Is it easy for people to find their way on your website?

Some web usability and SEO questions are rarely discussed because they’re either controversial or misunderstood. Below I try to offer—along with the help of some experts—clear–cut answers to a few of these troubling questions.

1. Do links need underlines?

This is one of my favorite questions because it’s a classic. Many people fall into one of two camps on this topic: 1) they don’t know it is a question to ask or 2) they understand best practice, but still don’t want to adhere to it.

People who remove underlines from links often do so for the aesthetics, which I completely understand. Personally, I prefer the appearance of no underlines. But, I’m not designing websites for myself. Neither should you. Customers want to use websites, not frame them.

Jared Spool, a prominent speaker on web usability, explains why underlines are a best practice. Spool says: "The underline is not required, but it is cruel to make users work."

Answer: Yes

Use underlines with web links. In addition to Spool’s remarks on making users work, I’ll add: why risk not converting visitors to customers because they can’t easily navigate your site to access content?

2. Do I need to use the keywords meta tag?

The hot debate around this question came to a halt recently when Google announced they do not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking. Then, on top of that, Yahoo made a similar statement. However, neither announcement answers the question, Does the keywords meta tag matter? Here’s why:

Answer: Yes

You may not need to use the keywords meta tag, but you still should. The relevancy of the keywords meta tag may always be debatable, and that’s why it’s best not to make assumptions. The potential benefit of the keywords meta tag and risks involved in excluding them make their use a worthwhile practice.

Important sidenote: The proper place to focus keywords is in the body of your webpage—such as headers, links, and bullet points (as well as page titles). Metadata does not replace the need for relevant content.

3. Is Flash really bad?

If you ask Jakob Nielson, a leading expert in web usability, he might say that Flash is bad (or at least 99% bad). Although he makes good arguments for why Flash is problematic (most are still relevant nine years later), I feel the label "usability disease" oversimplifies the issue.

SEOmoz offers a more objective perspective outlining Compelling Reasons Why Search Engines & Flash Still Don’t Mix. The conclusion: you can’t trust Flash content to return good SEO results. However, SEOmoz also cites a post on How to SEO Flash, which offers an alternate view and details SEO Flash options.

Regarding usability/accessibility, from Designing with Web Standards (3rd Edition):

Flash CS4 meets many Section 508 requirements, including content magnification, mouse-free navigation, sound synchronization, text equivalents, and more… [However] understand that despite your best, most sincere efforts, some people will not be able to access your Flash content. (311-312)

Regarding SEO, from The Art of SEO:

To rank well in the search engines, your site’s content…must be in HTML text form. Images, Flash files, Java applets, and other nontext content is, for the most part, virtually invisible to search engine spiders despite advances in crawling technology. (182)

Answer: No

Flash is not bad when used properly. If you consider the risks of using Flash as it pertains to accessibility, usability, and SEO, it can add value to your website. Flash is a great option for certain interactive page elements—and in the case of video, it’s likely the best option. However, if you choose to use Flash, make it an educated decision to do so, one that considers your audience.

4. Is it okay to force external links to open in a new window?

Most website business owners want to be told it’s okay for external links to open in new windows. It’s understandable. They’re concerned about customers navigating away from their site. But they have to consider their customers’ needs first.

A great post by Smashing Magazine responds to this question: Should Links Open In New Windows? The post argues that you should not open external links in new windows because users don’t expect that to happen and it removes users’ control.

It isn’t the norm to open links in new windows and you need to cater to the majority. People who want links to open in new windows have the control through the context-menu (right-click on a link and select "Open Link in New Window/Tab"). However, those that don’t want links to open in new windows lose control if you force the option.

Exceptions to the rule: The Smashing Magazine post also defines a few good specific exceptions where forcing links to open in new windows is appropriate (though these are also debatable).

Answer: No

Don’t force links to open in new windows because it takes control away from the user. Good web user experience design makes navigation intuitive. People do not expect links to open in new windows, so when they do the user has to re-learn how to navigate a website. This results in poor user experience. If you do decide to force a link to open in a new window, you should make that action clear to the user so they know what to expect.

5. Should I use hyphens or underscores in webpage file names?

Pre-Web 2.0 (I know, hard to remember), underscores were the preferred method for separating words in file names, including email and web addresses. Some people are surprised to learn that it’s no longer a best practice.

Dana Lookadoo from Pixel Position wrote a great well-researched post on Hyphens vs. Underscores, which looks at the impact on usability and SEO.

Key takeaways from Lookadoo’s post:

Answer: Use hyphens

Hyphens are more widely used and thus more easily interpreted by users and search engines.

6. Is it important to add a trailing slash to web links?

This one is more likely a commonly un-asked question than a commonly unanswered question, but I think it’s a useful addition to this list. The two potential benefits of adding a trailing slash to web links are speed and SEO:

Answer: Yes

Trailing slashes are important in web links. Even if you don’t think a trailing slash is needed, why risk it? It’s easy to implement and the downside is significant.

What else?

My aim in this post is to simplify the answers to certain web usability and SEO questions. However, there are more opinions on these topics than the ones I’ve suggested. If you’d like to contribute to this discussion, please leave a comment. I’d like to know your thinking.