SEO and accessibility – tips & tricks for your content

When you create content for your website, do you pay attention to accessibility? Search engine marketing (Search Engine Advertising/SEA) and – optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) should not be used for its own sake. Ultimately, you want to make your message available to people with a wide range of abilities – not just search engines.

In this blog post, we'll show you how to ensure barrier-free access to your website. This way, both bots and people with and without disabilities can access your website's content.

How do you achieve search engine optimization AND accessibility?

Perhaps you're already familiar with the basic requirements for a high ranking in search engine results. This starts with providing access for web crawlers to index your website content. The content itself, of course, must be compelling and answer all your visitors' questions. Perfectly implemented keywords They attract both searchers and search engines alike. User-friendliness, further links, and interesting quotes, etc., ensure a great visitor experience.

Good accessibility makes your website even more competitive. It provides web crawlers with easy access to your site. Likewise, you should also ensure basic accessibility for people. Your goal when creating content should therefore be to create appropriate access for both search engines and visitors. And we're talking about people with very different abilities and capabilities. Let's take a closer look at this topic.

They make certain assumptions about their visitors.

Let's say you're a hairdresser. Your shop is conveniently located in the city center. You've displayed a list of your services and prices in the window, clearly visible and at eye level. Anyone passing by can easily see what you offer and how much a new hairstyle will cost. They don't need to Google you or search for your Facebook page; all the information they need is readily available. Then they can decide whether or not to enter your salon.

The problem is that this only allows you to make assumptions about your ideal audience You've made some assumptions. In this case, you're assuming your potential customers are of average height. But are all visitors actually tall enough to see the price list displayed in the window? And what about rainy days, for example? Is the view of the price list still good enough for everyone to read the numbers? Do people even understand what you mean by the different hairdressing services if there are no explanatory photos on the list? Therefore, you've probably not considered all potential customers in your assumptions.

Let's assume a potential customer is not of average height. What does that mean for this person? It's likely impossible for them to read the price list. Other visitors might have a visual impairment or be blind. In that case, can you provide the information digitally or in a Braille-compatible format? And does everyone even understand your technical language? Could you improve their understanding by adding images or graphics? The easier you make it for visitors to understand your content, the more likely they are to visit your business. And the more likely they are to use your services and generate revenue.

Let's do some math.

According to the Federal Office for statistics In Switzerland, there are approximately 1,7 million people with disabilities. With a total population of 8,5 million, that's about one in five. On average, out of every 100 people looking for a hairdresser, 20 have a disability. However, you might be depriving these 20 people of the pleasure of having a fantastic hairstyle created by you. This is because these individuals don't receive the necessary information, as they cannot see the contents of your price list.

Let's take an average price of CHF 60 per person as an example. That would be CHF 1.200 that you're essentially throwing away – weekly, or even daily, depending on the size of your salon. It's something to think about, isn't it? It's not just about denying certain people adequate access. Your business is also foregoing a significant amount of revenue, namely 20 percent. Now you might be thinking, "Okay, but I'm not a hairdresser. I want people to buy my product or book my services."

Agreed. But you can do the same calculation for yourself. It's about the principle. Do you have a website, post blogs, send emails?Newsletter Or do you create podcasts? Then ask yourself if, as a job seeker, you could work for *** at this company. Replace the first three asterisks with words like dyslexia, hearing impairment, color blindness, ADHD, or Down syndrome. Replace the next three asterisks with what you want potential customers to do at your company.

Interesting exercise, isn't it? Could you buy the product under these circumstances? Would you be able to read the wonderful newsletter? Could you enjoy the exciting podcast? If the answer to even one of these questions is "no," you have a problem—one that significantly reduces your potential revenue. So there's still some work to be done.

Are there any principles for accessibility on the internet?

Yes, absolutely. We're talking about the WCAG extension Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are guidelines for the accessibility of web content. These guidelines aim to ensure that people with varying abilities can access content on the web. By considering these guidelines when creating websites, you'll find that you simultaneously make your pages accessible to search engines with diverse abilities. Your content will reach your target audience more effectively, you'll exclude fewer members of your target audience, and you'll improve your search engine optimization (SEO). The WCAG follow these four principles:

• perceptible
• operable
• understandable
• robust

Web content should be perceptible.

What do we mean by that? Well, your visitors don't want to be confronted with a pure block of text. Therefore, enrich your website with images, graphics, videos, and audio files. To make the content accessible to as many visitors as possible, use these rich media elements in addition to your text. Add explanatory captions to images and graphics. Provide video transcripts, also as audio files. Furthermore, consider whether you want to integrate subtitles or even a sign language interpreter into your video.

Web content should be usable.

Make it easy for your visitors to navigate your website. Content must be easy to find. Users should be able to see where they are and where a link will take them. "Click here" and "More" aren't very informative link labels. Use anchor text that tells your visitors where they're going. Search engines also like to see where we're directing them. Ensure that searchers can interact with your website content without time constraints. Give them enough time to engage with the information on the page.

Web content should be easy to understand.

You understand what you write yourself, of course. But does that also apply to your customers? Can website visitors enjoy the text, or do they constantly stumble over incomprehensible terms and strange phrasing? Don't make the mistake of... SEO And to use keyword stuffing for SEA. Because then you'll scare away customers with too much... Search Engine optimization Your visitors. Use simple, clear language that everyone understands and that includes the right and important keywords. But not in excess.

Web content should be robust

The robustness we're referring to here relates, for example, to responsive design. In other words, is your website also suitable for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets? Is your content compatible with different technologies, including assistive technologies? Keep all of these things in mind when creating web content. Visitors shouldn't need a magnifying glass or a PhD to read what you've written. Make sure that people with a wide range of abilities can easily access your website.

So how does accessibility work with SEO & SEA?

Try this little experiment: Close your eyes and have someone else read the entire content of your website aloud to you. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer and ask yourself: "Is this just for search engine optimization, or is the information structured in a way that I'd actually want to engage with?" We have a few more helpful tips and tricks for you:

1. Write informative, unambiguous page titles.Clear and unambiguous page titles are essential not only for search engines, but also for humans and assistive technologies.
2. Use H tags correctly in headingsConsider people who use assistive technologies or who are trying to understand parent and child text relationships on a page. If H1, H2, H3, etc. are not correctly placed, it becomes much more difficult to recognize these connections.
3. Include links for your website visitors.Always ask yourself whether a particular link primarily serves search engine optimization or whether it truly benefits your customers. Ideally, you should address both equally.
4. Use alternatives to plain text.We fully expect you to use rich media on your website. However, remember from the outset to also integrate image captions, transcripts, subtitles, and sign language interpretation.
5. Describe your products and services precisely.Keywords and synonyms help you attract the attention of search engines. But be honest and ethical in your descriptions. Ultimately, this will lead to better SEO results.
6. Give your visitors clear instructions.Don't make it difficult for people to understand what you want from them. Use clear, understandable language.
7. Write content that you yourself would want to read.There's really nothing more to add.

Professional support from the MIK Group

The best form of SEO/SEA is invisible to the searcher. With the right approach, you help both people and bots equally – not just one or the other. Therefore, follow web accessibility guidelines and make your website content accessible to everyone. The greatest compliment you can give yourself is when you can say: "My website is perceptible, usable, understandable, and robust. And at the same time, it's optimized for search engines."

Have you resolved to follow our tips? But you're not quite sure where to start? Then here's our best recommendation of the day: Benefit from our tried and tested, qualified... SEO adviceWith expert support, we'll guide you on your journey to a professional website – an experience for people with diverse skill sets. Simply get in touch with us. We look forward to your call!