What you need to know about CSS !

Style sheet is a progressive breakthrough for the advancement of web. Today, more and more browsers are implementing style sheets, opening authors' eyes to unique features that allow influence over presentation while preserving platform independence. The advantages ofstyle sheets have become – apparent -- and the disadvantage of continually creating more HTML tags -- galore -- for presentation effects with the gradual development of CSS.

Let's understand CSS in the right perspective.

Style sheets in retrospect

Style sheets have been around in one form or another since the beginnings of HTML in the early 1990s .

As the HTML language grew, however, it came to encompass a wider variety of stylistic capabilities to meet the demands of web developers . With such capabilities,style sheets became less important, and an external language for the purposes of defining style attributes was not widely accepted until the development of CSS.


Teething problems with implementation of CSS

Many implementations of CSS are fraught with inconsistencies, bugs and other quirks . Authors have commonly had to use hacks and workarounds in order to obtain consistent results across web browsers and platforms .

One of the most well-known CSS bugs is the Internet Explorer box model bug; box widths are interpreted incorrectly in several versions of the browser, resulting in blocks which appear as expected in most browsers, but are too narrow when viewed in Internet Explorer. The bug can be avoided, but not without some cost in terms of functionality.

This is just one of hundreds of CSS bugs that have been documented in various versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera many of which reduce the legibility of documents. The proliferation of such bugs in CSS implementations has made it difficult for designers to achieve a consistent appearance across platforms.

Currently there is strong competition between Mozilla's Gecko layout engine, Opera's Presto layout engine , and the KHTML engine used in both Apple's Safari and the Linux Konqueror browsers - each of them is leading in different aspects of CSS. Internet Explorer remains the worst at rendering CSS by standards set down by World Wide Web Consortium as of 2005 .

Some breakthroughs …

These problems have preisely led the W3C to revise the CSS2 standard into CSS2.1, which may be regarded as something of a working snapshot of current CSS support. CSS2 properties which no browser had successfully implemented were dropped, and in a few cases, defined behaviours were changed to bring the standard into line with the predominant existing implementations..

What makes style sheets significant enough?

et representsStyle she an enormous step forward for the Web. With the separation of content and presentation between HTML and style sheets, the Web no longer needs to drift away from the strong ideal of platform independence that provided the medium with its initial push of popularity. Authors can finally influence the presentation of documents without leaving pages unreadable to users

A style sheet is made up of style rules that tell a browser how to present a document. There are various ways of linking these style rules to your HTML documents, but the simplest method for starting out is to use HTML's STYLE element. This element is placed in the document HEAD, and it contains the style rules for the page.

Functionality and Usage of CSS

CSS is well-designed to allow the separation of presentation and structure. Prior to CSS, nearly all of the presentational attributes of an HTML document were contained within the HTML code; all font colors, background styles, element alignments, borders and sizes had to be explicitly described, often repeatedly, in the midst of the HTML code.

CSS allows authors to move much of that information to a stylesheet, resulting in considerably simpler HTML code. The HTML documents become much smaller and web browsers will usually cache sites' CSS stylesheets. This leads to a reduction in network traffic and noticeably quicker page downloads.
For example, the HTML element h2 specifies that the text contained within it is a level two heading. It has a lower level of importance than h1 headings, but a higher level of importance than h3 headings. This aspect of the h2 element is structural .

Customarily, headings are rendered in decreasing order of size, with h1 as the largest, because larger headings are usually interpreted to have greater importance than smaller ones. Headings are also typically rendered in a bold font in order to give them additional emphasis. The h2 element may be rendered in bold face, and in a font larger than h3 but smaller than h1 . This aspect of the h2 element is presentational .

Prior to CSS, document authors who wanted to assign a specific color, font, size, or other characteristic to all h2 headings had to use the HTML font element for each occurrence of that heading type.

Moreover, CSS can be used with XML, to allow such structured documents to be rendered with full stylistic control over layout, typography, color, and so forth in any suitable user agent or web browser.

CSS has its share of inconsistencies as well

CSS may at times be misused, particularly by the author of web documents. Some developers who are accustomed to designing documents strictly in HTML may overlook or ignore the enabling features of CSS. For instance, a document author who is comfortable with HTML markup that mixes presentation with structure may opt to use strictly embedded CSSstyles in all documents. While this may be an improvement over using deprecated HTML presentational markup, it suffers from some of the same problems that mixed-markup HTML does; specifically, it entails a similar amount of document maintenance.

Discrepancies compared: CSS vs programming languages

CSS also shares some pitfalls common with programming languages. In particular, the problem of choosing appropriate names for CSS classes and identifiers may afflict CSS authors. In the attempt to choose descriptive names for CSS classes, authors might associate the class name with desired presentational attributes;for example, a CSS class to be applied to emphasized text might be named "bigred," implying that it is rendered in a large red font.

While such a choice of naming may be intuitive to the document author, it can cause problems if the author later decides that the emphasized text should instead be green; the author is left with a CSS class called "bigred" that describes something that is green. In this instance, a more appropriate class name might have been "emphasized," to better describe the purpose or intent of the class, rather than the appearance of elements of that class.

In a programming language, such a misuse might be analogous to using a variable name "five" for a variable which contains the value 5; however, if the value of the variable changes to 7, the name is no longer appropriate.

CSS in a nutshell

CSS is used by both the authors and readers of web pages to define colors, fonts, layout and other aspects of document presentation. It is designed primarily to enable the separation of document structure (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation (written in CSS).

This separation provides a number of benefits, including improved content accessibility, greater flexibility and control in the specification of presentational characteristics, and reduced complexity of the structural content. CSS is also capable of controlling the document'sstyle separately in alternative rendering methods, such as on-screen in print, by voice (when read out by a speech-based browser or screen reader) and on braille-based, tactile devices.

CSS allows complete and total control over the style of a hypertext document. The only way this can be illustrated in a way that gets people excited is by demonstrating what it can truly be, once the reins are placed in the hands of those able to create beauty from structure.

Expert Search Engine Optimization

With the huge number of websites that are entering the battlefield, it is difficult to play the number game, that of page ranking. It takes a huge amount of effort and new ideas based on the constantly changing scenario, to win the battle of the ranks.
Search engines index millions of pages for particular keywords and your website could be anywhere in the 10th or 20th page, if not optimized for relevant keywords.

What is expert search engine optimization? SEO or search engine optimization begins with coding, designing, and programming a website to ensure that the website appears at the top of search engines and attracts targeted high quality traffic. If the web pages are not optimized, they will not get high ranking and this leads to no results, and the number of search engines the site has been submitted to does not make any difference. This is where expert search engine optimization professionals come in.

The SEO professional is one who understands the intricacies of how search engines are coded, how they work, and what they expect from websites. With expert search engine optimization, a website can be made visible to visitors querying for various related keywords on the search engines.

Web pages should meet the needs of the visitors in a particular niche. The idea is for the target audience to find the web page information easily through web directories and search engines.

This is a daunting task and expert search engine optimization involves the scientific and artistic skills of a company that has the expertise and the high skill set required to perform and succeed at this task.

Being top ranked on the search engines for a keyword that only brings in about 30 people monthly is not what we are talking about. Just as with any form of marketing, expert search engine optimization providers ensure that the return of investment (ROI) is reasonable. It is the duty of the SEO expert to achieve rankings on search engines that actually bring enough traffic to the website concerned, to offset the money that is paid for his services.
Expert search engine optimization - why do you need them? Why can't this be done by ourselves? Good question. 'Experience' is the keyword here. Because with experience, the expert is able to look into the various nuances of search engine optimization and provide the key to a successful campaign with ease.

When expert search engine optimization services are hired, you must ensue that the company has got a clear picture of the direction to take in order to obtain best results. This intelligence is what creates a miracle on search engines.
Expert search engine optimization professionals have a wide range of skills, such as web designing, copy writing, HTML knowledge, link development, keyword analysis, off page optimization, on page optimization, distribution of press releases etc. Different experts believe in using different methods and while some specialize in result-oriented copy writing, others are more technically savvy and look into things like IP delivery. Whatever the route taken, the goal is positioning and attracting traffic.
When choosing a company that provides expert search engine optimization services, it is important to look into the background of the company. There are hundreds of SEO service providers on the internet today claiming to be experts in search engine optimization. But are they competent enough? I'm afraid NOT. It is not a good idea to go by assurances; it is the results that are important.

It is a great idea to check the expertise level of the so called expert search engine optimization providers, by making sure they possess the complete skill set, which includes copy writing skills, ability to write great headlines that are catchy, and most importantly, solid technical skills. The last but certainly not the least is the aspect of looking into the previous work done by the SEO company in order to classify them as an expert search engine optimization company.

Link Popularity and PageRank (PR) misconceptions and facts.

In this article I'll try to demystify Link Popularity and PageRank, or PR, clarify some common misconceptions and tell you how things work, in plain English, with facts and examples.

Link Popularity is based on the premise that people link to good sites, and if a lot of people link to your site, then it must be good. In plain English, if other sites are linking to your site, your site is popular, therefore it is useful and deserves a boost in rankings, so people can find it faster and easier.

Link Popularity is not specific to Google only, but was adopted by the vast majority of Search Engines.

Link Popularity is only one of the many factors (good content, number of pages, text, anchors, internal links, static URLs, keywords, meta tags, and many, many others) that are used in calculating your place in a search result page (ultimately, this is what all of it is about - how findable you are in a search).

PageRank (PR) is specific to Google and is a trademarked proprietary algorithm. There are many variables in the formulas used by Google, but PageRank is primarily affected by the number of links pointing to the page, the number of internal links pointing to the page within the site and the number of pages in the site.

PageRank focuses strictly on the quantity of links and is directly influenced by the PageRank of the pages that are linked.

In Google, Link Popularity puts more emphasis on the quality of links (ex. links from sites related to yours by topic or by industry rank much higher than links from non-related sites).

PageRank - as the name suggests - is specific to a web page, not to a web site. Every page on your site has a PageRank and every one is different, based mostly on your linking system. Generally - but not always - the goal is to achieve maximum PageRank on your main page, the one people hit when first entering your site.

You can check the PR of a page by installing the Google toolbar in Internet Explorer (the "official" way), a PR checker extension in Firefox, or by using one of the many online utilities, such as the one at http://www.bsleek.com/tools/link_popularity.php (which also checksLink Popularity and presence in DMOZ).

In Google only, PageRank is one of the factors that influence Link Popularity.

PageRank (PR), developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University is considered to be the heart of Google's software. PageRank solves an equation of more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Instead of counting direct links, PageRank interprets a link from Page A to Page B as a vote for Page B by Page A. PageRank then assesses a page's importance by the number of votes it receives and by the PR of the page which casts the vote.

There are two types of incoming links that can effectively contribute to increasing your Link Popularity:

1. Links from other sites that focus on the same keyword phrases you do. In other words, if a site that can be found in search engines by using a search phrase like "corporate cd-rom presentations" links to your site, and your site actually specializes in designing interactive media, like CDs or DVDs, then that link will help your Link Popularity. But if your site is about selling onions, then the mentioned link will be useless.

2. Links from relevant categories in major directories industry-specific directories and portals. The most important major directory is DMOZ (who feeds data to many others) and is the toughest to get in. Submission is free and there are actually people reviewing your site. The waiting times are in the months order, so my advice is submit and forget. The industry-specific directories are very important. For example, if you make interactive media, and list your site in a directory dedicated to graphic design or media under the appropriate category, then search engines like Google will pick that up as an incoming link and will increase yourLink Popularity . Listing your site in such a directory is very useful to your potential visitors, and this is what Google is trying to emulate with its software. Remember, with Google and many others, there are no humans reviewing your pages, but software acting under very specific and strict rules (algorithms).

Both types of links I described above can be unilateral or reciprocal ("you link to me and I link to you").

Reciprocal links are subject of controversy and misconception today. Many people think that exchanging links with sites is the easiest way to get them, new people learning aboutlink popularity are under the mistaken belief that they must have links that are reciprocated on their site. Still many others are saying that reciprocal links are dead and that not only you won't gain any benefit from them, but your PR (Page Rank) will decrease (your page will "leak PR", as it is said in the SEO circles).

Both camps are not entirely correct. You certainly don't need to get reciprocal links, but you can if you want to. Remember, it is links pointing to your site that are the helpful ones. Links pointing from your site to other sites are wonderful to have because they help your visitors find related stuff, but if your site doesn't lend itself to linking to other sites, then by all means, don't do it. You need to do what's right for your company or hobby and your site visitors, first and foremost.

Links from sites that have nothing to do with yours will definitely not help you gain Link Popularity, but might produce a temporary boost in PR (PageRank).

If the PR (PageRank) boost is only temporary, why bother?

You should try to boost your PR (PageRank) even if temporary, because when Google sends Googlebot, its indexing robot, to spider your website, the bot is instructed not to crawl your site too deep unless it has a reasonable amount of PR (PageRank). But in order to increase your overall PR (PageRank) and, in order to have all your keywords from all your pages available for searches, you need Google to look at all of your pages, because the number of pages and the internal links affect PR (PageRank). But Google will not see your internal links and your keywords if only few pages are indexed, so you see, it's catch 22 and the best way to win this is to start working on yourincoming links as early in the game as possible.

To see which pages from your website are actually indexed by the search engines, you can use the following search with the major three (Google, MSN and Yahoo!): site:www.yourdomain.com, where www.yourdomain.com is the full address of your site. There is no space between site: and the address, otherwise you are actually searching for the words site: and www.yourdomain.com.

To get a glimpse of your site's Link Popularity, use the following search with Google and MSN: link:www.yourdomain.com. Again, there is no space between link: and the address. There is a common misconception regarding this. People think that the correct format is with the space, as it might produce a lot more results. It is incorrect, as the format with the space merely looks for www.yourdomain.com and the word link:, but will not actually show you who really links to you. For Yahoo!, you'll have to use the full URL, including http://.

Please note that Google might not display all the links to your site that are stored into its database. Don't panic. It has been reported that this is reminiscence from Google's paranoia days, when the search engine's execs did not want competitors to figure out the way they trackLink Popularity.

As a word of caution, please do not waste your money on submitting your sites to "hundreds of FFA sites". Free-For-All sites are not considered quality links today. This approach might have worked years ago, but search engines are constantly trying to stop any activity they consider as spamming, designed to artificially inflate numbers. This is actually a great thing, as it keeps the internet a fair and happy place.

Two more words of caution:

1. If you read SEO (Search Engine Optimization) related articles, please make sure you read stuff as recent as possible, as things change.

2. Major search engines, especially Google, keep their algorithms (rules) in deep secret. Therefore, you'll probably wonder why you are reading so many different opinions, sometimes conflicting. The answer is simple, because little is actually known to the public about the deep inner workings of a search engine.

In general, there's no need for the average site to obsess over link popularity. Contrary to popular belief, link popularity constitutes only a portion of most search engines' ranking algorithms. Arguably, Google places more emphasis than most other engines on incoming links at this point in time. How much these actually boost a site's ranking is debatable and truly depends on the site. It also depends on the words that are placed in the anchor text (the clickable portion of a text link). From my personal experience, just a few highly relevant links with strong anchor text can go a long way towards link popularity for many sites.

Promoting Ecommerce Sites

Setting up your ecommerce site was no simple process, but in creating a successful ecommerce business, setting up the site is only the first step. Promoting your ecommerce site is what will determine whether or not you make a profit. How you promote your ecommerce site will determine how much profit you will make the first month, the first year, and for the life of the business.

First things first: the reason you have an ecommerce site is to sell your products. Each page that lists a product needs to have words to offer the consumer as much information as possible about the product that you have to offer. Because your pictures don't have the benefit of touch and three dimensional site, your pictures need to offer as many angles as possible, including close-ups and labels if applicable. In this way, your customer can feel confident that he or she is going to get exactly what they want.

Search engines, however, can't see pictures. The only way that search engine spiders will pick up your site when a customer searches a key phrase that relates to your product is if you have text that relates to that product on the page. Include it in the title bar for the page, in the header and throughout the descriptive text. Use variations of the words within the product name as well as words that are related. In this way, the search engine will recognize your page as a legitimate landing site for the consumer.

Don't get too carried away with the text, however. Keep the word count between 250 words and 750 words. Too little and there isn't enough information to convince the search engines or the consumer that you are the expert you claim to be. Too much and the consumer gets bored or overwhelmed and clicks through without reading anything.

Once you have your ecommerce site set up, properly filled up with informative text and pictures, submit your URL to main directories like Dmoz and Yahoo. Directories are great places for consumers to get focused results for their key phrase searches. Finding your site here lends it credibility that search engines don't offer.

In the same way, niche directories offer the same authority to your site and then some. Because your site must pass an acceptance process, to be included in their directory means something inthe business world. Only sites that are qualified and related to the particular niche of the directory are included. If your ecommerce site is among them, you're guaranteed a much higher percentage of traffic that will not only come to your site but are more likely to stay, purchase, and return often.

Your next step in promoting your ecommerce site is something like advertising. Get your name, your brand, and your URL everywhere that matters. That means posting your expert industry related advice on forums that consumers interested in your product area are likely to roam. For blogs in your sphere of influence, that goes double. Blogs, especially, are gaining popularity by the day and have the added feature of RSS feeds which allow its regulars to subscribe to an alert system which lets them know every time a new post (i.e. your new post) goes up.

Next, offer to post the link to a complementary business on your site in exchange for them posting yours. In this way, you both gain the coveted link back that search engines use as part of their formula for calculating your page rank. Your expertise can also get link backs with the even more highly coveted one way link back when you write articles and include your URL in your bio box at the bottom. Submit these articles to free article directories where they can get picked up by bloggers and newsletter editors in your industry. Finally, you can implement these ideas and watch your traffic numbers rise and your profits soar within weeks.