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Web Site Design- Use of Graphics and Fonts Part III

Text, too, is important. There is no evidence that search engine algorithms have a text element, but easily readable text is useful in keeping visitors on your page. There is a big difference between reading on a screen and reading a book or magazine. Serif fonts are generally too fussy for on-screen reading, but are better than sans serif for paper text. The serif is the little tail that many letters have in fonts such as Times New Roman. If you must use a serif font online, Courier is better than Times.

However, sans serif (French for ‘without serif’) always wins hands down, and the two best are Verdana and Arial in that order. Arial tends to be a bit difficult to read in the smaller font sizes than Verdana, and most computer software have both available.

However, just in case, allow an option by phrasing your HTML thus: <font size=2 face=Verdana, Arial, Sans>. The HTML will load the Verdana first, but if that is not available then it will load Arial. Your text should be crisp and easy to read, and rather go for fancy text and background colors, stick to black on white for the majority of your web page. You can use other combinations for specific highlighted areas, but not all over.

Finally, your text size should preferably be HTML size 2 or 3. Size 1 is too small and can even be penalized by search engine spiders if they think that you are trying to hide the text behind its size. The same applies to insufficient contrast, and if a spider reckons that you are trying to hide keyword stuffing by reducing the contrast between text and background, it will penalize you. Keep in mind that spiders have no eyes for color: they read only the HTML. Try to use only two font sizes on a page, one for the main text and the other for headlines and titles.