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Many websites are focused so much on search engines that they forget who are their websites designed for. Search engines wont buy your products, they wont subscribe to your newsletter. You always need to remember about your users, they are your target audience, not search engines. Search engines are tools to reach your real clients.

Usability and Accessibility.

While search engine optimization is very important, usability and accessibility of your website are as much important. Search engines try to emulate human behavior thus easy accessible and usable websites are more likely to rank well instead of badly created websites with only search engines on their mind.

According to Jakob Nielsen, “Studies of user behavior on the Web find a low tolerance for difficult designs or slow sites. People don’t want to wait. And they don’t want to learn how to use a home page. There’s no such thing as a training class or a manual for a Web site. People have to be able to grasp the functioning of the site immediately after scanning the home page—for a few seconds at most.”

Usability guidelines compatible website will be easier to understand for your users. They wont need to study your websites menu, they will know right away how to use it. That will benefit you. They will be more satisfied with your website, use it more frequently and possibly purchase your services.

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e.g., device, service, environment) is accessible by as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the “ability to access” the functionality, and possible benefit, of some system or entity - from Wikipedia.

Making sure your site is accessible by all people (whether they have a disability or not) will make sure your message will be delivered to maximum number of clients. Well, that should be your goal, right?

Therefore your SEO campaign should start with creating accessible and usable web design for your website, so all people can access it and use it with ease no matter if they are beginners or advanced Internet users.

Seo, Accessibility & Usability.

Most SEO specialists, project managers and website owners forget about those important things. Best accessibility and usability practices will positively influence your SEO efforts as those factors are also important to search engines.

According to Kim Krause Berg, a usability consultant and owner of Usability Effect and Cre8pc, “nearly every accessibility standard is a bonus for SEO, because the standards are designed for assistive technology,” she said. “Search engines are dependent on easy-to-access content, the same as special needs site visitors are. I use text based site maps as an example of something that helps with both.”

Creating an easy to understand website, with intuitive navigation, accessible to everyone and using web standards to deliver high quality content can only benefit your website in the eyes on search engines AND your visitors. And you should focus on that.