Building A Business Case For
Investing In SEO & Accessibility
Over the last few years, we have been working with more non-profits. What is great about working with the nonprofit industry is that they are already interested in making sure their websites are developed with accessibility in mind. Optimizing for accessibility is about doing the right thing, but there are some incredible SEO benefits that come when you improve your business website’s accessibility.
Website
Accessibility Checklist
If you are working with a web development firm, make it a point to have these website accessibility basics checked off:
- Keyboard- accessible drop-down menu.
- Have a strong contrast between your text and background.
- Have scaleable text (text that can easily be re-sized).
- Take the time to write unique image alt text.
- Make your menu navigation friendly for screen readers.
- Implement “skip navigation” function for screen readers.
- Make your password requirements friendly for screen readers.
- Take the toime to make sure actions are screen reader friendly.
- Make sure your PDF content can be read in HTML format.
- Clearly mark up your business phone number and items such as company location and hours.
- Keep the writing at around an 8th-grade reading level.
- If there are videos on your website, make sure they include subtitles/closed captions.
- Use large, easily clickable buttons.
Building A Case For
Investing In SEO And Accessibility
The benefits of website accessibility go beyond ADA compliance.
It starts with increasing your client base. People with disabilities are an underserved market that can open up opportunities for your business. This market expands even more when you think of the people who are undergoing situational or temporary disabilities.
While making your business website accessible, you end up with a site that will be easier to crawl by search engines. This is particularly true when it comes to images.
Another benefit is that ALL users will benefit if your site provides simple, top-down navigation and use text that is more easily readable.
Closed captions on videos make it so that not only people who are deaf, have hearing impairments, or have learning disabilities can understand your content; they also allow people to watch your videos without needing sound.