Content Creation for Accessibility and SEO

Small details can make all the difference, especially when it comes to content entry. As simple as it may seem, there are a lot of factors that can impact the effectiveness of your content. Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization are two of the most important things to consider while creating content for your site. These both will require time and strategy in order to implement correctly.

Best Practices

We will focus on common mistakes that occur during content entry and how to approach them.

Headings

Headings are a very important part of a web page as they are used to create a document outline. HTML offers 6 heading levels to use when writing your content, most commonly referred to as H1 – H6, correlating with the HTML code. It is very important that headings are used correctly. The outline created by headings is used both by search engines and assistive technologies to determine what information is on the page.

H1 should be used only one time for the main title of your page. This may be filled in automatically by your CMS. Generally, when using WordPress, Blog posts automatically use the title as the H1, so H1 should never be used in the main content field.

Headings should always be used in the correct order. Never skip a level when descending, this causes accessibility issues. Headings are used as the document outline so you may have multiple headings of the same level in a row. Never choose a heading for how it looks visually as this will cause the wrong order. Styles applied to headings can be updated globally if desired.

Image Attributes

Images are a great way to add visual impact to a website. We must remember that file size matters. Larger images make web pages load slower which impacts SEO and transparent PNGs have large file sizes, so it is important to optimize them before uploading.

Always fill in the alt attribute for images as it will enable accessibility and improve SEO. This is text that is announced to assistive technologies like screen readers. This text is also displayed if an image fails to load correctly. The alt attribute text is used by search engines to help index images. If the image is only used for decoration and it can be skipped by assistive technology you can leave a blank alt attribute.

When choosing alt text make sure to describe the purpose of the image. For example, if the picture was a dog at the ASPCA waiting to be adopted:

• Bad alt text – “Dog”
• Good alt text – “Rocky, a black lab, eagerly awaits his forever home”

Adding Alt Text to Images

WordPress makes it easy to add Alt Text to images during the file upload process. After a file is uploaded simply click into the Alt Text field and fill in the correct text. If you are using Drupal, simply right click an image while in the edit tab and select Image Properties, an option to add alt text should appear.

Although these tips seem may seem minor and unimportant to some, they are very valuable to the performance of your site. Our team is well versed at creating accessible and SEO friendly sites, so if you would like to learn more from our experts, get in contact today!