The Code Behind a Consistent Website Look
Style sheets, also called CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, are the code that controls how your website looks. They set the layout, colors, and fonts for your site’s basic branding, so those elements show up the same way every time. Just like brand consistency matters for your print materials and ads, it matters on your website too. CSS is what makes that kind of consistency possible online, giving visitors a familiar, put-together look no matter what page they land on.
What Elements are You Talking About?
All the fun elements you can add to a post or page: buttons, headlines, accordions, and column layouts to name a few. The website’s style sheet file is the central control center for their color, size, placement, font families, and a bunch of geeky things we won’t get into. Every time an element is used, the style sheet creates the “default” look without you having to guess how it should look. These elements will look the exact same on all your post and pages.
While you do have some ability to override the default look—for example making a warning headline standout by changing the font to bold and red instead of the default blue —we recommend you do so sparingly so every page of your site looks uniform and professional. We know getting wild with glitter and rainbows can be fun but let’s keep it to the occasional birthday party. Consistency equates to better user experience, longer page visits, and faster conversion rates.
What Does a Style Sheet Look Like?
Once our designer saves out the final design concept of your new website, it goes to our programmer to start translating the design file into this style sheet code and other technical coding languages. They create a very long list of element names and code commands as shown in the right column. This list can go to 3,000 lines of code or more. Just as much as you, we are thankful for programmers who love to create this code to make a pixel-perfect site!
Let us know if you have any questions on style sheets, programming, or branding. We love to answers any questions!
