Getting to the top of Google is every business’s dream, but often not enough is understood about Google to appreciate what this goal actually means. Get to the top of Google for a particular search term is great, but how many people search for it, and more importantly, how is Google adapting?

Lets bring this into real terms; Today I was looking to replace my office chair. Controversial as it is, I use a kneeling chair. Despite conflicting reports and dodgy marketing, I use it because it’s the only chair style to date which doesn’t result in back pain for me with long term use. The chair I have has worn at the knees and the gas lifting strut has leaked to uselessness. I picked the one I wanted and ordered.

I mention this story because while I’m a business, I’m also a consumer and rely heavily on Google in my day to day life. As such minor changes in Google’s algorithm and structure do not go unnoticed.

Many hours later, I was looking to replace the gas lifting struts for the boot of my car. I searched Google for ‘Gas lifter’ and saw this:

The search results I believe are organic, gas struts have a variety of uses from office chairs, cars, to heavy machinery. The Google shopping results though are noteworthy. Google has obviously taken my search terms and used information about my previous searches to determine my need.

Google has given my search context based on what little it knows about me, and even though I wasn’t searching for chairs, knows that I’m interested in them nonetheless.

When it comes to using Google to advertise therefore, simply ‘getting to the top’ isn’t enough because ‘the top’ is becoming very personal to the searcher.

So here are your new goals:

• If you sell stuff, make sure Google Shopping knows you’re there.
• Make sure you have ample content showing that you are THE go-to company based on your expertise.
• Consider the people searching for you, what are they looking for? Maybe they’re not looking for ‘Web Designer Swansea’, perhaps they’re actually saying “How to get my business online”. Do your research.
• Organic is best; If you don’t have the budget for seo experts, keep your content fluid and natural and try to avoid over using sales cliches. Google is there to give people the information they’re looking for and will only offer ‘BUY NOW HERE’ to people who search ‘WHERE CAN I BUY NOW’.

I’ve become increasingly aware of how many people are permitting spam comments into their blogs. I do email people I find specifically with help but it would be good to include a general heads up as it’s on the increase!

So let’s start at the beginning; Mr Spammer runs a dodgy medication selling website. Mr Spammer is in a high competition industry so needs to be found in Google. He’s optimised his site but now needs some links back from other quality sites like yours to show Google that his is popular (which it’s not) and equally full of quality content (which it isn’t). Mr Spammer logs on to blog after blog commenting on as many articles he has time to and all he has to do is make sure he enters his web address into the ‘Your Website’ box. If the blog on your nice site is unprotected, (and sometimes even if it is), his comment will appear, more importantly his name will link through to his website, and Google takes that link as a ‘thumbs-up’ from you giving it a tiny bit more importance.

Here’s the worse bit; when Google realises that Mr Spammer is actually spamming, it may penalise the site in question, and worse penalise every site which links to it… including your own quality, innocent website. He’s made a few sales so happy to relaunch site number 24763 on a new url and you’re made to suffer.

So here’s what you should do:

1. Learn the difference between a genuine supportive comment and a spam one. If they have included a link, it should link to a genuine business website and the comment should add something to your reputation or article. If they link to medicines, abortion pills, weight loss pills etc. you can safely assume it’s spam. Anything in the middle is up to you.
2. Install some anti-spam solutions like the following:
1. WordPress Akismit is one good piece of software, I believe they charge for it now, but that’s evidence of their success. It will stop most spam comments getting in and allow genuine comments through.
2. Self-moderation is the next step, Built into WordPress and others are a number of filters, you can hold all comments for manual approval, or set those with links included for approval. The latter is best and saves you time. If they don’t contain a link, it’s almost certainly harmless. You just have to ensure you check regularly to approve good comments and delete spam.
3. Install a captcha, again free on Wordress and others, this is the box which asks you to type what you see in the picture. This won’t fool determined spammers but the majority of spammers are after quantity not quality so if they don’t get through easily, they won’t waste their time trying and will go elsewhere. If your site happened to be Microsoft, Apple, BBC etc. you would be in for a rough ride.
3. Set nofollow to all user links. This is usually an option in your blogging or site software which allows you to set user links to ‘nofollow’ which basically is a message to Google (and others) saying “Yes I’m showing this link, but I don’t want you to treat it as an endorsement, I’m just the messenger.”
4. Finally, go through your previous comments and delete any which you’ve decided are spam.

Have you ever tried to scan a document into editable format? It never really works because the human brain uses a HUGE variety of processes for reading. The simple home computer simply cannot do this as efficiently. The solution always leads us to manually proofread the entire document word by word correcting mistake after mistake.

As the print quality gets worse, so does the translation. According to one site, this text:

was translated as this:

‘ letz-1- rrk fit: 1′ . on its to Vc ,rt, cann into tlm yc H_ tcr,la, .n. ‘l l; , arc ti:( h of thc 1″,ats that to ltc rc: ,;. , I; ., l: rel!;n. tani., , ./olio, IJuteilu, . 1!’i./_ ;lr”n. Iiam! Jr.r. F’l,nr_.Z.._%i;;, ,, : rt-Irn: am/ tf.rri.:, t?m steamer as a tr nW r. Uu ,tin;t, c ac?1 1″,at firm/ a t;nn, accor.liu; to .t rn. ‘Cl.w r. wu ru lm:nui MistinW /y in u;th, -. ink ;:,k as to “what w ax 1111, :111(I vle:iR a of ;: (,am( into, mnr r-, tm if tlm wo r( uu.i n:’ of t?u : la?:Iv. ‘c : ol in thc , ucr:atic , , Tlau :; will h:aw tu-li.r . ’1′Im yap?tts Il ,,n an,/ I, ,rr:l. r, (,t tf,is r:ity, start witli it, with lu:rtic: ol 1- e:l.k.

A group of geeks at Carnegie Mellon University got together and discovered that in order to translate billions of virtually illegible words, we need humanpower…. and lots of it!

Have you ever seen these? Two words under the brand ‘ReCaptcha’ (single word anti-spam systems don’t do this)

These two words come from the clever people above to prove you are a human by translating the words…. however there’s something they’re not telling you…

Only one of the words is actually known and tested!

One of the words it knows and proves you are human (as we’ve already established, computers are terrible at reading), the other is completely unknown… when you enter that word, assuming the other was correct, it will be assigned to the image helping the recaptcha machine translate an entire book. YOU have become a slave to the system, one part of the mass humanpower needed to run ‘the machine’

I find this amazingly simple concept is just brilliant… pure genius at it’s best. If everyone puts in a tiny amount of effort, the big picture will form much more quickly than our forefathers could have ever imagined. Proof of the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of our parts.

Now I just need to work out how many of these flipping things I’ve filled out so I can write out an invoice…

Blogging isn’t new, most people have their own blogs and can see the benefits, but some people don’t, and I want to play a part in changing that. A good business blog isn’t about inane subjects like where your last holiday was spent or your new kittens (unless you’re in the holiday or animal rescue business) and if you are an expert in your chosen field, it doesn’t have to be difficult to come up with new ideas and topics.

Top 10 reasons for having a blog:

1. SEO – The search engines LOVE blogs, more and more are appearing in the top results. Google in particular is now concentrating on newer content vs old and it’s time your static website started getting a piece of that action.
2. Credibility - By releasing well worded articles, you can prove your expertise to the general public, you will build up a reputation of being knowledgable and passionate about your chosen subject and not just following an ‘it pays the bills’ mentality about your business.
3. Free links – A good article is shared with others, the link gets emailed and posted on other’s blogs and comments, the back links help both click throughs and again aid the SEO.
4. Up-to-the-minute – Almost all industries are undergoing change on a daily basis, by writing articles about these changes and how they affect your target market, you can keep people informed, especially if you’re the first to blog about it.
5. Interaction – Blogs are usually linked by keywords, once a user has finished with one blog either by reading or irrelevancy, there is the option for them to see previous articles on the same subject, this gives more exposure, more chance of being seen and shared. Again the SEO benefits are amazing.
6. Openness – Depending on the type of business and impression you want to give as a business, adding personal blogs can be a benefit. In many businesses, the USP is the individual involved. By being open and sharing shows you have nothing to hide and helps visitors build a rapport with you.
7. I’m still here – The Internet is well over a decade old, it is full of closed business and obsolete sites. By updating a dated blog, you are showing Google and your visitors that you are still operating in full force.
8. Special offers and Updates – Blogs are a great way to update clients without hitting them with constant unread newsletters. It enables them to see smaller changes within the company, new product launches and allows you to post special offers.
9. Allows overpopulation – One of the first mistakes people tend to make with new websites is to write too much information. Some visitors want that information however and the blog is a brilliant repository. You can keep your main pages clean with good sales copy and write all the technical details and performance results in an article.
10. Feedback. – A static website is relatively flat, it can act as a barrier between the visitor and the business. A blog opens the comments channel allowing visitors to play a part in the growth of your online presence. They also tend to be written in a more relaxed way helping your visitor to feel more relaxed and less defensive to sales copy.

“But I’ll run out of things to write about”

Ask for ideas, look at similar industry blogs, read your industry’s news, blog about what you see, put it into plain English.
Accountants – Tax saving tips, How the budget effects small businesses (dumbed down version), what does the expenses row mean?, why are politicians choosing to wait until the next election to stand down?
Estate Agents – What’s happening to the property market? What should first time buyers be looking out for? What can sellers do to increase their chances?
Graphic Designers – A good designer produces work which is beautiful to look at, show it! What thought processes go behind a good design? Give us case studies, explain why a blue blob with the letter ‘Y’ just cost your client £600.
Unemployed people – I’ve been talking to a young lady who’s making a small fortune by being unemployed, she’s written a book about job hunting blogged and vlogged about it and is really pushing her online profile.

The lists are endless but you get the idea.

Don’t have a blog? have I convinced you to give it a try? How about this for numbers: I don’t put much time into my own site, I spend too much time with other people’s, but every so often I post a new blog. When I do, my site traffic spikes up 50-100% within a few days before settling down at an overall 2% increase. One blog per week will double my overall site traffic every 35 weeks, one blog per day will almost double the traffic every month!!! If I stop, a decrease will start, but for now it just grows steadily.

How do you get it? You can install WordPress (http://www NULL.wordpress NULL.org) straight on to your website with custom or matching themes, (or we could do it for you) or you can use one of the hundreds of free blogging websites. WordPress (http://www NULL.wordpress NULL.com) again is by far the best in my personal opinion and very easy to set up and use. (I’m not on commission with WordPress, it’s just really good, in fact this blog is using wordpress)

Is there a benefit to having it installed or using the free option?

The free option is excellent but does have some advertising on for WordPress and links to other people’s blogs on similar subjects. Quality here is key, make sure your blog is better than the other related articles and yours will shine through. WordPress also benefits from high seo rankings so there is a good change of being seen.

The self-hosted version loses the ads and has no competition. It helps build the seo rankings for your whole site and allows you to use your domain name, although the seo benefits may not be instant, they will be longer standing.

If you haven’t got one, get one now and happy posting.

Richard Branson’s Blog (http://entrepreneur NULL.virgin NULL.com/)
Stephen Fry’s Blog (http://www NULL.stephenfry NULL.com/blog/)
Ivan Misner’s Blog (http://networking NULL.entrepreneur NULL.com/)
Derren Brown’s Blog (http://derrenbrownart NULL.com/blog/)

Google is forever releasing new features, most of which aren’t really of interest to the general user however today, things change. Google have added new search options. The next time you search for something, click ‘Show Options’ in the blue bar. Now you have a number of filters you can use to refine your search. These filters do make life easier but they are also the start of something big.

Type filters include: Video, Forums and Reviews

Time Filters include: Recent results, Past 24 hours, Past week, Past Year

There are also related searches and a ‘Wonder Wheel’

The type filters are going to make life easier for searchers to find what they are looking for and will be useful but won’t require changes from website owners. If you do run a searchable forum however, I would recommend your results display correctly in date order. To do this, go onto google and type:

Site:http://www.yoursite.com/forumdirectory

Then use the options to sort by date. Talk to your web designer about your choices if they don’t display as you would expect. Some coding changes may be required.

The time filters are the most important. The more recently your content was updated or added to, the higher you will appear… it’s as simple as that! If you don’t edit your site content regularly, add news articles, blogs etc. you will appear right at the bottom. Every time you add new content, you jump back to the top of the queue. So it’s important that you can and do edit your website and regularly!

What can you do if you have just a few pages of information for your company? Consider adding a Blog. A blog (like this one) is an easy-to-use list of articles grouped by category and keywords. It’s easy to find and construct content and could make a HUGE difference to your exposure. You’re obviously an expert at something, else you wouldn’t be able to run a business based on it!

If you have a community based site, consider opening the forums to all if locked down. Make sure Google can see it so posts are indexed regularly and listed in their search.

The final features are fun to play with and will actually help sites get better rankings even with less Search Engine Optimisation in place.

Have a play around, have fun and keep your website current.

I’m constantly asked by people all over ‘How do I get to the top of Google’, ‘Company X promises a front page listing’ and the likes. What are the google tricks to get you to the top? Hopefully I’m going to dispel a few tricks with business logic.

Google is a search engine, they want to make money from advertising but for this to happen, they NEED the masses to use it for searches.

What would make you choose or stop using a given search engine? The results. To maintain your loyalty, Google works hard to make sure it understands what you’ve typed into the search box, and gives you a good answer on page 1 with x million not so good ones following. (just in case) Google is a computer program and so doesn’t understand human speech as well as we, or Google execs would like, but it’s slowly getting there.

So
Fact #1: It is in Google’s best interests to produce reliable results to keep it’s audience.

If you search now for ‘Plumber in Watford’, Google will show plumbers and directories in Watford. Sometimes you’ll see other things there, these websites are strategically incorrect. This could be them trying to cheat the system or just not optimised correctly where Google thinks it’s about plumbers.

Back to fact 1, we lead on to:
Fact #2: Google continuously monitor results to create rules to filter out non-relevant results thus satisfying number 1.

Assuming you run a legitimate business, for argument’s sake and accountant in Hemel Hempstead, and I am looking for an accountant in Hemel Hempstead, it is in Google’s best interest to show your site to me. Google doesn’t care about how it looks, or how much money you spent on it, it only cares about me and satifying my needs. If it works, I will come back and become a loyal searcher, which is exactly what Google wants.

Fact #3: Google isn’t there to penalise people not able or willing to spend money on SEO, it’s best interests are with the searcher.

Some sites appear higher in Google than others, this is because Google believes that they are more helpful. Old sites designed and forgotten in 1995 are unlikely to be in the top 10 so it needs to know that you’re still in business and that you can help me. Don’t be clever and skirt around the issue of what you do. I am a web designer, fact. I could call myself a ‘brand archetect’ or a ‘e-makeover expert’ to differentiate myself, but that’s not what my prospects will be searching for. It is getting better and understanding, but it’s not quite there. For example if I add ‘That let the cat out of the bag’, Google would have to understand that I am talking about trouble, I am not a vet, I don’t agree with animal cruelty, I do not rescue kittens from bags (although have been known to.)

Fact #4: Google makes no assumptions, it only knows what you tell it, word for word.

I will expand on that last one, Google also knows what other people say about you, but that’s for another blog.

So forget Google as the enemy, it isn’t. It wants to help searchers find what they are looking for so they come back time and time again and hopefully click on a few adverts making Google a small profit for it’s efforts. Google is a business and while there are ways of ‘tricking’ it or tweaking things, if Google doesn’t believe you can help solve a given problem, you won’t be shown in the golden position 1.

Fact #5: Google are constantly improving, there are ways to slip through the net, but these will be quickly filtered out and you could be penalised.

So don’t try fooling Google by adding 100 links to the bottom of the page going to the same place, or 15 identical pages with the place names replaced unless there is a genuine reason for doing so. Continue to write copy for your readers, not Google, but just dumb it down a little so it all makes sense to a robot. Tricks like these will only work for a short time, once Google find a way to filter it out, you’ll be dropped like a hot potato.

Likewise if you do operate in several areas, by all means do have separate pages for each area, but don’t over-link them, stay logical. Remember that EVERY page is your home page. When someone clicks through, they won’t necessarily go to page 1, they could land anywhere and need to know in an instant that they’re in the right place.

Google isn’t your enemy, it is a money making business. If you understand business, think like them and you’ll already understand.

The searches have been counted and verified, the results are in. Google Zeitgeist 2008 announced today the top google searches for 2008.

Globally, the top 10 fastest rising search terms were:

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

In the UK, the top risers:

1. iplayer
2. facebook
3. iphone
4. youtube
5. yahoo mail
6. large hadron collider
7. obama
8. friv
9. cam4
10. jogos

The UK’s top google searches were:

1. facebook
2. bbc
3. youtube
4. ebay
5. games
6. news
7. hotmail
8. bebo
9. yahoo
10. jobs (the only search term here showing any indication of this so called recession)

While our diets are not improving with the fastest rising recipe searches being:

1. cupcake
2. meatballs
3. rocky road
4. crumble topping
5. eaton mess
6. pork belly
7. rhubarb fool
8. lemon posset
9. honey comb
10. beer batter

So what do we want from the internet? Spot the age old questions coming top of the ‘Top of mind’ section:

What is…

1. what is love
2. what is life (Life is… not looking at Google)
3. what is java
4. what is sap
5. what is rss
6. what is scientology
7. what is autism
8. what is lupus
9. what is 3g
10. what is art

Who is…

1. who is obama (Where have these people been hiding?!?)
2. who is mccain
3. who is palin
4. who is lil wayne
5. who is miley cyrus
6. who is dolla
7. who is jonas brothers
8. who is chris brown
9. who is biden
10. who is martin luther

…and how to…

1. how to draw
2. how to kiss
3. how to write
4. how to cook
5. how to tie
6. how to hack
7. how to run
8. how to cite
9. how to paint
10. how to spell (The actual 10th entry was ‘How too Spele but google’s logic kicked in once again)

More people wanted to know how to draw than how to kiss? I suppose one is a perfectly safe natural thing… the other one is kissing… think I’ve got it the wrong way round? read about the kiss of deaf (http://news NULL.bbc NULL.co NULL.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7772902 NULL.stm) from the BBC. (Who said the TV licence wasn’t worth the money?)

So there we have it, the British don’t seem too bothered by the current credit crisis if this is anything to go on, but are certainly keeping up with World news, playing games and networking. Interestingly enough, this is even before checking their emails… Of course the stats are flawed for this kind of statement as it doesn’t count bookmarks or remembered URLs.

Well this is my last blog of 2008, I’m spending the last two weeks on the tropical island of Mauritius. Happy holidays, merry Christmas and thank you to all those readers, contacts, clients, and so on who have helped Zako Media stay afloat for 2008.

Well this one came completely unannounced. The power of Google is such that they no longer need to build up hype, it just spreads around like wildfire. I present to you. SearchWiki.

If you are a logged in google user (either of Gmail, documents, calendar or one of their zillion other services) you now alter the search results. If a site isn’t coming up which should, you can use a link at the bottom to add it directly to page 1… instantly. If a link isn’t relevant, you can use the arrows next to it to drop it down or remove it and keep the good content up top… instantly.

Now don’t get too excited, before the click wars begin, this isn’t a Google-wide change… that would be anarchy… in fact only you can see those changes, and only when logged in to your google account, but from any computer.

Why is this useful?

As Google’s search results change on a second by second basis, it can be hard to keep track on every useful site and page. Our bookmarks are filling up with sites we forget exist and things are becoming harder to find.

Now rather than bookmark it, move the link higher in the results so that the next time you look, it’s right there.

Business uses? practically none, but the next bit really caught my attention…

As well as moving Google search results, SearchWiki allows you to add notes and comments to the results. The last link underneath the site address drops down a little textbox. Again everytime this result appears in your search, you’ll get instant access to your own notes. This is useful as above but with one difference… everyone can see them… They have to click a link to, but they are visible. This means you can start adding notes not only to other’s sites but to your own. An extra few lines to promote your business and show people why your link is much better than anyone elses.

It does mean you can also comment on your competitors… This approach is not recommended as Slander and Libel cases are on the increase against digital bloggers and public internet authors.

Keep an eye on this one, perhaps with user generated results, Google may wish to start allowing the data to influence overall results… What better relevancy test than through the masses. There have already been numerous picture games associated with Google played around the world by millions of people. Only a percentage knew that they were actually describing image content for google’s image search. Google’s wonderful viral allowed it to index billions of images accross the globe in a matter of weeks.

Watch this space. In the meantime, here’s Google’s Lead Designer talking about SearchWiki:

Well Goohoo has been and gone. Google stepped out of the deal due to the restrictions Yahoo! were trying to apply. Yahoo! understandably doesn’t want to lose out to it’s biggest (winning) rival after all.

Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo! seems to have re-offered Yahoo! to Microsoft. For those not in the know, Microsoft attempted to purchase Yahoo! earlier this year. They couldn’t agree on figures and Microsoft eventually slammed the door. Now Yahoo! has gone back with the lost puppy look and is waiting for Microsoft (or another bidder) to throw them a bone.

The current search share of the engines looks something like below:

Over the past two years, Google has gone from strength to strength, Yahoo! is it’s next biggest competitor closely followed by Microsoft and Ask. If Microsoft did acquire Yahoo!, it would significantly increase the muscle behind the defence against Google but would still have to claim around 20% more of the market share to rival Google.

Microsoft have the advantage of being able to set live search to default on their own software, however their street cred isn’t great and users are converting to Mozilla Firefox (which defaults to Google) and Google’s own browser, Chrome (never guess which search engine they favour)

So how can Microsoft gain it’s software advantage? They need to fix Internet Explorer, make it follow the same web standards as Firefox. They may have another plan up their sleeves however…

Hotmail users on Chrome will be familiar with the message ‘We don’t support your browser upgrade to IE’ Everything worked regardless so it was just an annoyance. Microsoft have just upgraded Hotmail and low and behold removed the annoying message! However Google Chrome users are now unable to send/reply to messages due to a faulty Javascript editor… Even despite Wikipedia reporting the roll-out to Chrome on the 4th November 2008. Is this a simple oversight or was there some Malice in the decision to not support Chrome? Some Firefox 3 users have also reported problems.

I don’t like the idea of Microsoft buying Yahoo! however I think Google needs some decent competition! Their staff live in cushy offices with massage chairs, slides, poles and all sorts of games! It employs 20,123 members of staff and pays for them to relax! They need to be put to work to stay ahead of the possible Microhoo! conglomeration!

Website Accessibility

2.2 (p7): “The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public.”4.7 (p39): “From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services.”

2.13 – 2.17 (p11-13): “What services are affected by the Disability Discrimination Act? An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the act.”

5.23 (p71): “For people with visual impairments, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include … accessible websites.”

5.26 (p68): “For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include … accessible websites.”

Hotels have lifts, shops have ramps, even London underground is making an effort. (although much work still needs to be done.)

Is a website not accessible? How do you make a website accessible?

Blind people cannot read a computer screen, but many are online. How? They use a screen reader to read the page. Text content NEEDS to be in order in the code for this to work, also images should not be used for content, and any flash should have a text alternative.

Coming away from the extreme, many people in the UK are long-sighted or have difficulty reading, particularly on the back-lit screen. To combat this, the text colour should contrast the background, should be large enough or be re-sizable. You should also take into account the number of colourblind men there are out there, particularly when some colours are indistinguishable.

If you rely on video or audio files, you should provide a text alternative for the deaf.

Flash websites are BANNED! however some flash elements with text equivalents are still allowed… they are usually unnecessary. If a site must be in flash, a full HTML version should be provided, the second html site is also good for google as flash can’t be seen.

“This seems a bit like political correctness gone mad, can you be sued?”

In a word, yes. The RNIB has approached two large companies with regard to their websites. When they raised the accessibility issues of the websites under the DDA, both companies made the necessary changes, rather than facing the prospect of legal action (in exchange for anonymity).

The DRC launched a formal investigation into 1000 websites, of which over 80% were next to impossible for disabled people to use. They issued a stern warning that organisations will face legal action under the DDA and the threat of unlimited compensation payments if they fail to make websites accessible for people with disabilities.

In short, if you operate a website, this applies to you. Generally speaking, little will need to be done (if anything) to make your site accessible, speak to your web designer today or contact us for advice.

You can also check your site free on http://wave.webaim.org/ (http://wave NULL.webaim NULL.org/)

While not 100% accurate, it will give a good idea as to how much work will be needed. Have a chat to your web designer if you think your exposure could be increased.

Can I also tell you a secret? Google factors website accessibility into it’s algorythm. An accessible website will rank more highly than an in-accessible one with the same content.