How To Design Your Web Site With Css
|
|
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allows you to create fastloading pages, increase your search engine rankings, andmodify your whole site with one style sheet. So why don'tmore people use them? This is because they got so used tohtml design and are afraid or too lazy to upgrade theirskills. 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 asimple web site using CSS, so you will have no excuse tobegin incorporating them into your future designs.
What are Cascading Style Sheets?
Cascading Style Sheets is the name of a simple languagethat 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 separateyour HTML markup, text, graphics and multimedia frompresentation.
2. Consistent site wide look and feel consistency ? you canapply one style for 100s of web pages all at once. So ifyou had to change the color of all pages on your site, youonly have to edit one style sheet. This saves you a hugeamount of time, especially if you had to edit each pageseparately.
3. Web site maintenance - apart from being able to makesite wide changes easily through one CSS file, the cleancode it generates makes it easier to update. Properlymarked up web pages permit them to be maintained by morethan one person. It will also work in more browsers. Website redesigns will take much less time.
4. Improve search engine rankings ? search enginesgenerally spider the code at the top of your web page first. For most sites that means the navigation bar will be spideredfirst (resides at top of page code). CSS enables you toposition the code for your content at the top making yourpage search engine friendly. Properly marked up HTML pagescan easily found and properly categorized by search engines
5. Fast loading ? CSS reduces the amount of tags usedtherefore producing clean code. Tableless design can reduceyour load time by 25% to 50%.
6. Reduce bandwidth ? compacting the amount of code usedwill reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to host your webpages. Therefore you won't have to pay higher fees whenadding more web documents to your site.
7. Accessibility - increasing accessibility with CSS meansbeing able to serve web content to a larger audience,increasing web site usability, even for non-disabledpeople. Content can easily be formatted for projection aswell as screen display. Tableless layouts display well onhand-helds.
8. Improve the printing of web pages ? most printers willonly allow you to print a portion of the web page. With CSSyour whole document can be printed.
When you use CSS it becomes quick and easy to apply newstyles that can not only effect all styles on your web pagebut even your whole site.
In the next article I will explain how to layout a web pageusing CSS.
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com AffordableWeb 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/articles
|
|
|
Created & Maintained by Empower! CMS Web Sites
Host2Sell Web Hosting | Emarketing Workshops | Site SEO Review | FREE NewsletterTestimonials Can Increase Your Web Traffic
We've all seen and read product testimonials. They're a very valuable tool for merchant salesand can often tip the scales in determining a customer's decision to buy. But testimonialsoffer another superb benefit. It's the benefitto you and your marketing strategy.When I'm on a site offering a product or serviceI like to click on customer testimonials because they are generally short and easy to read. Peopletypically point out exactly what they like about a product and how they used it to their benefit.Testimonials come from real users...(related: Web Design)
3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website
Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the internet it always pays dividends to look at the website itself and get the fundamentals right before looking to shout about it from the virtual mountain-tops.You may already have thought about the following 3 ways and some of you may already have them in place on your website. If so ? congratulations ? you're well on the way to having a website that will bring you more business. So here they are then ? the 3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website..1. You're Fishing For Visitors ? You'll Need This To Hook Them.Ever been surfing on a website that held your attention and then the phone ri...(related: Web Design)
You Too Can Have Fun With Sepia Images!
If you are one of those who wonder how people come up with the cool looking sepia tone prints that you admire so much. If you are doubling up with jealousy over a sepia tone, here, we will give you tips on how you could achieve this sepia tone, too. Ready up your Photoshop software program, your PC and prepare to have fun with sepia! It's time that they envy you, too.First of all it is important for you to choose images that have some darks and lights ? it doesn't matter how colorful they are. Many images could go along with sepia tone, so you won't take forever finding an image. You can even have a...(related: Web Design)
Web Design: Should You Hire Someone Or Do It Yourself?
So you need a website. You are not sure if you should hire someone or learn HTML and do it yourself. Consider these points before making your final decision.Web design is an art and a scienceA good web designer is worth their ...(related: Web Design)
Colorblind People, Can They Really Read Your Web Site?
I once created a notepad-like editor. It is possible with this editor to write Russian text on a western Windows without using a Cyrillic keyboard in front of your computer.This software is equipped with an on screen Russian keyboard which is situated under the text field of the notepad like editor. The keys on th...(related: Web Design)
The Newbie?s Guide To Small Business Web Design
You've got a concept for a business, are excited about putting it out on the Internet, know a little bit about computers and the Internet, but know nothing about building a web site, or web design.You can still be highly successful and save money by doing the job yourself so long as you've got the willingness to learn and the time to spend on the project. It can be fun ? and it should be.The contents of this article will grea...(related: Web Design)
Keep Them Coming Back - Update Your Site
If you are anything like me, your website is a reflection of yourself. It contains your thoughts and communications, exposed to the entire world at all times. Look at virtually any non-commercial web site and you will get a glimpse at the person behind the monitor.I look at web sites all day long, and I am constantly amazed by the things that people reveal about themselves without saying anything. Is the website well organized or just a jumble of images and text thrown up at a moments notice? Is the site alive with color ...(related: Web Design)
Why Use A Web Design Template?
What is a Website Template?Many smart and savvy businesses are choosing to use a website template, and avoiding employing a professional designer. Why? Well, there are clear benefits: saving on cost, saving on time, and ensuring quality.Web templates close the gap between the amateur website owner learning to create his/her own website, and a one-off custom design.What is a website template? A web template is a ready-made design for your website, including images, some navigation, preferably several sample pages and in some cases Flash animation. However, it has no content related to you or your business ? that must come from you! Remember that a web template must be customized / modified (to whatever degree you are comfortable with) to turn it into your very own website.What about hiring a website desig...(related: Web Design)
Web Design Tips To Boost Your Sales
The way you design your web site affects your visitors' online experience. As each visitor to your site is a potential customer, the easier they find your web site to use and the more they enjoy being on it, the higher the chance that they will make a purchase.Therefore, a well designed web site really CAN boost your sales!In this article I'll share my five favorite web design tips to help you increase your online sales.Tip 1: Choose Your Colors CarefullyThe colors that you use will determine how your web site comes across to your visitors. Dul...(related: Web Design)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 Empower! Web Design | All Rights Reserved. | Web Design