In the relentless pursuit of elevating clients’ marketing performance, digital agencies are diligently exploring innovative strategies. While typical approaches focus on SEO enhancements, increased click rates, and reduced bounce rates, an often-overlooked avenue holds significant potential for bolstering conversion rates.
Hidden within the fabric of your digital landscape lies an untapped treasure trove—web accessibility. This powerful component, often omitted from competitors’ strategies, can instantly confer a competitive edge when incorporated into your digital arsenal.
But what exactly is web accessibility, and how does it impact marketing strategy?
Web accessibility involves making websites comprehensible, navigable, readable, and crawlable for all users. Its transformative effects include significantly expanding a client site’s reach, ensuring inclusivity for the 1.3 billion people living with disabilities. By tailoring the web experience to individual needs, especially for those with disabilities, agencies can cultivate a faster, cleaner experience for all users and optimize on-site link structures.
These improvements in site accessibility parallel key elements of SEO and Core Web Vitals, contributing to enhanced ranking signals. Thus, web accessibility emerges as a game-changer not only for fostering digital equality but also for driving tangible marketing results.
Here are four steps to leverage web accessibility for optimizing website performance:
Step 1: Add Alt Text for Improved Search Visibility
Search engines favor accessible websites, with properly labeled images enhancing both accessibility and image searchability. Alt text is crucial for conveying information within images to users of assistive technology. Writing impactful alt text involves understanding image types, such as informative, decorative, functional, or complex, and tailoring descriptions accordingly. Automated tools, like UserWay’s Image Alt tool, can streamline this process, ensuring concise, high-quality alt text.
Step 2: Create a Clear Header Structure
Clear heading structures, aligned in the proper order, benefit both screen readers and search engine bots. A strategic approach to keywords and headers can improve long-term performance on search engine results pages (SERPs) while aiding users in finding relevant content. Balancing SEO considerations with accessibility, agencies should place main and secondary keywords thoughtfully, ensuring headers are structured sequentially.
Step 3: Strengthen UI/UX
User-friendly websites, especially for those with disabilities, directly influence the user experience, a critical factor in website rankings. Employing certified testers, conducting recurring manual testing, and utilizing automated tools contribute to maintaining high standards of usability. Digital accessibility platforms like UserWay combine automated scanning with in-depth audits by certified professionals, offering a comprehensive solution.
Step 4: Naturally Improve Conversions
Solid conversion rates serve as the ultimate measure of a campaign’s effectiveness. A case study featuring Natural Intelligence illustrates how integrating web accessibility into client websites can lead to substantial improvements in click rates, reduced bounce rates, and increased earnings per click and visitor. The tangible connection between web accessibility and higher conversion rates underscores its consequential impact on user engagement and credibility.
In conclusion, when devising strategies for boosting conversions and revenue, agencies must ask a crucial question: Is web accessibility an integral part of their digital strategy? The evidence suggests that it should be, given its potential to unlock hidden performance improvements and provide a competitive edge in the digital landscape.
Do you need a partner to improve your website accessibility? Look no further, contact us today.
