USWeb posted a release about search engine optimization for the visually impaired.  Preparing websites for the visually impaired is the law in the United Kingdom but across much fo the internet it has been somewhat of an after thought.

Google is beta testing a new formula in its notorious Page Ranking evaluator.  The Page Ranking evaluator is a little bar in the google toolbar that describes the relative rank or strength of a website based on how important the page appears to the rest of the internet.

The new tool ranks sites that are not designed and programmed to provide a good user surfing experience to visually impaired internet surfers using voice and other technology to read or signal items on a web page.  Web Design tools such as Dreamweaver provide designers with the capability to test their web design for usability in these areas however some newer web languages require more manual testing and some companies in a rush to push out the latest greatest technology for the masses sometimes reduces the priority on alternatives for the visually impaired.

This could become a very big marketing problem.  Companies spend a great deal of money on natural search engine optimization and marketing plans.  Its worth a lot of money when someone does a Google search and your website comes up in the top slot.  If you are number 101 in a search surfers may never find your site.

Some companies that spent a lot of time and money to get that top spot the old fashioned way may have to rework their sites to make it back to the top spot with the new beta rank.

Technorati Tags: Google Labs Beta tools, SEO, Visually Impaired web surfing

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.