Does your website follow ADA compliance? Do you know what that entails? And if so, did you realize that by following accessibility guidelines you can actually boost your site’s SEO?

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) stops businesses from discriminating. It addresses who can access a company’s premises. And that also applies to websites and mobile apps.

In 2019, Domino’s Pizza was taken to court because their website wasn’t deemed accessible. Their images wouldn’t work with a screen reader so the customer couldn’t order.

But let’s turn that negative story into a positive.

By applying some simple web accessibility techniques, you can attract and keep users with a disability. They in turn will share their positive experience which drives traffic. And then there’s the hidden benefit.

Google loves accessible websites!

ADA compliance standards naturally check Google’s SEO boxes. So we’ve gathered 3 ways to boost accessibility on your site while also producing high-level SEO.

Read on to discover how to cater to everyone and increase your SERPs rankings.

1. Alt and Title Tags

Googlebot mainly relies on text content to understand what’s on a web page. In that way, it acts the same as a screen reader.

Both prefer clear navigation and site structure. They need text content to describe visual elements on the page. And that’s especially important for images.

The HTML behind an image looks like: <img src=”egg.jpg” />

When you view this in a web browser you’ll see the picture of an egg. But Google and screen readers see nothing. They can guess what it is from the image name but what if that’s obscure?

The answer? Use alt and title attributes.

The code would look like <img src=”egg.jpg” alt=”Hard boiled egg” title=”This is a hard-boiled egg” />. The alt attribute is concise and to the point while the title fleshes it out.

2. Image Descriptions

Alt and title tags need to be added to every image. But you can go one step further.

Visit our solutions page and click on the accessibility options button at the bottom left of the screen. Scroll until you see the Image Description option then select it.

When you move your mouse over any image you’ll see the alt text as an expanded panel. The text is large enough to read so visitors with limited visibility can see it.

Tools like these are great for any user to see what’s going on. And it’s a service we offer to all our clients.

3. Video Transcripts

As the web moves to a more visual format, don’t forget that 2.3% of the population has a visual disability.

Adding closed caption functionality opens up a new way to access videos. And because it’s text-based, search engines like Google can read and rank it too.

Don’t forget to add other metadata.

Descriptive titles, main description, and keywords, all help ADA web compliance and increase SEO.

ADA Compliance at Jonesen

At Jonesen Web Design, we take ADA compliance seriously.

All of our sites are web-accessible. We ensure everything is optimized for screen readers and for Google as the two are firmly linked.

Our ADA compliance tools help visitors of all types use your website in a more productive way.

So contact us today to discuss your requirements. We’ll guide you on how to attract traffic through great SEO. And keep you fully compliant.