Web accessibility compliance has endless benefits on both the user and creator end. However, its most notable advantage is search engine optimization, allowing your website to rank higher on search engine results.
As a result, your website can benefit from increased organic traffic while users enjoy an accessible interface. So, there’s no doubt that SEO and web accessibility are related. In fact, certain SEO practices directly influence your website’s accessibility compliance.
Nearly 15% of the world’s population has disabilities that obscure their website use. As a result, opting out of web accessibility will prevent nearly one billion people from easily navigating your website.
With the help of accessibility compliance software like Accessibility Spark, you can target both initiatives without manual labor. Keep reading to learn how.
How SEO Can Impact Web Accessibility
Here are ten SEO practices that can help you improve your website’s accessibility compliance and increase its discoverability.
1. Using the Right Headings
Using the proper heading structure is the best SEO practice to improve ADA website accessibility. For example, in the H1 to H6 range, H1 must only be used once for the primary, while other headings can utilize H2-H6 multiple times.
Not only does this improve your website’s structure and readability, but it also makes it accessible for those with cognitive disabilities or poor reading ability. Structured headings allow them to click on certain potions and skip others they don’t need.
Adding a table of contents to your interface can improve its accessibility further. However, it’s also worth noting that your users may use screen readers, which may not operate correctly if your website’s structure is incorrect.
A machine- and human-readable heading structure allows the screen reader to navigate your website quickly and read out the information to the user.
2. Including ALT Texts
A picture’s alt text describes the content of an image, video, or other graphic. Not only is alt text useful for visitors that use screen readers, but Google also prioritizes websites that describe their graphic content.
This feature is most important for visually impaired or blind visitors using screen readers. But it’s also helpful if someone has a slow WiFi connection that prevents them from loading the image or video.
In that case, they won’t be faced with an empty space on your website but will view the alt text instead. Additionally, providing a relevant and accurate description of the image or video is crucial.
Including alt texts can lead to additional traffic as users may discover your website from image searches.
Also read: 30 Web Accessibility Ultimate Checklist
3. Optimizing Page Titles
The page title of your website comes in [<title>], giving your users a general idea of what a specific page on your website entails. This name is displayed on the tab at the top of the browser page.
Those that keep multiple tabs open simultaneously rely on page titles to differentiate between each tab’s purpose. So, your page title must be clear and concise and hold keywords that detail the page’s contents.
Besides ease of use and visibility, an optimized page title can also help you rank higher on search engine results. Therefore, we recommend researching page title keywords that generate additional traffic.
Other than that, users that utilize screen readers can also benefit from a better-structured page title. Stuffing your page title with keywords may help you rank higher, but it can also become unintelligible for screen readers.
4. Creating Sitemaps
A sitemap comes in (sitemap.xml) form and helps search engine crawlers comprehend your website better. It details all pages, images, and videos included on your website in the form of a table or list.
This feature can benefit users if your website has certain pages and content that isn’t internally linked on the main page. Aside from being helpful for site crawlers, this feature can also come in handy for users only looking for a specific page.
Overall, sitemaps improve your website’s navigability, allowing it to rank high on Google search results.
5. Improving Anchor Texts
It’s easy to opt for a simple “click here” type of anchor text, but they’re not helpful for users who use screen readers or skim through the content. Instead, describing the page the link leads to is a much better approach, garnering users’ trust and making the anchor text more accessible.
It’s also worth noting that anchor texts are more than just a means to direct your reader to another link. With the proper keyword research, you can also use anchor texts for search engine optimization.
When users utilize screen readers to navigate your website, the reader tabs through the page. Once it lands on an anchor text, it asks the user whether they want to open the link. If your anchor text is too confusing or vague, the user likely won’t open it.
6. Simplifying Web Navigation
The best way to make your website accessible and high-ranking is by simplifying the web navigation. This practice is crucial if your website has multiple pages discussing various topics or showcasing various products.
If you want your visitors to reach a particular destination on your website, you must make a clear path for them to reach it. Of course, navigability is helpful for screen readers, but it also benefits users without disabilities.
7. Enhancing Readability
Your website may have an easy-to-navigate format with the correct heading structure, detailed alt texts, and helpful sitemaps. However, there still may be one significant factor that you need to catch up on.
Keeping your website’s content concise and readable is crucial to appealing to the general audience. The American population has an average 8th-grade reading level, so you may use an online editor to ensure your content hits that mark.
It’s also worth ensuring that your content isn’t solely directed toward bots. Of course, targeting SEO with keywords and anchor texts is essential, but it’s more crucial to keep the human reader in mind.
Stuffing your content with keywords and jargon can make it hard to read and comprehend for the average user. In fact, it can even negatively influence your SEO ranking. Instead, you can opt for simpler words, left-align your content, and include lists whenever possible.
Other than that, your anchor texts must be descriptive while still being readable. Adding too many keywords and special characters don’t just make it unreadable for the user but also for site crawlers.
8. Adding Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are a helpful tool that traces the user’s path on your website, displaying it to them. As a result, they can track which pages they’ve visited on your website without having to go back every time.
Here’s an example of breadcrumb navigation that you may see on Amazon.
“Home > Camera and Camcorders > Digital Camera Accessories > Camera Lenses > DSLR Lenses.”
In this example, going back to the homepage or camera lenses page should only be the click of a button. Since each step along their navigation path is hyperlinked internally, they can open the anchored text and end up back at the page.
This feature is similar to a sitemap, except that it’s more customized to the user’s experience on your website. It’s essential to keep your breadcrumb links simple and concise, leading your users back to where they were.
9. Transcribing Videos
There’s no doubt that videos have become one of the best content marketing tactics in the modern world. While alt texts describe images on your website, transcriptions do the same for video content.
A wide range of individuals can benefit from video transcriptions on your website, including users with hearing and visual impairments or photosensitivity. Other users may be in noisy environments or have low bandwidth preventing them from watching your video.
Instead of an empty space, they can read through the transcription to understand your website with context. Besides making your website more accessible, transcriptions can also help search engines categorize and index your website with its videos.
It’s crucial to add a complete description of the video content in the transcription, including the actions that don’t include dialogue. Of course, you can also include specific keywords to improve your SEO ranking.
10. Leveraging Semantic HTML and ARIA
Semantic HTML allows you to use contextually-accurate HTML to mark your website, such as nav, header, and aside. As a result, search engines can better comprehend the content included in your website’s elements and categorically index your website.
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) are extensions of the HTML contextual coding. Using ARIA, you can represent various HTML semantic attributes on your website and expand your use of HTML elements outside of semantic HTML.
However, there’s no need to use ARIA if the native HTML attribute already targets the required behavior and semantics. Instead, you can use ARIA to help screen readers comprehend your website structure better.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that most SEO practices directly improve a website’s accessibility rating. Unfortunately, many assume that prioritizing web accessibility too much can get in the way of your SEO ranking, but that’s not the truth.
Focusing on the above-mentioned SEO practices doesn’t just lead to organic traffic but also helps comply with ADA accessibility requirements. Accessibility compliance apps like Accessibility Spark help you target both factors professionally.