ADA compliance and SEO may seem like separate concepts, but they share more common ground than most business owners realize. ADA compliance ensures that your website is accessible to people with disabilities, while SEO focuses on optimizing your site so that search engines, so ultimately all potential customers can find you. Both involve creating a user-friendly, well-structured website that delivers a better experience for visitors. In fact, many accessibility best practices directly overlap with SEO elements, and improving one often boosts the other.
If your website has been flagged for accessibility issues or if you find that your website is not getting the clicks you expected, optimizing for both ADA compliance and SEO could be a two-in-one simple fix that can help solve both problems. Indianapolis web design company NEXTFLY can help with both ADA compliance and SEO optimization without a major website redesign.
Is ADA Compliance an SEO Factor?
Web accessibility means making sure your site can be used by all visitors, including those with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities. This isn’t just about compliance—it’s about inclusivity and providing equal access to information, products, and services. To improve on accessibility, websites should work towards meeting the WCAG standards, which can help your site meet Google’s criteria for “readable content.” ADA compliance and SEO best practices work hand in hand.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a globally recognized framework developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to help make digital content usable for individuals with disabilities. These guidelines outline best practices for everything from providing text alternatives for images and ensuring sufficient color contrast, to making content navigable by keyboard and providing logical page structures.
While WCAG is designed to promote accessibility, its principles often overlap with Google’s Core Web Vitals and SEO best practices. For instance, requirements that emphasize clear navigation, logical heading structures, and readable content also enhance overall user experience—an area Google prioritizes in its ranking algorithm. WCAG’s focus on reducing barriers to access also connects with Core Web Vitals metrics like load speed, interactivity, and visual stability, all of which measure how seamless a user’s experience is on your site.
While accessibility itself is not listed as a direct ranking factor in Google’s algorithm, many accessibility features tie into Google’s ranking signals, which are powered by your website’s SEO. Core Web Vitals, for example, measure how fast, stable, and interactive your website is, which are key elements that also impact accessibility. If your site is slow, difficult to navigate, or frustrating for users with assistive technologies, it’s likely underperforming in search rankings as well. By working to improve your SEO, you’re likely making your website more ADA-compliant as well.
Which SEO Elements Relate to Accessibility?
Since we’ve seen how Google’s Core Web Vitals align with WCAG standards, it’s clear that your SEO strategy should support both. By focusing on key SEO elements, you not only improve search performance but also bring your website closer to meeting ADA accessibility best practices.
Web Design
A clean, well-structured design makes your site easier for both users and search engines to navigate. Your website should have high-contrast colors and clickable elements that make the website easier to navigate and create a clean and easy experience for the user to follow.
Mobile-Friendliness
Ensuring your site works across all devices is critical for accessibility and a major ranking factor for ADA compliance and SEO. Make sure your website is mobile responsive on any screen size or touch-screen devices.
Title Tags
Clear, descriptive titles help screen readers and improve visibility in search results.
Alt Text for Images
Adding alt text describes images for visually impaired users and also gives Google more context for indexing. Using alt text for images can also help your images appear in the Google image search results page.
Metadata
Meta descriptions and tags improve clarity for both users and search engines. Make sure your metadata is correctly optimized for keywords and clairity.
Readability
Easy-to-read content helps visitors understand your message and keeps them engaged. Many web-building tools or content review tools can help provide suggestions for improving readability. By breaking up content into sections with headings, avoiding dense jargon, and keeping sentences short.
Headings
Proper heading structure organizes content for screen readers and makes it more scannable for users. Each page should only have one H1 heading. From there, break sections up using H2 or smaller headings.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumb navigation improves orientation for users and provides structured data that benefits SEO.
Anchor Text
Descriptive anchor text helps users understand links and signals relevance to search engines. If you have a dense page, provide anchor links to help readers skip ahead to find answers to the questions they’re looking for faster.
Navigation
Navigation is a key component of ADA compliance and SEO, so make sure you’re organizing your content in a way that users can follow easily.
How ADA Compliance Can Help Your Business
Following ADA compliance guidelines is not just about avoiding legal risks—it’s about creating a website that welcomes every visitor. A site that is accessible and optimized for SEO makes it easier for customers to find you, engage with your content, and ultimately convert into leads or sales. There’s no downside: accessibility removes barriers, SEO improves visibility, and together they help your business grow while providing a better experience for every user.
Talk to NEXTFLY® About ADA Compliance and SEO Best Practices
At NEXTFLY, we understand how ADA compliance and SEO work hand-in-hand to create powerful digital results. By combining ADA compliance best practices with proven SEO strategies, we can help ensure your website not only meets legal standards but also ranks higher in search engines and delivers a better experience for all visitors.
Ready to make your website both accessible and optimized? Contact the NEXTFLY team today, and let’s build a stronger digital presence together.