SEO accessibility ensures everyone, including people with disabilities, can use and enjoy your website. 🧑🦽
It’s not just a box to check; it’s about creating a better experience for all your visitors. When your site is easier to navigate, search engines take notice too, which can boost your rankings and bring in more traffic.
Imagine walking into a store, but the aisles are too cramped to move through. Frustrating, right? Now picture someone using a screen reader trying to browse a website that isn’t set up for them; it’s the same kind of roadblock.
If your site isn’t accessible, you’re unintentionally turning people away, and you should use On-Page Audit Tools to fix it. Plus, since Google values user experience, an accessible site can actually help your SEO.
You don’t have to be an expert to make improvements. 😌
Small changes can make a big difference. Up next, we’ll break down what SEO accessibility really means, how it affects rankings and simple ways to get started!
What Is Web Accessibility?
Web accessibility ensures that everyone, regardless of ability, can navigate and use a website. It involves designing digital spaces that accommodate diverse needs, including those with disabilities, temporary injuries, or everyday challenges like poor lighting or an unstable internet connection.
For example, someone with a vision impairment might rely on a screen reader, while a person with a broken arm may need to browse one-handed. Even someone on a noisy train who can’t play audio benefits from captions.
When a site is built with accessibility in mind, it ensures that everyone can perceive, understand, and interact with its content. ♿
Why Is Accessibility Important?
Accessibility is all about making sure everyone—regardless of ability—has equal access to places, experiences, and information, both online and offline. It’s such a big deal that it’s even part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for reducing inequalities by 2030.
From a business standpoint, accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s also a smart move. Whether you’re in SEO, web design, or development, making websites accessible should be a top priority.
An accessible website helps all users:
- Navigate easily
- Find the information they need
- Enjoy a better overall experience
However, it affects both user experience and compliance with the law.
It Greatly Affects User Experience
Accessible websites create a smoother, more inclusive user experience by ensuring everyone—regardless of ability—can easily navigate, read, and interact with content. When a site is clear, intuitive, and functional for all users, it leads to higher satisfaction, longer engagement, and stronger brand loyalty.
On the flip side, inaccessible websites frustrate users, making it harder to find information or complete tasks. A seamless experience keeps visitors coming back.
Even Google favors accessibility, rewarding sites that are easy to use. Prioritizing accessibility isn’t just good for inclusivity—it’s key to better user experience (UX) and stronger SEO.
Keep Compliance With Legal Implications
Many countries have accessibility laws requiring organizations to make digital platforms usable for everyone. Ignoring these regulations can lead to legal trouble and damage a brand’s reputation.
In the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, and inaccessible websites can be seen as a violation. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act mandates that products and services, including e-commerce sites and smartphones, work with assistive technologies. The UK Equality Act requires businesses to anticipate and accommodate disabled users’ needs.
Beyond legal compliance, accessibility improves user experience and builds trust—making it essential for both ethical and business reasons.
What Is SEO Accessibility?
SEO and accessibility go hand in hand. 🤝
While SEO helps search engines understand your content, accessibility practices, like a clear site structure and descriptive text, also make your site easier for everyone to use.
You might not hear much about accessibility when it comes to SEO, but trust us, it’s valued by search engines. Why? Accessible sites provide better user experiences, which directly impact SEO. Accessible sites engage users, reduce bounce rates, and improve your search rankings.
Google doesn’t have a specific ranking factor for accessibility, but it does care about user experience—especially with its own Google E-E-A-T principles. Websites that prioritize accessibility tend to have better engagement, which can indirectly improve SEO performance.
But here is an important point: SEO and accessibility share a common goal of enhancing user experience. Accessible websites are easier to navigate, leading to longer visits, lower bounce rates, and better SEO results.
On the other hand, if accessibility is implemented incorrectly, like overusing alt text or misplacing headings, it could hurt SEO. But, when done right, accessibility features can enhance both SEO and usability.
10 Best Practices to Make Your Website More Accessible for SEO
Here are 10 top techniques to boost both website accessibility and SEO performance, ensuring your site is user-friendly and ranks well on search engines.
1. Create Understandable Page Titles to Help Direct Users
When crafting page titles, it’s important to make them clear, descriptive, and relevant to the content they represent. A well-written page title serves several key purposes:
- It tells users what to expect from the page, helping them quickly decide if it’s relatable content.
- It provides search engines with a clear understanding of what the page is about.
- It helps screen readers describe the page as users navigate.
- It distinguishes between pages or tabs, making browsing easier when multiple pages are open.
- It helps Google match your content to a user’s search intent.
Rather than focusing on cramming in keywords, focus on creating titles that reflect user intent. This approach boosts both accessibility and SEO, ensuring that all users—regardless of how they access your site—have a better experience.
2. Improve Headings for Better Navigation
Use a clear heading structure to help both users and assistive technologies easily navigate your content.
While header tags (H1-H6) don’t directly impact Google rankings, they’re crucial for creating a well-organized page. These tags are more than just visual aids—they help screen readers and search engines quickly understand the layout and flow of your content.
In SEO, the H1 tag typically provides an overview of the page, and the H2-H6 tags break down sections further. To improve accessibility, make sure to:
- Use only one H1 per page.
- Ensure all headings are relevant to the content below them.
- Don’t use headings without content beneath them.
3. Enhance Crawlability for Search Engines
Create XML sitemaps to help search engines easily crawl and index your site. Just like how H1 tags organize your content for search engine crawlers, they also help assistive technologies navigate and locate key sections on a page.
The H1 tag serves as the main summary of your page, while other header tags break down the structure.
Sitemaps aren’t just for search engines—they make it easier for users to find content, especially if the site has complex navigation.
By offering clear access to all important pages, they enhance both SEO and accessibility, creating SEO-friendly blogs and pages. This helps search engines discover links to pages that might not be linked elsewhere on the site.
4. Use Meaningful Anchor Text for Links
Make sure anchor text clearly describes the linked content to help both screen readers and search engines.
Descriptive anchor text gives users an idea of what the linked page is about, so they can decide whether to click. Screen readers will announce the link and the anchor text, guiding users to what they can expect.
For search engine crawlers, using keyword-rich anchor text helps them understand the linked page’s topic, improving both SEO and accessibility. Avoid generic phrases like “click here.” Instead, make the text specific and relevant to the linked content, and use link building tools to make your life easier.
This applies to both internal and external links—whether linking within your own site or to an external page, always ensure your anchor text is informative and aligns with the destination content.
5. Make Navigation Clear With Breadcrumbs
Use breadcrumb navigation to help users track their path on your site and understand its structure. Breadcrumbs show where they are within the site and allow them to easily return to previous pages.
They are particularly useful for larger websites with complex navigation, making it easier for both users and search engines to find their way around.
For accessibility, it’s important to keep breadcrumbs in a consistent location on all pages and ensure the links are descriptive enough for screen readers. This helps users navigate smoothly, whether they’re using assistive technologies or simply browsing the site.
To apply these fixes, you’ll need to choose the best technical SEO tools you can find.
Breadcrumbs also help search engine crawlers understand the site structure, improving internal linking and overall SEO. Just like anchor text in internal links, make sure breadcrumb links are clear and meaningful to support both accessibility and SEO.
6. Use Alt Text to Refine Image Descriptions
Alt text is essential for making images accessible to users with visual impairments and also plays a key role in SEO. It provides a description of an image that screen readers can read aloud, helping those who can’t see the image understand its content.
For both accessibility and SEO, alt text needs to be clear, relevant, and free from keyword stuffing. Overloading alt text with keywords won’t help anymore—search engines can now detect it, and they prefer natural, accurate descriptions.
Plus, with advances in computer vision, search engines can now analyze images directly and generate their own alt text if needed.
Alt text also helps search engines understand an image’s context, boosting its visibility in image searches. It’s especially useful when there’s a slow internet connection, as the text will display if the image doesn’t load. So, when adding alt text, make sure it’s descriptive, helpful, and supports both your users and SEO.
7. Use Menus to Simplify Navigation
Make your website’s navigation clear and intuitive so users can easily find what they need.
Good navigation isn’t just about looks—it helps both visitors and search engines understand your site’s structure. Menus should highlight the most important pages, not every single link on your site. Overloading a menu with too many links can confuse users and make it harder for search engines to determine your site’s hierarchy.
Navigation menus should also be keyboard-friendly so users can tab through them, and screen readers can read them properly. By keeping menus focused on essential pages, you create a smoother experience for everyone.
8. Use Readable Text to Improve Accessibility
Make your content easy to read for all users, including those with cognitive disabilities or those reading in a second language. You can increase your content’s readability with content optimizer tools.
Simple, clear language improves comprehension and engagement. Avoid jargon or overly complex words, use lists where they make sense, and always left-align text for easier scanning. Proper font choices and high-contrast colors also improve readability, especially for users with visual impairments.
Even URLs should be readable. Use dashes to separate words and keep them clear and descriptive. A well-structured URL helps both users and search engines understand what to expect from a page.
9. Make Interactive Elements Easy to Use
Ensure that buttons, drop-downs, and other interactive elements are accessible with a keyboard and readable by screen readers.
Since Googlebot and screen readers can’t physically click buttons or hover over content, avoid making interactions necessary just to access key information. If you’re using drop-downs or accordions, make sure the content is still in the source code so it can be read without requiring a user action.
Also, don’t rely on hover effects to reveal important text—unless that text is already in the source code. And remember, stuffing hidden content with keywords won’t help; make sure everything you include is relevant and useful.
10. Use Transcripts and Captions to Make Videos Accessible
Adding transcripts and captions to your videos isn’t just about compliance—it makes content more accessible for everyone. People who are deaf or hard of hearing rely on captions to follow along, and transcripts help those who prefer to read or need a quick reference.
Plus, search engines can’t “watch” videos, but they can read text. Providing captions and transcripts helps search engines understand your content, making your videos more likely to rank in search results. It’s a win-win—better accessibility and better visibility.
What Does an Accessible Website Looks Like?
An accessible website isn’t just a set of technical checkboxes—it’s a design that works for everyone. Following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ensures your site is usable by people with disabilities, making it more inclusive and user-friendly.
Beyond the basics, here’s what a truly accessible website includes:
- Clear and Consistent Layout: A well-organized design with intuitive navigation, clear headings, and a logical structure makes it easier for all users to find their way around.
- Keyboard-Friendly Navigation: Not everyone uses a mouse. An accessible site allows users to navigate entirely by keyboard, making interactive elements, menus, and forms fully functional without a cursor.
- Forms That Work for Everyone: Forms should have clear labels, helpful error messages, and accessible input fields so assistive technologies can guide users through them effectively.
- Well-Structured Tables: If your site uses tables, they should be properly labeled with headers and summaries so screen readers can interpret their structure correctly.
This is just a glimpse of what makes a website accessible. By designing with inclusivity in mind and regularly testing for accessibility, you’re creating a better experience for everyone, because the web should be open to all.
How to Test Your Website’s Accessibility
Making your website accessible is just the first step—regular testing ensures it stays that way. Thankfully, there are several tools to help you identify and fix accessibility issues. Here are a few of the best:
- WAVE Evaluation Tool: A popular tool that scans your web pages and flags issues like missing alt text, poor heading structures, and low contrast. It also provides clear guidance on how to fix them.
- Siteimprove Accessibility Checker: This tool analyzes web pages in real-time, checking for issues like inaccessible forms and missing alternative text. It also monitors WCAG compliance, helping you keep accessibility in check over time.
- Google Lighthouse: A free, built-in tool in Chrome’s DevTools that audits your site’s accessibility alongside performance and SEO. It provides actionable recommendations to ensure your website works well across different devices and platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Accessibility and SEO might seem like separate topics, but they go hand in hand. If your website is accessible, it’s also easier for search engines to crawl and understand. Here’s how accessibility affects SEO and why it matters.
Does Accessibility Impact SEO?
Yes! While accessibility itself isn’t a direct ranking factor, it helps search engines interpret and index your content more effectively. Features like clear navigation, proper headings, and alt text for images improve both user experience and search visibility.
Why Does an Accessible Website Matter for SEO?
A well-structured, accessible website benefits everyone—including search engines and users with disabilities. If your site is easy to navigate, loads correctly on all devices, and presents information clearly, both humans and bots can interact with it more efficiently.
How Can You Check Your Website’s Accessibility?
Improving accessibility doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are a few things to evaluate:
- Color contrast: Ensure the text is easy to read against its background.
- Keyboard navigation: Users should be able to navigate your site without a mouse.
- Video captions and transcripts: Make multimedia content accessible to all users.
- Alt text for images: Describe images so screen readers (and search engines) can understand them.
- Zoom functionality: Content should remain functional when users zoom in.
Why Does Accessibility Help Search Engine Crawlers?
An accessible site isn’t just helpful for users—it also benefits search engines. When your site is easy to navigate and interpret, Google can better index your content. This improves usability, reduces bounce rates, and indirectly boosts rankings.
If a website is difficult to use, visitors are more likely to leave, which can hurt your search performance. But a smooth, user-friendly experience encourages engagement and keeps people on your site longer.
What Does ADA Website Compliance Mean?
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance means your website meets accessibility standards. This includes clear navigation, proper contrast, alt text for images, and keyboard-friendly design. Not only does this make your site more inclusive, but it can also enhance your SEO efforts.
Is Accessibility a Ranking Factor in SEO?
Not directly, but it plays a huge role in search visibility. Search engines prioritize user experience, and an accessible site ensures that more users, including those with disabilities, can interact with your content.
Boost Your Website’s SEO Accessibility with Search Atlas
By making your site accessible, you’re also making it more search-friendly. 🔍
Ignoring SEO accessibility means missing out on a better experience for all users, including those with disabilities, and making your site harder for search engines to crawl. A more accessible website benefits everyone, improving usability, engagement, and even rankings.
With Search Atlas, you get all the tools needed to optimize accessibility, plus OTTO, our AI agent that seamlessly implements changes for you.
Make your website more accessible today, start your free trial now!
