Perfect findability and Web standards can be achieved with the same means when it comes to coding.
Thus I compiled a very simple list for you to improve your overall website and content findability.
These are 10 coding guidelines for perfect findability and Web standards everybody can easily memorize and implement:
- Less is more, do not use more code than necessary
- No inline CSS or scripts, try to separate content from appearance and behavior
- No huge styles and scripts in the head, externalize (use external files) everything as much as possible
- Use semantic code, make headlines headlines (h1, h2, h3 etc.), make important terms bold (strong), cite using blockquote etc.
- Don’t use any redundant meta tags (only meta description is a must)
- Use Schema markup to make your site machine readable by e.g. telling robots your name and address
- Use tables only for tabular data (like for basketball scores)
- Use bulleted or numbered lists, or use lists without displaying them as such.
- Use only degradable JavaScript (no JavaScript links) so that your site works without JS as well
- Do not load important content via JavaScript, always use plain HTML
In case you liked this article you will probably also like my list of CSS tricks.
To find out more about findability make also sure to look at the list of the worst mistakes in that context.