Icons showing the interconnectedness of SEO and accessibility using gears

How Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Can Lead to Better Website Accessibility

Having a website is essential but it's not enough to just have a good website, it needs to be easy to find and navigate. This is where Seach Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. SEO helps websites rank higher in search engine results, making them more visible to users. But did you know that good SEO practices can also improve website accessibility? The two concepts are interconnected in many ways.

Author: Phoebe Simon

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing a website so that it ranks higher in search engine results like Google. When someone searches for information online, search engines display a list of websites that are most relevant to the search query. The goal of SEO is to ensure that your website appears at the top of this list. Making your  website user-friendly and accessible increases engagement, allowing more people to access critical information and state services. For state agencies, this is essential to effectively serving the public, fostering inclusivity, and meeting legal accessibility standards.

What is Accessibility? 

Website accessibility means making sure that everyone, including people needing extra assistance, can use a website easily. This can include individusal who are blind, deaf, or need some assistance in order to interact with onling content. Ensuring a website is accessibile means that it can be navigated by a wider audience. This is not just a good idea; it is a legal requirement for state agencies. 

The Connection Between SEO and Accessibility

Many of the practices that improve SEO also enhance webite accessibility. Here are a few ways they work together: 

  1. Clear and Descriptive Titles: Good SEO requires using clear and descriptive titles for web pages. This helps search engines understand the content. Similarly, accessible websites use descriptive titles to help users, especially those using screen readers, know what to expect on a page. Each page has to have its own unique title.
  2. Alt Text for Images: SEO benefits from using alt text for images, which describes the content of the image. This helps search engines index the image properly. For accessibility, alt text allows visually impaired users to understand the content of images on the site. This simple practice improves both SEO and accessibility.
  3. Easy Navigation: A well-structured website is vital for good SEO. When users can find what they need quickly, they are nore ikely to stay on the site. This is also crucial for accessibility, as clear navigation helps everyone find information without frustration including those needing tab-able tools to explore.
  4. Link Anchor Text: Link anchor text describes the linked page content and helps users decide if they want to click the link to visit the page. Both screen readers and search enging crawlers use anchor text to undertand the designation page's context. Targeted URL topics and keyword-rich anchor text help web crawlers understand the content better. As the sentence cotaining the text helps for SEO and accessibility, the anchor text must not be a generic 'click here' message. It should be concise and relevant to the linked page. Keep in mind too that some screen readers can be programmed to only read links.
  5. Links Need Predictable Behavior: Clearly lable buttons and links as PDFs, external links, automatic downloads, etc. Buttons inherently imply a user is taking an action. External links need an indicator so visitors know they are leaving. Files need to be identified, so visitors know a download will begin.

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