Accessibility 'a key part of SEO'

Accessibility standards should be explored and implemented as part of a firm's search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, a sector commentator asserts.

In a post on web resource Search Engine Journal, Ann Smarty explains that by enhancing a site for people in terms of accessibility, a webmaster will also make the page easier to approach for web crawlers.

She urges brand marketers to ensure their sites provide written transcriptions of all video and audio content as this will provide a better understanding for deaf internet users and also provide a way for search crawlers to comprehend the subject matter.

Continuing, she notes that descriptive alternative text and titles for content-sensitive images are what blind users will hear in place of seeing the image, while it will also be viewed as part of search-crawlable content from an SEO perspective.

In other news, sector commentator Harry Gold from the ClickZ Network recently noted in a post on the site that in-text adverts provide an effective alternative to banner ads.