Web accessibility equates to a strong SEO foundation.
Web accessibility is an essential aspect of creating a strong SEO foundation. It’s not only crucial for disabled users but also for creating a better user experience for every type of user. This is the case, as search engines give higher rankings to websites that are accessible and provide a better user experience.
For instance, about 15% of people have a disability that could affect how they interact with the internet.
To build a strong SEO foundation, you need to adhere to the standards of web accessibility. Why?
These standards will improve your website’s usability, increase SEO, enhance user experience, and optimize content for search engines. Hence, the power of the web is in its universality.
This article will discuss how to use web access to create a strong SEO foundation. We’ll start by understanding web accessibility and the different practices you should consider when developing a website accessible to all users.
What is web accessibility?
Web accessibility involves designing websites and web content accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. It entails making websites easy to navigate, use, and understand, regardless of the user’s ability or disability.
What are the four principles of accessibility?
Accessibility is vital to a website, app, or other digital product. It ensures that people with disabilities and special needs can use your product.
At its core, accessibility is about making sure your product is usable by everyone, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities. It means that you must consider the needs of people with disabilities and people with different levels of literacy, language, and culture. Fortunately, there are some basic principles of accessibility that you can follow to make sure everyone can use your product.
- The first principle is the Perceivable principle. This principle states that all content and functionality must be perceivable by everyone. For example, if your product includes images, they must be accompanied by alternative text so that visually impaired people can still access the information.
- The second principle is the Operable Principle. It states that all content and functionality must be operable by everyone. Operable principle suggests all your product’s features must be accessible, including buttons, links, and forms. It’s how efficient and intuitive the design is when operating the interface, from how fast the user can navigate through the interface, how quickly they can locate the information they need, to how easy it is to submit data back to the system.
- The third principle is the Understandable principle. It explains that all content and functionality must be understandable by everyone. Thus, you must consider your users’ different levels of literacy and language.
- The fourth principle is the Robust principle. The principle implies that all content and functionality must be robust enough to work with a variety of technologies. For example, your product must work with various web browsers, operating systems, and assistive technologies. This shows how well the system will handle requests and data from the user. It covers the speed of the system and its ability to handle different types of input.
How web accessibility contributes to SEO?
Web accessibility is not only crucial for creating an inclusive web experience. It is also essential for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Good SEO means higher visibility in search engines, resulting in more website traffic and, ultimately, more conversions.
Here are some key ways in which web accessibility contributes to SEO:
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Better user experience
A website accessible to all users will offer a better user experience. This is because users with disabilities can access and interact with the content on the website. This will result in higher visitor satisfaction and engagement, which search engines will reward.
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Improved indexing
Search engines use bots to crawl websites and index their content. Accessible websites tend to be better indexed by search engine bots, as they are more accessible for the bots to navigate and interpret.
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Increased rankings
Websites that are more accessible tend to have higher rankings in SERPs– search engine algorithms are designed to reward websites that provide the best user experience.
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Reduced bounce rate
Websites with accessible designs tend to have lower bounce rates. This is because users with disabilities can access and interact with the content on the website.
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Increased conversions
Websites that are accessible to all users tend to have higher conversion rates. For instance, users with disabilities are likely to stay on the website and take actions that lead to conversions.
What are the best practices for creating an accessible website
Here are some best practices for creating an accessible website:
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Create an effective UX strategy
About 88% of online consumers will not return to a site after a bad experience.
Creating an effective UX strategy is essential to creating a successful product. UX stands for User Experience, which is how users interact with a product.
To create an accessible website, you need to learn how to create an effective UX strategy to ensure customers have a good user experience with the product. Your UX strategy will lead to a boost or decline in customer satisfaction.
An effective UX strategy should be comprehensive and consider the product’s overall design and usability. This should include user research to understand the user’s needs and wants, designing with the user in mind, testing to ensure the product meets user needs, and continuous improvement.
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Transcribe audio to text with an mp3 transcription software
Transcribing your audio recordings enhances the user experience on your website, which is one of the key advantages. If your website contains a lot of audio content, transcribing it ensures that all visitors, particularly those who are deaf or hard of hearing, fully access it. Utilize text transcription software for a straightforward transcription process. With just a few steps, you will convert audio content into text for improved website or app accessibility.
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Design a Responsive Website
Responsive design is an approach to web development that creates a website that can adjust its layout and content to the size and capabilities of the device. This allows the website to look great regardless of the device used to access it. Responsive websites are straightforward for users to navigate and also help increase organic traffic. When it comes to SEO, having a responsive website is essential. Responsive websites make content easier to crawl, index, and rank. They also provide a better user experience, encouraging visitors to stay on a website longer. This helps to improve search engine rankings. Creating a responsive website involves several steps.
- First, you must choose a website platform that is designed to be responsive. This ensures that the website is easily adaptable to different screen sizes.
- Then, you need to create a website layout for mobile devices. It includes confirming that content is visible and easy to read on mobile devices.
- Lastly, you must test the website to ensure it looks great and operates smoothly on different devices. When creating a website, confirming the content is optimized for SEO is vital. This includes optimizing titles, meta descriptions, and headings. Additionally, always have relevant keywords within the content so that search engines can easily find your website.
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Use high-contrast colors
Using high-contrast colors will help ensure that your website is accessible to users with visual impairments. High-contrast colors make the text easier to read on any device, regardless of the user’s visual ability. They also help make certain elements, like images and buttons, stand out more and create a more visually appealing overall design. In addition, using high-contrast colors makes your website more SEO-friendly by making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.
When choosing colors for your website, there are a few factors to consider. First, you want to ensure there’s enough contrast between each color so that text and images are visible and don’t blend and become hard to read. Next, you’ll want to consider the colors of your website and how they work together. Using colors that are too similar will cause visual distractions and make it tough for users to understand the purpose of each element on the page.
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Provide Alt Text for Images
Alt text is an alternative text that describes an image. Search engine crawlers use them while indexing your website. Providing alt text helps search engines better understand the image and how it relates to the content. Plus, it enables you to create a firm SEO footing. Alt text isn’t just great for SEO but is also an essential part of web accessibility. It provides additional information for users with an impairment or disability who are using assistive technology. For example, if a visually impaired user is using a screen reader, the alt text will be read aloud to them so that they will understand what the image represents. When creating alt text for images, it’s crucial to be creative and informative. Let’s say you have an image of a cup of coffee, instead of using the alt text “coffee,” you could use something more descriptive, such as “a steaming hot cup of freshly brewed coffee.” This will likely provide the user with a better understanding of the image and can also help improve your SEO.
Driving the point home
Create a website that is accessible to everyone, regardless of their level of ability. Web accessibility is essential for creating an inclusive web experience, as well as for SEO. You improve user experience, indexing, rankings, bounce rate, and conversions by ensuring your website is accessible to all users.
