CCS3 is changing the way programmers and web designers build websites. Web browsers are quickly becoming compatible with CCS3′s new features, which are opening up a whole new world of opportunities. CSS3 and its feature set are also very well supported in many mobile web browsers like Opera Mini and Mobile, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer for mobile.

Because most all popular browsers provide support for a number of CCS3 features, web developers now have the opportunity to develop more powerful, elaborate and easy-to-manage websites.

CCS3 introduced many exciting features – such as:

Web fonts

CSS3′s @font-face feature allows the attachment of any font to a web page and it is cross-browser compatible. You can use the Font Squirrel @Font Face Generator to convert the font to web formats and then generate the CSS to attach the font to your site.

Transitions

This feature allows you to add an effect when changing from one style to another, without using Flash or JavaScript. Transitions are available in all browsers with the exception of Internet Explorer versions older the version 10.

Transforms (2D and 3D)

These features enable the ability to turn, spin, move, stretch, and scale different elements. 2D transforms feature is available in all current browsers while 3D is only present in Safari and Chrome.
Background-sizeIn CCS3 you can specify the size in pixels, width, height and percentage of background images. The only browsers that support this feature are Opera and Safari.

Multiple Backgrounds.

With CSS3, web designers can apply multiple backgrounds to box elements. The browsers Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer- all support this feature.

Border-radius.

One of the most talked about features; it allows web developers to easily implement rounder corners in their design elements without the need for corner images. It enjoys widespread browser support.

Box-shadow

The box-shadow feature offers web designers the opportunity to specify different values for easily implementing multiple drop shadows on box elements. Browser support for this feature has been on the increase with Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and – Internet Explorer.

Google is one of the most popular search engines on the Internet today. According to statistics about 50 to 80 percent of searches made by users worldwide are being done on Google. That is probably one reason why most Internet marketing strategy, either search engine optimization or pay-per-click, consider every action done by Google as vital factor.

How so? Well, Google works by “spidering” or “crawling” web sites. Once this is done, the web sites are then added to the Google “index”. This index is pretty much like a phonebook, it is Google’s very own list of pages on the Internet. After that, Google performs several operations on the information they had accumulated. Eventually, it decides where each page will appear on the list of results for searches.

Every once in a while Google would start using a new index for its search results. This time is called the “Google Update”. Currently, the Google updates occur about once in a month. It usually takes a few days and is quite an anticipated and dreaded event for most site owners, since this is the time when their listing in Google changes. Is it for the better or for worse? You be the judge.

Now, the latest Google update has gained the nickname “Jagger”. It is probably due to the fact that it is causing major distress to site owners all over the globe. Why you ask? Well, like what happens in most Google updates, an initial period of movement in ranking position has recently occurred.

As with every algorithm update, Google attempts to take out the spam from its database. So what kind of changes had been made as a result of this update? Only the Google engineers have the answer to that. But, there are some factors which seem to be important in this update. For instance, hidden text spam seems to be taking quite a hit. Whereas most search engines consider white text on white background spamming, it seems that Google has now also take text that is hidden in invisible CSS layers. Another noticeable change is that links from automated link exchanges and text link advertising systems seem to count less.

But, before you picture the worst case scenario remember that this is pretty natural. Soon enough things will get back to normal. Google updates may last barely a day or it might take as long as 8 weeks, depending on how extensive the update is. After all, Google have about 16 to 24 billion web pages in its database, so they probably need some time.

While the Google update is still ongoing, site owners will probably see their search engine results change from day to day. But there is still no need to panic! For any given key phrase the ranking results may drop from 1 to 100, or vise versa. Either way, do not get use to them yet. These are just temporary results and will change once things settle down. So in order to put your fears to rest check your Google Page Rank and see if it has moved as well. If it remained the same then you can be certain that the key phrases will pull through. But, if your PR has also dropped just like your key phrase ranking then it may be time to take a closer look to see what is going on.

So how do you deal with this latest update? First of all, do not panic. If your site rankings dropped, give it another week just to be sure that the index update is really over. Now if your site is still no where to be found, then its time for some serious consideration. What do you think went wrong?

For example, if you use CSS in order to hide text on your web pages think about removing those hidden text. If you use other techniques that Google might consider a spam, then remove them from your pages immediately.

If you have a links page, instead of using a link exchange system with a central server why not host your link pages on your own site. If you are part of a centralized system your site will be at risk if the centralized system is considered spam.

Once you have removed the spam elements from your pages, there are two things that you can do in order to tide you over from this crazy phase. First, optimize your site. Consider using “IBP’s Top 10 Optimizer” in order to optimize your web pages for the new Google algorithm. This optimizer utilizes the current ranking algorithm and will help you to determine which web page elements Google wants to see on a web page for your keyword and your web site.

The second thing you can do is to expand your promotion efforts. Consider trying out other search engines. Do not put all eggs in one basket. Even if you did manage to get high rankings on Google, it’s still a better idea not to rely on Google alone.

Why not try Yahoo and MSN? They are also quite popular among users and can bring you qualified traffic. After all, the key to a successful online business is to get qualified traffic from all big search engines. If your site has good rankings on the other search engines then dropping out on one will not have much effect on you.

Keep in mind that Google updates their Page Rankings a couple of times a year. Regardless of your position it is still highly anticipated, because it can be a good barometer that can help you gauge your site.

With the ever changing factors to Google’s obscure ranking algorithm remember that you are not alone in this. If your site has suffered lower ranking so have millions of other web site owners out there. So, sit back and relax. Once the update is over and thing settle down again you will be able to see just exactly where you stand. Then you can adjust your SEO plan accordingly, and resume your pursuit of gaining key phrase dominance!

Consistent Design

Say, you want to make a change to all the pages of the website. CSS enables website designers to make that change in the CSS style sheet of the website, and this change is automatically made for every page of the website. This is a major advantage when you have a big website. CSS saves a whole lot of time. Moreover, the use of CSS ensures that the styling of your entire site is consistent.

Reduction of Bandwidth

The file transfer size sees a dramatic reduction through the use of CSS in website design. This is because with the use of CSS there is distinct difference maintained between the content of the website and its design language. The CSS document won’t be stored internally but on the outside. Only when a visitor will access the site will the CSS be accessed.

For Search Engines

Search engines consider CSS a coding technique that is inherently clean. Unlike many other coding techniques, where search engines have to literally struggle to read the content, CSS is easy to understand. The use of CSS also decreases the amount of codes and leaves more room for content.

No Issues with Browser Compatibility

A major advantage of the use of CSS is the fact that it is compatible across a range of browsers. CSS helps in making a website more adaptable and ensures that users can use most browsers to access your site.

The cost of creating and maintaining a CSS website has reduced dramatically over the last 10 years. Today it costs just a meager $2000 to $3000 to create a full fledged website based on this technology that can help you advertise and sell all your products and services. In comparison to the benefits it has to offer, this price is relatively small.

This article aims to demonstrate the advantages in learning modern web design techniques, focusing on CSS. We’ll learn what CSS is, explore the business factors in building websites in a modern way and find out how much easier and beneficial it is to design using CSS. What this article isn’t is a guide on how to make websites with CSS.

So what is CSS?

CSS (Cascading style sheets) in very basic terms is a way to style elements of your website. It is purely a presentation tool.

Despite many threads in forums and amateur articles, it is not a replacement for table-based design. Actually, CSS can be used to enhance table-based designs. But CSS comes into its own when combined with div-based design. We’ll go into this later…

Business drivers for using CSS

CSS and div-based sites produce cleaner code. No table rows and columns in the code. So what does this cleaner code mean?

Well, firstly it means that search engine spiders see a higher ratio of useful content compared to table designs. This leads to higher rankings in search engines in most cases. The search engine can also ‘see’ the page more clearly. It will not have as much trouble finding links on your pages as there is less ‘coding rubbish’ to contend with. Essentially, a modern site will be friendlier and accessible to a search engine.

Secondly, cleaner code often means smaller file sizes. Shaving off a few kilobytes from your web pages may seem like no real advantage to you, but imagine your site has a high amount of traffic. You may save massive amounts of bandwidth over time thus saving you money on hosting. Another upside of smaller files is that the user won’t spend as long downloading your pages and ultimately be happier when browsing your site. So your site is more efficient.

Another point to take onboard is that modern sites are actually quicker to build. Once the basic CSS techniques are understood, there is no reason why it should take longer than a site built with tables. The cost saved on development time could be huge on a larger site.

Finally, to be blunt, larger clients are often knowledgeable about modern techniques and you won’t get a foot in the door if you don’t use modern code. Flipping this on its head, however, don’t go out there and flaunt yourself as a modern coder – this really is expected and not a selling point in my view. It’s akin to a mechanic saying “I use modern tools.” Surely not!

Advantages of designing using CSS

I hope the business case has at least made you wonder whether to update a few old sites. If not, read on to find how your new projects can benefit from a little bit of modern web design.

As mentioned earlier, CSS is a powerful tool when combined with div-based design. Here’s some reasons why:

Firstly, compare a site built without CSS with a modern design. The old school coding method will most likely be full of font tags that determine what colour/size elements are. This may work, but imagine you suddenly want to change your font styles across 200 pages? It would take a huge effort to do this. With an external CSS file, fonts (or any other elements for that matter) can be changed across your entire site with just a few minutes of coding. Quick and efficient. More control.

Next, defining a style externally means it is reusable. Making a style with a red border for example can be used again and again, whether it’s a link, an image or whatever. Efficient and logical.

Finally, when using modern code, you’re on your way to produce accessible, standards compliant design. A legal requirement for sites of today.

It has long been debated that the use of style sheet languages such as CSS is said to be much more efficient than the use of ordinary HTML tables. Ever since the growth of the world wide web, professionals of the industry have sought ways on how to improve the presentation of their websites both efficiently and effectively. Style sheet languages such as CSS have perfected this need and became the universal language for designers and developers alike. The question is, what are the reasons why CSS is much more useful than the use of HTML tables?
Several advantages has been cited on the use of CSS in web design. Some of those advantages are as follows:

Faster loading of pages Efficient and easy Consistency SEO friendly Accessibility Maintainability Usability Sophisticated layouts and designs Bandwidth efficient

Faster Loading of Pages One common problem of using tables for web layout is the slow loading process. This is usually caused by using too much markup tags in one HTML file such as “td align”, “td width”, “bgcolor”, “width”, “height”, “br”, “font face”, “font color”, “cellpadding”, “cellspacing”, “border”, etc along with the content of the HTML. CSS makes up for this by separating the content of the web page which is text and images into the HTML file and the visual presentation such as the web design, positioning, and text sizes into a CSS file. In a CSS-based layout, table tags or markups are replaced by using its own language such as the popular “div”. This replacements includes:

Instead of the usual table tags such as td align or td width, CSS have replaced this by using “divs”.
Removed all layout editing markups such as height, width, cellpadding, cellspacing, border, bgcolor, font tags from the HTML. All layouts are found in the CSS file. header tags such as h1 or h2 are used for font tags headings. Breakline tags (br) is not used.

Because CSS have cut the use of too much markups, websites can load a lot faster than using tables which is good when attracting visitors to a website. Visit an online Web design Philippines site to learn more about CSS and its use in web design.

Efficient and Easy As mentioned above, by using CSS, the layout of the HTML is separated from the content thus allowing a quicker, efficient, and easier redesign. Tables would require more time as the HTML content and layout tags are in the same file. By simply editing the CSS file, designers could easily rearrange the size or the color of an element found in a website.

Consistency In relation with the above statements, web designers can easily redesign the whole website by just editing the CSS file. Unlike the use of table in which a designer would have to open every HTML file just to edit a simple element found in every page such as a header, CSS can offer an easy way to edit it all in one CSS file. All it takes is opening the CSS file, edit the elements found in the header (such as width, height, etc), and re-upload it.

SEO Friendly There are several reasons to this. This reasons are:

Because CSS is much faster to load than tables, search engine spiders could easily crawl through the website. Because CSS doesn’t require too much markup which makes it easier for search engine spiders to crawl the website. The use of header tags such as h1, h2, or h3 makes it easier for the search engine spiders to determine the information in a website.
The use of Javascripts for visual effects are replaced by CSS’ own effect engine which makes it more SEO friendly.

Accessibility

Because of the Internet’s rapid growth, disability discrimination legislation, and the increasing use of mobile phones and PDAs, it is necessary for Web content to be made accessible to users operating a wide variety of devices. Tableless Web design considerably improves Web accessibility in this respect. Screen readers and braille devices have fewer problems with tableless designs because they follow a logical structure.

As a result of the separation of design (CSS) and structure (HTML), it is also possible to provide different layouts for different devices, e.g. handhelds, mobile phones, etc. It is also possible to specify a different style sheet for print, e.g. to hide or modify the appearance of advertisements or navigation elements that are irrelevant and a nuisance in the printable version of the page. For more web design and development solutions, then visit an online Web design Philippines site.

Maintainability Under table-based layout, the layout is part of the HTML itself. As such, without the aid of template-based visual editors such as HTML editors, changing the positional layout of elements on a whole site may require a great deal of effort, depending on the amount of repetitive changes required. Even employing sed or similar global find-and-replace utilities cannot alleviate the problem entirely.

By use of CSS, virtually all of the layout information resides in one place. Because the layout information is centralized, these changes can be made quickly and globally by default. The HTML files themselves do not, usually, need to be adjusted when making layout changes. If they do, it is usually to add class-tags to specific markup elements or to change the grouping of various sections with respect to one another.

Usability By combining CSS with the functionality of a Content Management System, a considerable amount of flexibility can be programmed into content submission forms. This allows a contributor, who may not be familiar or able to understand or edit CSS or HTML code to select the layout of an article or other page they are submitting on-the-fly, in the same form.

Sophisticated Layouts and Designs Unlike the use of tables, CSS offers freedom in designing. Because of the rigid, inflexible, and grid based form of tables, designers cannot utilize their potential in designing. CSS offers absolute positioning of elements paired with the z-index property allows CSS-based designs to position elements on top of one another (like layers in Photoshop), allowing for more unique, complex, and beautiful layouts. Bandwidth Efficient A stylesheet will usually be stored in the browser cache, and can therefore be used on multiple pages without being reloaded, increasing download speeds and reducing data transfer over a network. Visit Web design Philippines site to get the solution you needed with your website.