Webmaster Central Blog
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index
Webmaster tips for creating accessible, crawlable sites
Monday, April 14, 2008
Written by
T.V. Raman
, Research Scientist
Hubbell and I enjoying the day at our home in California. Please feel free to view my earlier post about
accessibility
for webmasters, as well as
additional articles
I've written for the Official Google blog.
One of the most frequently asked questions about
Accessible Search
is: What can I do to make my site rank well on Accessible Search? At the same time, webmasters often ask a similar but broader question: What can I do to rank high on Google Search?
Well I'm pleased to tell you that you can kill two birds with one stone: critical site features such as site navigation can be created to work for all users, including our own Googlebot. Below are a few tips for you to consider.
Ensure that all critical content is reachable
To
access
content, it needs to be
reachable
. Users and web crawlers reach content by navigating through hyperlinks, so as a critical first step, ensure that all content on your site is reachable via plain HTML hyperlinks, and avoid hiding critical portions of your site behind technologies such as JavaScript or Flash.
Plain hyperlinks are hyperlinks created via an HTML anchor element <a>. Next, ensure that the target of all hyperlinks i.e. <a> elements are real URLs, rather than using an empty hyperlink while deferring hyperlink behavior to an
onclick
handler.
In short, avoid hyperlinks of the form:
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:void(...)">Product Catalog</a>
In preference of simpler links, such as:
<a href="http://www.example.com/product-catalog.html">Product Catalog</a>
Ensure that content is readable
To be useful, content needs to be
readable
by everyone. Ensure that all important content on your site is present within the text of HTML documents. Content needs to be available without needing to evaluate scripts on a page. Content hidden behind Flash animations or text generated within the browser by executable JavaScript remains opaque to the Googlebot, as well as to most blind users.
Ensure that content is available in reading order
Having discovered and arrived at your readable content, a user needs to be able to follow the content you've put together in its
logical
reading order. If you are using a complex, multi-column layout for most of the content on your site, you might wish to step back and analyze how you are achieving the desired effect. For example, using deeply-nested HTML tables makes it difficult to link together related pieces of text in a logical manner.
The same effect can often be achieved using CSS and logically organized <div> elements in HTML. As an added bonus, you will find that your site renders much faster as a result.
Supplement all visual content--don't be afraid of redundancy!
Making information accessible to all does not mean that you need to 'dumb down' your site to simple text. Making your content maximally redundant is critical in ensuring that your content is maximally useful to everyone. Here are a few simple tips:
Ensure that content communicated via images is available when those images are missing. This goes further than adding appropriate
alt attributes
to relevant images. Ensure that the text surrounding the image does an adequate job of setting the context for why the image is being used, as well as detailing the conclusions you expect a person seeing the image to draw. In short, if you want to make sure everyone knows it's a picture of a bridge, wrap that text around the image.
Add relevant summaries and captions to tables so that the reader can gain a high-level appreciation for the information being conveyed before delving into the details contained within.
Accompany visual animations such as data displays with a detailed textual summary.
Following these simple tips greatly increases the quality of your landing pages for everyone. As a positive side-effect, you'll most likely discover that your site gets better indexed!
Hey!
Check here if your site is mobile-friendly.
Labels
accessibility
10
advanced
195
AMP
13
Android
2
API
7
apps
7
autocomplete
2
beginner
173
CAPTCHA
1
Chrome
2
cms
1
crawling and indexing
158
encryption
3
events
51
feedback and communication
83
forums
5
general tips
90
geotargeting
1
Google Assistant
3
Google I/O
3
Google Images
3
Google News
2
hacked sites
12
hangout
2
hreflang
3
https
5
images
12
intermediate
205
interstitials
1
javascript
8
job search
2
localization
21
malware
6
mobile
63
mobile-friendly
14
nohacked
1
performance
17
product expert
1
product experts
2
products and services
63
questions
3
ranking
1
recipes
1
rendering
2
Responsive Web Design
3
rich cards
7
rich results
10
search console
35
search for beginners
1
search queries
7
search results
140
security
12
seo
3
sitemaps
46
speed
6
structured data
33
summit
1
TLDs
1
url removals
1
UX
3
verification
8
video
6
webmaster community
24
webmaster forum
1
webmaster guidelines
57
webmaster tools
177
webmasters
3
youtube channel
6
Archive
2020
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
June
May
Apr
Mar
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Feed
Follow @googlewmc
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Subscribe via email
Enter your email address:
Delivered by
FeedBurner
