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Barrier-free webdesign and its intersection with SEO

One of the things I really like about searchengineoptimization is that it is not a single marked-off area of operation, which is never left, but that there are a multitude of approaches and methods, many of which profit from the experiences gained in other areas. If I were to think about the SEM-colleagues, for example, I have to admit that I am sometimes envious that over there money can buy success (=positions=traffic) with relative ease but I would expect this way of thinking to be too one-dimensional for me (SEMers are now allowed to vent their discontent in the comments).

One of these fields, whose intersection with reputable searchengineoptimization is surprisingly large, is barrier-free webdesign. The implementation of a barrier-free webdesign is about making the project accessible for people with diverse perceptions: the content should be viewable for users with a conventional webbrowser in the default setting, but should also be comprehensible for the visually impaired, whose “screen” consists of a braille-row. It is not really surprising that a searchenginecrawler, who is renowned for only being able to read and index text, will also profit from this. Sites, who are trying to present their content barrier-free, have therefore, in most cases, already made a large step in the direction of OnPage-optimization. For all who would like to think outside the “SEO-box”, I can highly recommend a RSS-subscription to “Einfach-Fuer-Alle” (even though the tone in the news has a wrongfully negative bias against SEO from time to time ...) and, as an entrance into the subject matter, the corresponding passage from SELFHTML (with a link to English texts at the bottom of the page). In many cases you will be able to gain interesting ideas for the SEO-area and you will help Google as well as the barrier-freedom of your webpage. An interesting fact on the side: Websites belonging to the Government as well as state agencies have to be barrier-free for a while now – not that this will lead to any competition ...