Progressive enhancement, a “sister” to graceful degradation, is often talked about in web design circles right along with other technical topics like JavaScript, Flash, Ajax, and basic applications of CSS. While it may not be easy to understand what these technical functions are, not using them results in poor visibility. Blank pages, that both search engines and visitors come across on your site, often create poor experiences. In my post on CNet I wrote:

Graceful degradation was a step to overcome this, where sites were designed for the latest browsers and technology, but were also made to degrade gracefully, hopefully delivering most of the content to the visitor, or at least informing the visitor that he or she may not be “getting” everything.

For more about progressive enhancement, graceful degradation, and how they related to SEO, visit my CNET: Searchlight blog for more on this topic.