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.

Web publishers, like myself, often promote best practices: design with web standards; think like a publisher; develop a content strategy; make your site accessible, usable, and SEO friendly. Most advocates talk from experience, which makes the advice more meaningful. After all, practice makes perfect (or at the very least, better).

However, I was recently reminded that “saying and doing” are very different. It’s important to recognize this so you can take necessary steps to support best practices as a discipline, not just a topic of discussion.

A colleague of mine shared a moment when he had been communicating a rationale for best practices. The person responded with a nod and said, “Yes, yes, that’s all well and good, but best practices are not real world.” Instead of regarding best practices as a practical discipline, the person viewed them as ideal or “preferred” strategies.

In web publishing the opposition to best practices often arises when people are faced with the need to build or update a website quickly. They might say we don’t have time for best practices or we don’t have the resources to do it the right way right now. This thinking leads people to discount best practices as rhetoric that doesn’t deserve real time or commitment. Others see it as a struggle between theory and practice, when in fact it is not theory, it is practice.

"Real world" truth

In the “real world” customers don’t forgive businesses for bad websites.

The challenges of managing time constraints and heavy workloads are understandable, but this means you need to make a choice: you either support best practices to plan, develop and maintain your website, or you do things "quick and dirty." But if you choose the latter, don’t expect to accomplish your goals quickly or make the process easier long-term, because those outcomes are the result of best practices.

For example, quickly adding webpages without consideration for page titles and descriptions, semantic markup, and web content keywords has huge implications on findability (SEO) and usability. You may solve the immediate need of publishing information, but does that meet your goal if people can’t find and access it?

Businesses frequently claim to recognize the importance of best practices in web publishing. This is illuminated by their awareness of and increased need for web publishing specialists, such as information architects, user experience designers, content strategists, and web writers. However, many of these same businesses still can’t appreciate it as an actual discipline, exemplified by web professionals often having to defend the very roles for which they are hired.

Talking about best practices is not enough

In response to my post Content First: Step One in Web Marketing where I make the case for content related to best practices, Amanda VanLente-Hatter commented:

My current position was created solely to have someone to create [web content], but I find I’m still having the discussion you describe [convincing people of the need for content].

In this instance, the need for a web writer implies support of best practices, but the employer still does not fully appreciate the value of effective web content. There’s a big difference between saying content is needed and actually making content a priority.

Make a better website (support best practices)

Best practices are hard to follow. This is why there are so many bad websites. But if you’re committed to doing better, you have to follow through and support the discipline. Best practices are not simple or easy, but they are worthwhile.

Rather than try to solve the problem of enforcing best practices in a blog post, I want to open the topic for discussion. Whether you’re someone charged with supporting best practices or someone who feels the responsibility to effectively meet goals, what is your perception of best practices? What role do they play—or should they play—in your organization?

I often find myself having to convince people of the need for and value of content in web marketing. Valuable content is necessary to attract and retain readers. I recently participated in a web marketing planning session where we addressed concern over lack of repeat website visitors, especially within the organization. The problem seemed apparent to me: outdated content. However, making the case for web content is challenging.

What follows is a case example of traditional marketing vs. web (content) marketing. The dialogue is edited for length, particularly because I was repeating myself to make my point (I’m a more concise writer than speaker).

"We need a new plan for marketing our website. People aren’t looking at it, even though we promote it constantly."

I raise my hand. "The website needs new content."

"Excuse me?"

"People need a reason to visit your website. They need to anticipate new content if they are to return. If the "news and events" section hasn’t been updated in four months—if the pages contain static content–people have no incentive to return."

"We can do that, but how do we get people to look at it? We need a marketing plan."

"That is marketing. Content marketing. If you consistently create new content—if people can rely on that—they will return."

I received a grin as if I didn’t understand the problem. "People need to know it’s there though."

"Yes, but you need to have content before you can promote it. You can’t tell people to use a website without giving them something useful."

"I think this is a case of the chicken or the egg."

Respectfully, no. This is not a question of the chicken or the egg. You can’t convince people to visit your website "for the latest" when there is nothing new to see. People have no reason to trust you if your track record doesn’t support your claim.

Developing and maintaining web content is hard. But you can’t ignore it, save it for later, or separate it from your marketing plan. Marketing cannot make up for valuable content. (Admittedly, I sounded just as preachy during the meeting.)

Step one

Develop current, relevant, useful content.

Yes, this means you need a content strategy. Yes, this means you can’t jump straight to marketing. But as part of developing your content strategy you gain an understanding of what content is needed to attract and retain your visitors.

Joe Pulizzi, Founder and Chief Content Officer of Junta42, explains in his whitepaper How to Attract and Retain Customers With Content:

Once you have delivered relevant content, you become a trusted resource. Content marketing enables companies to build a level of trust among their customers that makes it easy for those customers to buy.

"Buy" here refers to what you want your visitors to do, whether it be purchase a product, learn a skill, download a PDF, be informed of current news and events, or subscribe to your RSS feed to keep up on your great content.

Step two

I’m not addressing step two until I’m convinced you understand that content is step one, or when I write another post, whichever comes first.

But how does the story end?

I’m pleased to say that the web marketing meeting ended favorably. We discussed a plan to better involve the key web content stakeholders in the maintenance of the website and have them accept more ownership of the content that pertains to them. This does not constitute a content strategy—much more needs to be addressed—but good topics were discussed, including performing a content audit and developing a maintenance plan. The seed was planted and hopefully more is to come.

More on content strategy

Content strategy is a fast-growing topic in web publishing. It’s exciting and encouraging to see an increased awareness of the need for good web content. Here are some "current, relevant, and useful" resources for learning more:

More on content marketing

What about you?

Chime in! What challenges do you face marketing your website? How does content fit into your strategic plan?

I used to be a strong advocate for using PDFs. They are easy to create, view, and distribute—especially for those who deal with cross-platform and application compatibility issues. But what I didn’t foresee was how PDFs would be used to circumvent the web publishing process, compromising effective web writing, usability, accessibility, and search engine optimization (SEO). Now I lament a time when people relied on web publishers to develop and distribute their content effectively.

When PDFs are good

My problem is not with PDFs, but how they are used. They are great for electronic publishing. PDFs are also ideal for forms and other documents intended for printing, as well as large reference guides that benefit from being stored locally on your computer. It is a good portable and compatible file format and an excellent alternative to proprietary formats used by Microsoft, Adobe and others.

Advantages of using PDFs in electronic publishing:

Problems with using PDFs in web publishing

So, if PDFs are so great for electronic publishing, why do I dislike them for the web? Answer: they are too often used ineffectively. Because PDFs are easy to create and distribute, they are employed as a shortcut to publishing online—bypassing the publishing process —resulting in poorly developed web content.

It is common practice to use PDFs in place of web pages. Instead of having content written by web writers and designed by web designers people simply "Save As PDF" and then add a link on their website.

A PDF is not a substitute for a web page.

PDFs developed outside the web publishing process result in:

How to effectively create PDFs for the web

Maintain web accessibility. As Joe Clark writes in his well-reasoned article, Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility, "You should put the same care into marking up your PDFs that you put into marking up websites." PDFs can be just as accessible as HTML. In his article Clark suggests when PDFs should be used and explains how to make PDFs as accessible as web pages.

Maintain web usability. You need to choose PDF for an intended functional purpose, not as a substitute for a web page. Consider the need of you users. Duff Johnson offers useful guidelines for maximizing PDF usability.

Maintain focus on quality. PDFs should be held to the same standards as your web pages, including quality writing, design, and search engine optimization (SEO). If PDFs are used properly and included in your web publishing process and content strategy, then they can be implemented effectively.

Tips for publishing PDFs on the web:

How do you feel about PDFs on websites? Do you think your organization uses them effectively?

Benefits of a FAQs page:

Common problems with a FAQs page:

Tips & suggestions:

What would you recommend? Do you find FAQs pages useful? Do you have examples of ones that are either well designed or poorly managed?

This is not an uncommon occurrence with higher education or business brand management. It’s a challenge to balance the message you want to convey with the needs of your visitors–it’s a matter of image versus service. Both are vital. My rationale for keeping the links did not discount the importance of brand management, it aimed to keep a balance. I felt by advising students to borrow the recommended books from the school library in the page introduction (with no mention of Amazon.com) it made the intentions clear while providing easy access to additional information. The school bookstore didn’t carry the titles because they were so specialize, so I couldn’t include them.

The original book list included titles and authors, but no links. Without them, visitors would be forced to copy and paste a book title in order to search for more information. I’m not suggesting this added step is the end of the world. However, I draw attention to it because it’s part of the larger matter of customer service, which must not be trivialized.

One of my favorite topics from the recent eduWeb Conference was: "Answer the questions people are asking." In other words, give people what they’re looking for. This should be a primary goal of a website. And, like the Content vs. SEO debate, the solution should not be either/or. You can accomplish both with careful planning.

What do you think? Are Amazon.com (or other bookseller) links inappropriate for a school website or can a balance be made managing brand image and maximizing customer service?