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Web accessibility refers to making the websites usable by people with disabilities. The web pages should be made accessible to all sorts of people despite their abilities, education, or technical knowledge. This is a growing trend in the web development world as about 15% of the global population is people with disabilities. Along with catering to this considerable category of the market segment, accessibility will also help to boost Your search engine visibility and improve organic search ranking if done well.
Background of web accessibility – AccessiBe
The Civil Rights Act of the 1970s and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 had made accessibility of the public accommodation entities mandatory in the United States. There are similar laws existing in different countries to ensure that public places are accessible to people with disabilities. AccessiBe also points out that even though it is not sure how the websites are being covered under the ADA rule, there are many lawsuits you can refer to, which suggest the need for websites to be considered as places of public accommodation needed to be accessible.
SEO benefits of accessibility
User experience or UX is considered a major ranking factor and various other on-page elements. Google has specified that the websites which give a better user experience will naturally be more visible on the search engines than the websites with a poorly accessible UX. Google talks about quality content and accessibility in 160-page documentation released by them recently. Google also clearly noted that there the major search ranking aspects are the quality content, compatibility for mobile devices, site loading speed, internal link structure, etc.
There are many factors of accessibility that help to boost search engine performance. For example, when done correctly, the title tags will make it easier for people using screen readers to comprehend the difference between various pages. Title tags are critical in terms of SEO and act as the primary area where the content should match the user’s intention. Title tags determine the display title on the search result pages and reflect the exact page content.
Header structures/hierarchy the header tags
The hierarchical structure for the website headers also plays a crucial role in search engine optimization. There are different levels of header tags ranging from H1 to H6. A good header structure will follow the logical sequence and not keep any skipped sections. A proper header tag will also describe the content underneath it. Proper header structure has many accessibility benefits for the users relying on the screen readers. In terms of search engine ranking, the content which matches user intention is a critical element, and in ranking the page on top of the SERPs.
For those who are confused about ensuring website accessibility, AccessiBe is a good place to avail many tools and techniques for ensuring web accessibility. Header structure was one classic example of the linkage between ensuring accessibility to search engine optimization. Similarly, other elements like alt text for the multimedia content, proper usage of keywords, etc., will also help accessibility and SEO.
