Web accessibility is about ensuring that a website can be visited and used successfully by as many people as possible, taking into account their limitations or those arising from their environment.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), or organic search ranking, is the set of techniques used to improve a website’s visibility in search engines.
The two concepts have much more in common than you might think at first, as web accessibility techniques and SEO best practices overlap in many cases.
Improving our website’s SEO improves its accessibility, and vice versa
Where SEO and accessibility meet:
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- Page titles: every page should have a title describing its topic. It must clearly identify the page’s content and be short and unique for each page on the site. From an accessibility perspective, page titles benefit all users by letting them identify pages quickly and easily; for SEO, the title tells search engines what the page is about and is a very important indexing factor.
- Headings and semantic markup: this refers to using structural, hierarchical and semantic markup for each piece of content with HTML tags: h1..h6 for headings, with h1 the most important down to h6; p for paragraphs; ol, ul, dl for lists; em and strong to highlight parts of the text with emphasis and bold, etc. Headings should identify the content section they introduce clearly and concisely. This makes it easier for users to find information and understand how different parts of the content relate (accessibility). Proper use of headings and semantic markup makes the content structure and the relevance of each element clear. This helps the page be interpreted and indexed correctly. Moreover, Google considers not only how often words appear but their relevance, which is greater depending on where they are and the hierarchical weight given to them (SEO).
- Content readability: this is about adjusting the text’s reading level and legibility for all users. The key is to write easy-to-read text with short sentences, a simple structure and everyday language. This approach is good for accessibility because it benefits all users: people with learning difficulties, lower education levels or language disabilities will find it easier to understand. For SEO, this kind of text is easy to index, and its content will closely match the search terms users actually use.
- Text alternatives for images, video or audio: images should have alternative text (the “alt” attribute in HTML) that conveys the same information as the image; for video or audio, additional alternatives apply, such as subtitles, transcripts or audio descriptions. For accessibility, text alternatives let people with visual impairments access the information on screen, in braille or via a screen reader. Deaf people can also read the text alternative to audio content. From an SEO perspective, search engines can interpret and classify non-text content (images, video, audio, etc.). This information is indexed and shown in image or video searches.
- Link structure: a good link structure, with a title and anchor text describing the destination page, is essential for users to understand the link’s purpose and decide whether to follow it. It benefits people with cognitive disabilities or who use screen readers, as they can scan links and skip those that don’t interest them. It’s also essential that search engine crawlers can follow a site’s links. Keep in mind that link text (anchor text) matters because it labels the destination content. The clearer the link text or its additional information, the better Google will understand the linked page’s topic and index it for the keywords that define it.
- Sitemap and navigability: this means offering more than one way to find a page within the site, using links to related pages or a sitemap. It benefits people with poor eyesight or attention difficulties. On the SEO side, it makes crawling easier and paves the way for every page on the site to be indexed. Breadcrumbs are also a good way to provide full access.
Thanks to what these two disciplines share, we can say that an SEO-focused website will significantly improve accessibility and, of course, an accessible website improves SEO.
