bertboan.com » Build a Better Web Presence (1 of 2)

Build a Better Web Presence (1 of 2)

04/21/2008 in Web

The other day a friend googled my name and asked me how I managed to end up so high in the Google results. Here is what I emailed him:

One reason is that I’ve owned 13blue.com for a couple of years. It’s only been a blog for a couple of months but anything I’ve ever posted has had my name on it so, every time google comes around to read the page it sees my name. I’m sure if you searched for “computer how-to” or “computer blog” I’d be about position 60 million. The other advantage I have is a very unique name and I’m the only person with my name to update a website on a regular basis.

Tips for better results in Google and other search engines:

If you just bought your domain name you’ll have a much harder road.

From what I’ve read it takes a few months to even show up after the google bots have spidered you.

It helps to have your site “readable” not for the average reader but for google and update it often. This is where “Web Accessibility” comes in. That is “accessibility” as in for persons with disabilities. Persons with special needs often use devices other than a keyboard, mouse, or monitor to “view” the web. They could be using a Refreshable Braille Display, or software that reads the page from top to bottom.

A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. Screen readers are a form of assistive technology (AT) potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers.*

As these devices read the page they can only see the text. Pictures don’t display nor do video, flash, or those images used so you can get just the right look for your page heading. Another mistake is to use “Table Based Design,” this is where the page is arranged into blocks of content for aesthetic purposes. This may be fine for sighted viewers but the screen readers will follow the page from top to bottom left to right and information could be lost or skipped, especially if the reader has to go through a long list of hyperlinks. The correct way is to use xhtml for content and css for the presentation these devises skip the css and read straight through the content.

WHY YOU CARE!!

You care about this because this is the same way google “reads” your pages. I build from scratch or use WordPress to give a good balance of presentation and accessible content. Doing your own code may be hard if you are using a pre-packaged site builder or an e-store service so look for ones that tout “Accessibility” and “Web Standards”. I did a site for a friend and he went from page 7 to page 3 because the phone company was doing his site in flash or some crazy homegrown CMS and google couldn’t read the content. I built it from scratch in a text editor and packed as many “keywords” as I could, when google “scanned” the page this time the content could be cataloged and was seen as relevant to people searching in his retail sector.
There is a video at headscape.co.uk on the right side of the page half way down that explains a lot. If you’re familiar with the term “Web Accessibility” then watch the whole thing. If not, I’d start at time code 11:00, and the big point gets going at time code 14:00. When you’re finished watch it again and take notes. I listen to this guys web design podcast. He’s usually pretty funny but he’s very passionate about this subject so he gets a bit serious.

*Screen reader. (2008, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:04, April 21, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Screen_reader&oldid=201656269