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Web Usability and Accessibility Are As Important As Search Engine Prominence
By Eugene Mulligan (c) 2007

So you've optimized your website, done the keyword research, got
the backlinks and everything is ethical. You're sitting proudly
on the first page of the search results. Or you've set up a pay
per click campaign, bid on your keywords, created some ads and
performance tracking is in place. Again, you're at the top of
the pile. Either way, you're visible and people are visiting
your website. But visitors aren't converting into leads,
prospects or customers. What's going wrong? Well your website
may be visible, but is it connecting?

Having attracted visitors to your website through prominent
search engine placements, it is vital not to lose them by
failing to connect. Different visitors will have different
priorities and levels of satisfaction. In order to reach and
retain as many as possible and to maximize the chances of
conversion, you should consider your site's usability and
accessibility.

Web Usability

Usability is all about providing your visitors with an
effective, efficient and satisfying experience. It's common
knowledge that visitors tend to glance at, and scan, pages
rather than study them in any great detail. If the message and
options are not clear, they may leave. If they don't leave, the
chances are that they will click on the first link that seems
to be most relevant - it may not be the right one. Repeat the
process a few times and soon a visitor can be lost, confused
and frustrated. Either way the result is the same - missed
opportunity and little likelihood of a return visit.

The more self-evident your pages are, the greater the chance of
converting the visitor into a prospect or customer.

12 Simple Tips for a More Usable Website

1. On the home page make it clear what the site is all about.

2. Make the purpose of each page obvious.

3. Use hierarchical headings to give clear structure to the
   copy.

4. Make the navigation and links obvious.

5. Use clear unambiguous wording.

6. Make the options and next steps obvious.

7. Remove any wording or imagery that is unnecessary, confusing
   or distracting.

8. Use consistent conventions throughout.

9. Include site search and a site map.

10. Make information such as contact details, pricing and
    delivery charges clearly accessible.

11. Make the pages printable by including a cascading style
    sheet for printing.

12. Don't allow careless errors to make your site look
    unprofessional.

Browsers Create Their Own Set of Problems

One more tip - just because your website works fine in your
browser of choice, do not assume that it will work equally well
in all browsers. In fact it is not even safe to assume that it
will work equally well in different versions of the same
browser. Web designers who have had to cope with the
incompatibilities of IE5, IE6 and now IE7 will no doubt testify
to this point. It is vital to be sure that your website works on
all the popular browsers. As well as IE and Firefox, don't
forget Netscape and Opera on Windows and Safari on the Mac. And
just to muddy the waters a bit further, Apple has recently
announced Safari for Windows.

So now your website is usable, but is it usable by everybody?
For some, usability is just a small obstacle when compared to
the barrier of accessibility.

Web Accessibility

All businesses in virtually all countries have a legal
obligation to make their websites accessible to people with
disabilities, otherwise they are discriminating. Given that
something like 15% of the population have some sort of
disability, that's a sizeable market proportion. If you're not
reaching them, your competitors probably are.

One of the many myths surrounding web accessibility is that
blind people are the only ones who need to be catered for.
Whilst blind people and their use of assistive technologies to
read web pages are an obvious and important example, consider
also people with other visual, auditory, physical, speech,
cognitive and neurological impairments.

How does a color-blind person cope with page colors?

How does someone with a mobility impairment manage without being
able to use a mouse?

How does a deaf person gain access to auditory content?

How does someone with attention deficit disorder make sense of
the pages?

Web pages should be accessible to all of them. And it's not just
disabled people who will benefit. Older people, people with low
literacy levels, people who are not fluent in the website
language, people with low bandwidth connections, people using
older technologies and people with short-term injuries and
illnesses will also benefit.

9 Tips for a More Accessible Website

1. Provide all images with an alternative text description. If
   the image does not convey any information, provide null
   (blank) text rather than no alternative text at all.

2. Provide transcripts of audio content.

3. Ensure that the contrast between text foreground and
   background colors is sufficiently strong.

4. Do not use color alone to convey information. There should
   also be some other form of visual indicator such as additional
   characters, images or font changes.

5. Place column headings in the first row of a table and place
   row headings in the first column. If headings are ambiguous,
   use the HTML scope attribute to clarify.

6. Never use the HTML blink and marquee elements. For animated
   GIFs or other moving objects, the flicker frequency must be
   less than 2 Hz or greater than 55 Hz. But better to have no
   moving content at all.

7. Link text should clearly state the purpose and destination of
   the link. Phrases like Click Here may mean nothing to someone
   listening to a screen reader.

8. Provide an option to skip navigation on all pages. This will
   save screen reader users from having to repetitiously listen
   to the same navigation, and keyboard users from having to
   repetitiously tab through every item. Use hierarchical headers
   to provide the same benefit and to enable navigation through
   copy.

9. On forms, always associate prompts with controls so that each
   control is adequately described. Use the HTML fieldset and
   legend tags to give structure to complex forms.

The Importance of Web Standards

Usable, accessible web pages can only be achieved through
strict compliance with the standards set by the World Wide
Web Consortium. They provide a platform for consistency,
compatibility, stability, flexibility and extensibility.
Implementing standards throughout a website's design will
address many usability and accessibility issues by default.

Last and Certainly Not Least

Usability and accessibility alone will not suddenly convert all
your visitors into customers. Content is vital to a website's
delivery capability. But at least those visitors may now stick
around long enough to look at the content.
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Eugene Mulligan is a search engine marketing consultant based in
Somerset, UK. Operating through his company, Egn Webcraft
(http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk), he provides search engine
optimization, pay per click management and web development
services to organizations seeking to improve their website's
visibility and capability.
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