Google today came out with tips and suggestions on Webmaster Central Blog as to how Webmasters can make their websites more accessible and crawlable so as to achieve higher PageRanks in the Accessible Search as well as in the Google Search.
According to T.V Raman, research scientist at Google, "Critical site features such as site navigation can be created to work for all users, including our own Googlebot." Some of the few tips given by Mr. Raman:
- Chronological order for the Content is Essential: It is very essential that the content of the website when accessed by an user is 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."
- Supplement all Visual Content: Accessible information does not necessarily has to be at the expense of the layout and designing of a website. The text around an image should be relevant to the image, thereby establishing the necessity of the image. "if you want to make sure everyone knows it's a picture of a bridge, wrap that text around the image." Tables in a website should always be accompanied by relevant summaries and caption. This will give the user an overview of the subject or topic for which the tables have been created.
"Plain hyperlinks are hyperlinks created via an HTML anchor element . Next, ensure that the target of all hyperlinks i.e. 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:
In preference of simpler links, such as: