Google has shaped content on the Web more than any other technology vendor. True, Apple has had a wide influence on the design and style of web pages. And Facebook dominates social media and messaging. And Microsoft owns the Desktop. But with its search engine leadership in all the World except China, Google shapes how content is created, subsequently used and marketed on the Web.

Google represents first access to information on the Web. And therefore Google sets the rules for accessing Web Data. First, it was meta descriptions, keywords, and backlinks that dominated Google’s webpage rankings. Then webpage response time,  website security, and support for mobile devices were added to webpage rankings. Within the past few years, Google has been tuning in on webpages’ easy accessibility both to the impaired and in diverse viewports.  The Chrome lens extension addresses key accessibility issues in the Chrome browser. More broadly here are  key and free Google resources for assessing your website’s browsing performance:

1. Google Analytics – provides comprehensive  website traffic and usage measurements
2. Search Console – gives feedback on Google access to your website citing any crawling impediments or sitemap shortcomings
3. Keyword Planner – – provides pricing for keywords to use on a Google  Pay Per Click campaign.
4. Google My Business – allows local business owners to set description, events, and images used for local business search
5. Structured Data – tool testing websites structured data status based on crawling, sitemap
   
6. Google Alerts – a free service that provides opt-in notifications from Google that alert the subscribed individual of new or changed web content.
7. Google Trends shows how a topic is trending over time
   

Currently, Google is focusing on assessing the tough cookie that is “Content is King”. Google rates website content for authority, readability, and trustworthy expertise. But how Google goes about doing this is a 167 page  PDF dated September 2019 on Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Yes, Search Engine World is still digesting all the Google Wisdom – particularly as it relates to a webpage’s Authority and Measures of Expertise. However, lurking in the Google analysis of Content is a careful consideration of web page readability.  It is readability and accessibility that will be the focus of this review first because authority depends on good readability  But also there are pragmatic tools that can help website owners achieve both accessibility and readability.

Measures of Expertise and Authority

Perusing through the Google Guidelines and Search World sources, one can see a common set of approaches to establishing authority.
First, is clarity of statement as seen in keyword usage, meta-statements, and consistency in categories or tags used to classify the content’s topic. Next, based on Google scans of related pages, a measure of completeness in coverage of the topic can be made…
Second, authority is measured by the number of off-links from a webpage to recognized topic expert sources [Google has a copious supply of expert references through its scans worldwide of all the webpages covering the same topic].
Third, is a more subtle but telling measure of authority. How many of the web page’s off-links go to the parent website’s webpages discussing related aspects of the topic. This demonstrates an internal consistency in the flow of arguments. This covers the basic “outgoing from the website”  measures of authority.
Fourth comes the incoming references to a webpage. Google knows who are the authorities on the topic. So they are looking for backlinks from these authorities and experts to the webpage and website in general.
Fifth and finally, there is a more subtle measure –  confirmation of the webpage’s projections and hypotheses over time add to the webpage’s authority. Now how Google does this is “its secret sauce” but its Trends Tool gives an indication. Certainly, Google considers third party reviews of the webpage’s arguments. Now, this is an area of delicacies because of free speech, matters of artistic opinion, and recognition of how to understand and recognize completed or proven hypotheses.

Also, Google will have to be able to distinguish the opposite – “deliberate smear” campaigns. On a Web that has delivered so much misinformation and diverse “opinions”, this is at the nub of the problem – establishing not just statistically reliable authority, but also weeding out deliberate defamation. Fortunately, readability and accessibility is better understood. So we look at some of the tools and techniques available to achieve these ends on webpages.

Accessibility & Readability  Tools

The bottom line is that accessibility and readability work together to provide content clarity and added authority. The table below shows how the two interact.

Because many governments world-wide have embraced access to information and the web with supporting accessibility standards as key provision for economic and social success, these standards have been written as legal requirements in many jurisdictions. However, a counter-trend is occurring as major governments such as China’s Great Firewall, Iran’s Intermittent Curtailment of the Web,  and Russia’s Unplugged Internet, seek to curb and control the free flow of information in their countries. Nonetheless. W3C WCAG 2. 1 is being adopted as a European standard. Thus, just as GDR did for privacy worldwide, accessibility will be bolstered by European adoption of WCAG 2.1 standard. Finally, if you check the list of accessibility suppliers you will see there is fierce competition among vendors for features and performance.

Best Readability Tools

Readability tools split into two camps. First are tools that work across most web applications with text input,  form fields,  comment blocks and other writing  inputfields. Second are plugins that work with CMS-Content Management Systems   like Drupal and WordPress helping to add readability checs to their post, page and other text input. Given that the top 5 CMS are used on 43% of all the world’s website [with WordPress 35.3%], CMS have managed to attract a dozen or more plugins that offer readability corrections.

Online Web Grammar and Readability Tools

Online Readability tools cluster around three attributes: checking features supported, OS & app platforms integration, and pricing. Here are some of the most popular tools: