Gov.je is invalid, inaccessible and illegal?
Jersey’s Government last year spent a considerable sum (£100k+?) on delivering their shiney new joined-up government website. In theory then, we would expect it to be valid (conforming to the W3c’s latest standards), and accessible (that is accessible to blind and disabled users).
Invalid?
XHTML 1.0 is the latest W3C recommendation for HTML. HTML (hypertext markup language) is the language used to describe the web pages you read. When sites are built to XHTML1.0 standards they are clean, structured, and content is separated from styling. This makes them fast, consistent, and platform independent.
You can check whether your site validates at the W3C validator. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, this is an essential step to making sure your site is fully prepared for Google indexing.
So does Gov.je validate? It validates for HTML 4.01, but not for XHTML1.0, try it at the validator . It has 115 errors. So, it’s valid by 1997 standards, but doesn’t cut the mustard for this decade.
Inaccessible?
Accessibility has become a serious issue in the UK and USA where legislation exists to ensure disabled people are not discriminated against, and if disabled people can’t access your website they are being actively discrimated against. The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 is a big subject, but as usual the place to start is W3. In defence, of gov.je, some efforts have been made to achieve accessibilty goals, namely the inclusion of access keys, however, failure to get XHTML1.0 right means that the site will be difficult to read without style sheets (essential if you’re trying to read the site with a Braille reader).
As you’ll see from the W3 guidelines sites that satisify priority 1, 2, and 3 critieria achieve a AAA rating. Gov.je just about reaches an A rating, with eleven warnings on priority 1, and failure on priorities 2 and 3. Crucially, style sheets are under utilised and structural markup is poor. In summary, the site fails disabled users.
Illegal?
Well, luckily for the States of Jersey, they write the laws, and at the time of writing they’ve not enacted DDA-style legislation. But Jersey likes borrowing EU legislation, so it will find its way on to the statute books for Jersey. The DDA is good law though, and all public organisations have a responsibility to ensure that all of their clients have equal access to their resources. So, not quite a law-breaker, but by rights it should be.
Adwords Arbitrage
I’m often asked the question, “What’s the difference between AdSense and AdWords?”. So, a quick re-cap. Adwords are the sponsored links that appear at the top and the right-hand side of your Google search results. These adwords are sold on a Cost per Clickthrough (CPC) basis. Which means advertisers only spend when there is a clickthrough. CPC rates are calculated on a near real-time bidding basis. Essentially, the CPC will go for as much as your competitor is prepared to pay (although Google currently limits this to £60).
But Google doesn’t just sell advertising on it’s own search results, it sells advertising on its own content network, including any site that signs up for AdSense. So AdSense is a programme for website publishers. The smart thing with AdSense is that Google analyses the content of your webpage, and serves adverts that relate to the content - the theory is that browsers are more likely to clickthrough to content they are genuinely interested in.
As an aside, I’d always recommend switching off the option to serve Adwords through the Google Content network when you are initially piloting your Adword programme. You should test the effectiveness of your Adwords, landing page, etc., before trying it on unknown sites.
Like most things at the heart of Google, the actual algorithm is guarded with secrecy. But roughly you can expect around 25-50% of CPC dependent on the conversion rate of the Adwords you serve. So, this brings me to the article title. I guess you’ve had the experience of clicking on a result from Google which takes you to a page full of Google Adwords. You will also have had the experience of clicking on an Adword and being taken through to a page of Google Adwords.
What’s going on? Cunning ploy for Google to build more revenue? Well no, in fact Google’s trying hard to eradicate this kind of site as it goes against its principles of legitimacy. In fact, these sites are making money out of the fact that some clickthroughs cost less, then the clickthroughs they generate. So you might type “mesothelioma cancer” (this is a high-value CPC). And you might then click on adword to take you to themesotheliomasite.net. This site is a site of links, and the site owner is working on the principle that you’ll click again, on a link that may well earn him/her $20.
So this is Adwords Arbitrage: creating sites with Adsense, and directing traffic through lower cost adwords. Ethical? I don’t think it’s evil, but it’s infuriating for advertisers to have their content purveyed by such low-grade sites. Don’t check Google content network on your next campaign!
How to write good web content
According to Jakob Nielsen you can double the useability of your website by following simple guidelines for writing web content. Reading from the web is very different from writing for print:
- 79% of users scan the page instead of reading word-for-word
- Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than from paper
- Web content should have 50% of the word count of its paper equivalent
To Neilsen’s comments I would add some Google-friendly tips:
- hyperlink on keywords wherever possible. Click here hyperlinks are meaningless, and have no value from a Google point-of-view.
- get good content on external sites linking (on keywords) back to your site. Blogging, forums, reciprocal links all work.
- think about keyword density. If you read my previous posting on Play.com ; you’ll see the importance of relative word frequency.
Essentially though Google optimisation means simply producing legitimate, interesting content for your target audience. If it’s useful, and it’s well presented, it will be indexed.