A must have on-line accessibility guidelines for digital entrepreneurs

Marketers develop and implement numerous strategies to expand their business reach. One critical factor that most marketers neglect, however, is internet accessibility. And that neglect results in their business being closed to a vast majority of potential customers.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility ensures that the Internet is equally accessible, usable and beneficial for all. It takes into account all possible obstacles to ensure that marketing messages are delivered to every type of audience and get the maximum benefit from the website.

As important as it may seem right now, web accessibility is often the last thing marketers think about When create a website. And then it is often swept under the carpet.

Despite the World Wide Web Consortium, commonly known as W3C, a dedicated one developed Web content accessibility guidelines To make the internet more accessible, digital inclusivity remains a rarity.

And this unfortunate reality acts not only as a barrier to accessibility, but also as a barrier to growth.

The Value of Internet Accessibility in modern marketing initiatives

The recognition and adoption of web accessibility improves customer experience, opens new doors for your business, improves marketing results, and increases sales in more ways than one.

1. Extends your market reach

15 percent the world’s population is disabled and belongs to a very valuable market segment with high purchasing power.

With a digitally integrative web presence, your company interacts with a larger number of people that it would otherwise have overlooked. In this way, web accessibility brings a whole new community of prospects with whom you can interact, attract customers, and increase your sales.

2. SEO benefits

Search engines prefer websites that are safe, accessible, and valuable to all types of users. In addition, they perceive digitally inclusive websites as an authentic source of information and favor them in rankings.

As a result, improving web accessibility inevitably adds an SEO boost to your online marketing and helps you achieve the coveted top position in the SERPs. It opens up another channel for web traffic that connects you with your target audience.

3. Improved user experience

The user experience is at the heart of your digital presence as it relates directly to conversions. The basic principle of UX optimization dictates that you research what your target audience wants and deliver it.

In the case of audiences with different skills, it is common sense that they want you to provide a website that they can interact with and benefit from.

By making your website more accessible, you increase the usability, which is a core element of the user experience.

When all other elements of the UX are optimized, the improved usability increases customer satisfaction and gives the prospect one final boost towards conversion, which will add to your sales.

4. Positive brand perception

Web accessibility enables your brand to be a strong advocate of digital inclusivity and build positive brand awareness. Isn’t that a crucial result of modern marketing?

Today, when people search for a company’s values ​​before embarking on them, a concrete stance on digital inclusion reflects their values ​​of empathy, compassion and equal opportunity for all. This will build your community of like-minded people who will then add to your sales.

Five point checklist for getting started with web accessibility

In order to achieve maximum impact, internet accessibility should be seen as a priority rather than a secondary priority and must be included in your digital and marketing strategy.

Here are a few ways you can increase your digital inclusivity and make a bigger impact:

1. Multilingual SEO

Internet accessibility is not just about removing barriers for people with permanent, temporary or situational disabilities. It removes too Language barriersso that people from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds have equal access.

Given that English is spoken by a skinny one 4.83 percent of the world’s population, multilingual SEO removes linguistic barriers and helps searchers with all linguistic backgrounds to benefit from the Internet.

Here is a guide that I created multilingual SEO to get you started.

2. Voice search

The introduction of intelligent assistants like Alexa has entered a new era Voice search Omnipresence and the associated accessibility on the Internet.

A great way for businesses looking to be more digitally inclusive, voice search gives your website the ability to interact with people who can’t search the traditional way.

Here are some best practices for optimizing voice search SEO:

• Use long-tail keywords that are specific, descriptive, and natural to the language of the users
• Delivering content that gives direct answers
• Optimize your ‘Google My Business’ account
• Create FAQ pages for voice search
• Implement a schema, which is code that you can add to your website to improve search visibility

For more depth, check out this SEO Guide to Voice Search for trends and best practices.

Example of a scheme that improves web accessibility

3. Alternative (alt) text

Alternate text helps visually impaired visitors understand what a web image represents. Image optimization thus enables web visitors to absorb the information of your website in its entirety and is linked to an improved user experience.

Tips for using alt text:

• Keep it descriptive and keyword specific. This will be shown if your page is loading slowly or if an audio description is needed
• Use for e-commerce sites structured data to give the search engine more detailed information on the color, type, size and much more of your products

If you need more details, here is one Evergreen Guide to Image Optimization.

4. Hierarchical organization or content with H-tags

The hierarchical layout forms your web content into an easy-to-read structure. A hierarchical organization is an important part of web accessibility (and SEO). A hierarchical organization can make your website usable and understandable for users with certain cognitive disabilities and people with short attention spans, thereby increasing their satisfaction and the overall UX of your websites.

look at that Instructions for optimizing meta tags.

5. Color contrast

Color contrast is the process of matching the color of foreground web elements (such as fonts) to the color of the background elements to ensure that the foreground elements that have value stand out and are easily readable by the visually impaired.

The Bureau of Internet Accessibility has identified the following: Color contrast ratio which ensures that your website is visible and readable for people with color-related visual impairments.

Conclusion

Internet accessibility is a necessity, but unfortunately it’s not in the same spotlight as other digital marketing channels that promise greater reach, better awareness, and higher revenue.

This reality can work in your favor as you take advantage of the lack of accessibility on the internet and gain a competitive advantage by adopting digital inclusivity.

Internet accessibility offers numerous marketing benefits, the most important of which may be developing positive brand perception in an era of value-driven buyers.

Inclusive marketing initiatives are commendable. However, they are only valuable if they are backed up by conscious efforts to improve your company’s digital accessibility. So if you make an effort to create internet accessibility strategies, you can lead an internet era where digital inclusivity is a priority.

Atul Jindal is a web design and marketing specialist interested in creating websites / apps that are optimized for SEO, with an emphasis on conversion optimization. He creates web experiences that lead to conversations and turn web traffic into paying customers or leads.

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