Good Web Sites Are Good For SEO: Google | Website Development Standards

A recent Twitter conversation between Google’s John Mueller and an SEO expert highlighted something most of us already know many good accessibility website development best practices are also strong SEO best practices. Mr. Mueller was asked, “Is ADA Compliance a Google ranking factor?” to which he responded that it was a general requirement. To ensure your website follows both accessibility and SEO standards, partnering with an experienced WordPress developer India can help you build a site that’s compliant, user-friendly, and search-engine optimized.

The SEO expert further clarified that his question was about information suggesting that “a website experienced a ranking boost after the site was made compliant with ADA.” Muller responded, “A lot of good accessibility best practices are also good SEO best practices, and generally, making a site better for users often results in indirect, overall positive effects too.” To ensure your website follows such best practices and maintains strong rankings, it’s wise to hire SEO experts India who understand how accessibility, usability, and SEO work hand in hand to improve performance and visibility.

So what is ADA Compliance?

ADA Compliance is the abbreviated form of Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. Accordingly, the electronic information and technology that includes your website must be accessible to those with disabilities. As such there are no clear rules for websites with respect to ADA however, the websites must accommodate users with disabilities.

One way to get ADA compliant is to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that require your websites to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. There are 14 guidelines to WCAG and are divided into three priority levels.

Priority 1 – the most basic level of web accessibility

Priority 2 – addressed the biggest barriers for users with disabilities

Priority 3 – significant improvements to web accessibility

WCAG 2.0 is the current guidelines and it has three level of conformance:

Level A – Your website is only accessible by some users

Level AA – Your website is accessible by almost all users

Level AAA – Your website is accessible by all users

Ideally, your website should be Level AAA but considering the challenges faced in website development, Level AA is reasonably acceptable.

Website Development Checklist for ADA Compliant:

1. Users of your website must be able to perceive all information including text, images, and videos.

2. Users must be able to navigate easily through your website. This could be implemented using proper navigation menu structure, primary and secondary menu, hot links, breadcrumbs, and back-to-top buttons

3. Along with the view and navigation features offered on your website, your website should be able to communicate with users effectively. They should be able to understand what they are reading, listening, and viewing. This can be achieved with proper formatting of text, font style, character spacing, video, and audio subtitles, etc.

4. Finally, the information being shared with your users must be robust, offering the same experience to all users. UI and UX play an important role in achieving this aspect of ADA Compliance.

Need help becoming complaint?

Some websites can quickly achieve this compliance by a quick overhaul of the website while some may need a rework from scratch. If you need help in getting started contact us today. We specialize in building responsive and modern clean websites that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust in nature.