Usability

Usability is "the quality of a system that makes it easy to learn, easy to use, easy to remember, error tolerant, and subjectively pleasing" (from Usability First). In other words, as Steve Krug puts it, "Don't make me think!"

Your site's users should be able to find information on your site without having to stop to think about how the site is put together. If your site is hard to use and the user can't find what he or she is looking for, you can't bet that the user won't stay long and, most likely, won't come back for another visit.

Most of the recommendations in this course are designed to improve your pages for users, which, we promise, will improve your site's ranking in search results. If you improve your content by writing for users, structuring your pages, implementing search terms, and creating useful links, you will also improve your site's usability. And your users will be happy.

Accessibility

In 1998, Congress enacted the Section 508 law "to eliminate barriers in information technology" for people with disabilities. Though this course focuses on improving pages for all users (and thus improving search result rankings), several of the good coding recommendations help make sites more accessible. When you write clean and valid code, chances are better that a screen reader will be able to make the site make sense for a blind person. The same reasons apply for avoiding hidden text and avoiding frames.

Maintainability

Yet another benefit from implementing the good coding practices recommended by this course is that your pages will be easier to maintain. If you externalize JavaScript that is used across several pages, you need to change only one file when you update the JavaScript. If you make sure your code is clean and valid, you'll spend less time fixing bugs down the road. If you use actual text rather than hiding it in graphics, it will take less time to modify the text when you update your site's content.