Why I Use CSS
I learned CSS initially because I was frustrated by the repetitive tasks that the old Web design techniques imposed on me. Removing and changing font tags was not a favorite passtime. As CSS evolved and my ability as a designer improved, I saw other benefits of CSS design. These included simpler code, increased search engine visibility, faster page loads, and even greater accessibility.
Of course, my first attempts at CSS design weren’t always coded with simplicity. I added tags where some simple CSS code would have sufficed. I credit some examples of low clutter templates for WordPress with teaching me excellent semantic coding in XHTML. Though the templates weren’t eye candy, they did get the job done with a minimum of clutter.
My devotion to CSS increased when learned that uncluttered code increased search engine results, provided the content that is on those cruft free pages is actually relevant to people browsing the Web.
Since speed is so important to many people who browse the Web on their dial-up connections, I saw the bandwidth savings of external linked CSS as a great asset. Of course, there is a bit of a frontloading effect. Let me explain. Though CSS in external files is cached in the browser’s memory from page to page, it must be loaded completely on the first page view. Since CSS files do not have to be large to be effective, this is usually not much of a drawback.
Though I do not claim to be a Web accessibility guru, I do see significant advantages to uncluttered HTML code for those on assistive devices such as screen readers. Even for those on small screens, clean code can make a standard page render more usefully.
January 18th, 2006
