Part of usability testing includes the use of screen readers. A screen reader is a product that attempts to convert text on a web page to a text to speech format called braille output. These products are designed to assist visually impaired people using the Internet.

Fangs is a firefox extension that provides a down and dirty quick look at what a screen reader would interpret from a web page. Once the extension is installed just right click on the page and left click View Fangs. This page is displayed in three tabs:

• Screen reader output
• Headings List
• Links list

The page text is rendered as a screen reader would output the words. Headings are defined in blue identifying the level and links, bullets, lists and the like are identified in a grey color.

Usability is an important and often overlooked part of website design. Since usability testing may be too expensive for some webmasters I have included some basic information to consider when creating or rebuilding a website regardless of the niche or purpose of the site.

Everyone wants to impress people. Whether you use 6 syllable words or industry jargon it is easy to forget that not everyone is quite as up to date as you are about your content.

Not only that, but if you make visitors stop and think about what to do next too often, they will generally just leave your site. Keep things simple. Use words that a 6th grader would understand and make sure to organize things in such a manor that the visitor's scanning eye recognizes exactly what you are trying to convey to them and what they have to do next.

Whether you are a new webmaster or a seasoned pro, these mistakes are easy to make. The phone rings, honey-do's, or just maybe its Monday!

So OK, here is a reminder for owners of websites and blogs to prevent falling into the top 5 publication disasters that can prevent successful Internet marketing.

Maybe nobody looks at the page title when browsing a web page but it is the most captivating, constructive part of the SERP snippet. Everybody scans the big, bold text when Googling, Yahooing, or Liveing. The bold text in the snippet is your title tag for the page.

Throw a bunch of keywords in a title tag and nobody will click on the SEO'ed garbage you end up with. Never change your title tags, or use really similar title tags and the search engines will hate you.