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Good Web Site Design for Web Site Optimization

By Wendy Boswell, About.com

4 of 10

Make Your Text Easy To Read

Text Hard to Read

The above example is what you should avoid when designing your site for search engines and search engine users.

A dark background, a table with jarring colors and light text - this sample, if let loose on the Web, would drive away visitors in droves. This might sound like a no-brainer, but sites with text that is hard to decipher tend to get less visits by search engine users. Make your text readable.

  • Don’t use silly fonts that might look really cool in your HTML editor, but are unreadable on the Web.
  • Avoid busy backgrounds that obscure the text; if site visitors have to slow down to interpret your text, you’ve just lost an audience.
  • Make your text scannable: use bullets, headlines, and bold text so users can scan your content quickly.
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