | | | SEO, that is definitely a bonus. This way, he or she |
| Using CSS is now the preferred method when coding | | | | can implement good SEO strategies when "coding" |
| a website as opposed to using table. You may want | | | | your website. This will in turn give you a better |
| to avoid a web designer / developer who still uses | | | | ranking in the search engines. There are also many |
| "tables" to code the websites he builds. CSS has | | | | things the designer / developer can do after the site |
| many advantages over its dated counterpart (tables). | | | | is created to boost your site higher up the search |
| Below are a few advantages to using CSS | | | | rankings. |