Creating content that is optimized for SEO and accessible to all readers can be a difficult balancing act. To ensure your content reaches the widest audience possible, it’s important to understand the best practices for creating accessible SEO content. In this blog post, we’ll provide you with three key tips for making your SEO content more accessible to all readers. With these tips, you’ll be able to reach a larger, more diverse audience and maximize the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
1) Use Headings and Subheadings
Headings are an essential part of content creation and SEO marketing. Not only do they provide the basis for search engine indexing and optimized results, but they also make digital content easier to skim for readers. This is especially beneficial for those who may have difficulties accessing digital content due to disability access needs, such as people with visual impairments or neurodivergence.
Using headings, titles, and subheadings break up your content into smaller chunks, which makes it easier to understand for readers. Additionally, using appropriate headings helps the structure of your content, making it more organized and easier to navigate. This can be especially helpful for readers who rely on screen-reading software since these services scan the page for headings and divide the text into sections.
By taking the time to properly implement headings and subheadings, you can ensure that your content is both SEO-friendly and accessible to all.
2) Optimize Your Images
When creating content for your website, optimizing your images is an important step to improve your search engine optimization (SEO). Not only does optimizing images help index on search engines, but it also allows for images to be described when using accessibility devices and tools.
Using tags in your images helps search engines list them accordingly. This is especially important when creating content that is centered around equity and minority access. Optimizing your images with tags can help push your site to the top of the search results, enabling your BIPOC and minority community’s message to be heard. This is even more important if you have a website or product that caters to people with disabilities. Optimizing images can ensure that those with disabilities have access to the same content as everyone else.
3) Use Simple Language
Creating accessible digital content is critical for equitable access for everyone. While SEO and content creation can be complex topics, breaking them down into simple language makes them more digestible and opens them up to a broader audience.
Using simple language in your digital content ensures that people with disabilities and those of different educational backgrounds understand the message you are trying to communicate. This can be especially important for BIPOC populations, which may be navigating a language that is not their primary idiom.
Making content accessible doesn’t just benefit minority groups—it benefits everyone. Simplifying language helps everyone to take away the same information, regardless of their language proficiency or ability level.
When creating digital content, make sure to use language that is easy to understand, and avoid jargon and technical terms that can be intimidating or confusing unless that jargon is matched with digestible definitions. This way, you can create content that meets the needs of all readers and promotes digital accessibility.