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Re: MSc Research - Does making a Website Accessible compromise Search Engine Optimisation?

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From: Hoffman, Allen
Date: Nov 17, 2009 12:45PM

I'd like to know how an opinion poll for this topic would possibly be
useful as knowledge to answer this technical question. If you examine
how search optimization functions technically, then explore the usual
variations on correctly coded Web content for accessibility, you can
determine if the requirements have technical conflicts. Just going by
opinions and experiences is certainly not a real answer to this
provocative question. My opinion is that making Web content accessible
increases search optimization since text and semantic relationships are
programmatically determinable from accessible, structured content, and
may not be from unstructured, not intentionally coded content. In fact,
by intentionally encoding semantic meanings and text attributes in to
content, the overall information content generally rises, increasing
search systems ability to correctly find and classify content, exactly
the opposite to your question.


A more interesting question is if there are technical conflicts between
search optimization and accessibility requirements, what are they, and
how can they more effectively be reconciled, or how best can a Web
content producer encode for best results for both sets of requirements.