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Re: SEO and accessibility

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Oct 21, 2013 4:37PM

On 21/10/2013 22:56, Jan Heck wrote:
> Is anyone aware of specific conflicts between SEO considerations and
> accessibility considerations when it comes to HTML headings (h1 through
> h6)? I'm working with a group putting together a WordPress site, and they
> seem to be under the impression that SEO and accessibility are at odds
> over the appropriate use of headings. I can't find anything that confirms
> that in my searching so far, so I thought I'd ask here.

It would be helpful if you could actually relay what the people in this
group think, in greater detail...but I'll take a stab in the dark and
rant from there ;)

It used to be that search engines gave higher weight to any keywords
found inside headings. SEO "experts" therefore often advised to stuff
these headings with all sorts of keyword-rich nonsense in an attempt to
gain higher ranking for certain terms. I've not looked into it in the
last few years, but I strongly suspect that search engine ranking has
gotten a lot smarter (as a direct result of SEO folks trying to game the
systems). This consideration ("Make sure you have all your keywords
featured in H1s all over the page" or similar) is, I'd posit, part of
the vast amount of cargo-cult that SEOs will insist on.

Headings are there to give sensible structure to content. Heading text
should be natural and well written, and follow appropriate levels (h1-h6
depending on nesting). Write for humans first...because well written and
structured content will also get indexed properly by search engines, as
that's what search engines are trying to ascertain through their ranking
("how valuable is this page for my human users"). Avoid any "tricks" to
attempt and fool search engine algorithms. They're volatile, if they
even work at all.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke
re·dux (adj.): brought back; returned. used postpositively
[latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.]

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