10 April 2007

Ensuring that an online presence abides by World Wide Web Consortium accessibility standards can be vital to its success, according to one industry analyst.

Search engine specialist Mark Jackson, writing for Search Engine Watch, said that complying with the guidelines has a number of benefits in both web design and customer interaction.

In addition to making the portals easier for users to access, standards compliance means that they contain less coding and are therefore smaller and function more efficiently with high traffic due to their lower server load, claimed Mr Jackson.

"If you can deliver an accessible website, you may have just created a tremendous market growth opportunity for yourself," he remarked.

The expert added that accessibility would make a site perform better in search engine rankings, leading to a higher volume of targeted traffic and therefore sales.

Industry expert Mike Valentine recently wrote on Web Pro News that better accessibility would translate to improved site performance and also reduce the risk of a potentially damaging lawsuit.

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