Ask the Masters: All About CSS

Hello,

This is a simple thread aimed to help people with CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). the web styling language.

I'm going to do my best to answer all your questions about CSS. how to use CSS to do specific behaviors and general inquiries about the CSS syntax.

Don't hesitate to ask!

All CSS Gurus are welcomed to contribute.

How would you round corners in Internet Explorer? For some reason I can't get the hang of it...

Hey,

rahnas at Google Code created an .HTC script for curved border corners for IE. it works with IE8, IE7 and IE6 (tested myself)

it's very simple. Download the script from curved-corner - Project Hosting on Google Code and add 3 simple lines in your main CSS document

Code:

---

.curved  {
  -moz-border-radius:10px;
  -webkit-border-radius:10px;
  behavior:url(border-radius.htc);
}

---

http://i29.tinypic.com/b4izhy.jpg

as you see, it's .class based so you can apply curved border corners to any element with the class "curved". don't forget to place border-radius.htc in the same CSS directory (same path).

If it does not work in your web server, it can be caused by MIME types, to fix this do the following:

1. Go to your cPanel (or your web server panel) and click the MIME Types link
2. Under MIME Type, add text/x-component
3. Under Extensions, add htc
4. Restart Apache Web server

http://i29.tinypic.com/b4izhy.jpg

more information at Curved corner (border-radius) cross browser | HTML Remix

http://i29.tinypic.com/b4izhy.jpg

Note:
This is non-valid W3 CSS code. if you would like to keep your main CSS document clean, it's best to create a new separated CSS file for hacks/tricks and add it to your HTML file or import it using @import in CSS

Thanks! That was really helpful. ^_^

I've got a question for you Aziz.

What is the best: Internal css or external css?

Actually I have both on my site, but the last guy I hired went to external css for my top navigation bar. I am not a fan of external css, but I am wondering what is the most powerful in term of SEO?

Do you think that search engines consider that both are the same?

Thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I've got a question for you Aziz.

What is the best: Internal css or external css?

Actually I have both on my site, but the last guy I hired went to external css for my top navigation bar. I am not a fan of external css, but I am wondering what is the most powerful in term of SEO?

Do you think that search engines consider that both are the same?

Thanks

---

Hello there,

External CSS is certainly best.

• External CSS saves page load time
• External CSS file is so easy to implement. no need to add the same code in all pages, simply link one single CSS file to all pages! or even external websites can use global CSS document.
• you can edit the external CSS anytime without the need to edit it in each page
• external CSS is better for search engines. SEs don't look for code in the page, they look for content, and external CSS separates your website content from the website design. (also in the speed factor, external CSS help search engines catch/index your pages faster)

if you would like to learn more about CSS and it's effect on SEO I advise you to read Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and SEO By John Biundo & Eric Enge

Just want to state my opinion, although I would love to hear Aziz's reply on that.

IMO, CSS doesn't affect SEO in any way. And, external is way better in terms of being organized. Though it doesn't make any difference, be it external or internal, page would look cleaner without the CSS codes, especially long ones.

PLUS, if ever you need some styling changes, you're in a lesser chance of "harming" the site.

dondon google caffeine takes in account the loading time so I guess it would be helpful to use external css.

nice initiative aziz!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dondon

Just want to state my opinion, although I would love to hear Aziz's reply on that.

IMO, CSS doesn't affect SEO in any way. And, external is way better in terms of being organized. Though it doesn't make any difference, be it external or internal, page would look cleaner without the CSS codes, especially long ones.

PLUS, if ever you need some styling changes, you're in a lesser chance of "harming" the site.

---

that is your own opinion and I respect it :)
But there is undoubtedly a difference when a search engine comes to crawl a page with internal CSS and a page with external CSS.

You see, the bot would crawl all content inside the page (including internal CSS or JavaScript codes) where as if it was external, the bot wouldn't crawl it as it's nothing a bot would look for. Why would the search engine crawl hundreds of CSS lines before reaching the actual page content? and that sure affects your website performance in search engines and SERP

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by John Biundo, Eric Enge

While CSS has been widely adopted for purposes of making web pages faster to load, easier to modify, and compliant with standards, this technology also offers some key benefits for Search Engine Optimization. These benefits come from the clean separation between content and style that CSS affords. Because of this separation, you can write semantically meaningful, clean, light-weight HTML code that is physically organized in the best possible way for crawling and indexing by a search engine. At the same time, you can apply all the styling and visual layout you want to attain your web design goals. This is a powerful combination of benefits, indeed.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aziz

Hello there,

External CSS is certainly best.

• External CSS saves page load time
• External CSS file is so easy to implement. no need to add the same code in all pages, simply link one single CSS file to all pages! or even external websites can use global CSS document.
• you can edit the external CSS anytime without the need to edit it in each page
• external CSS is better for search engines. SEs don't look for code in the page, they look for content, and external CSS separates your website content from the website design. (also in the speed factor, external CSS help search engines catch/index your pages faster)

if you would like to learn more about CSS and it's effect on SEO I advise you to read Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and SEO By John Biundo & Eric Enge

---

Thank you Aziz, I guess I will be a fan of external CSS now lol