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Re: Sample Sites

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From: Timothy J. Luoma
Date: Aug 30, 2002 11:33AM

Steve Vosloo wrote:
> The site is great. I viewed it without style sheets and noticed that
> when linearized the page content comes first and then the left hand
> links. Is this intentional -- I normally do it the other way around.

Absolutely.

Two reasons, one intentional, one not:
1) lynx and screen readers: If you have used lynx a lot (and I have, it
was my primary browser for some time) you know how awful it is trying to
get to the 'meat' of a page because there's usually so much fluff before
it -- OR you get the same navigation menus over and over again on each
page, which gets annoying fast

2) Google loves me. I'm not sure why, I haven't done anything special
at all to appeal to them, but my site (www.tntluoma.com) is near the top
of a number of keyword searches. I wish I knew the secret to why it
was, because all I have done is written for the standards and used CSS
extensively. My guess is that the proper use of HTML (headers, link
text beyond 'click here') has a lot to do with it, and the use of CSS
has greatly limited the page weight. I don't have a lot of sites
linking to me, so it's not a Google bomb or anything like that. It's
all about the code.

My guess is that if we (folks who care about accessibility and
standards) could show others (who don't know or don't care) how much
improvement they would have in search engine placement by following
standards, they'd probably listen more.


For more on linearized design and its importance for accessibility, see

http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_10_presenting_your_main_content_first.html
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_11_skipping_over_navigation_links.html


--
30 Days to becoming an Opera Lover
http://www.tntluoma.com/opera/lover/
Day Five: As You Like It (customizing Opera)
http://www.tntluoma.com/opera/lover/day05-customize/



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