Is SEO compatible with accessibility?

While it may seem logical that Search Engine Optimisation and accessibility are compatible, it is not entirely true as it is conditional. It only becomes true when there is a consistent use of SEO techniques. It is true that an accessible website is automatically optimised for a good search engine placement. This definitely would mean that the ranking of the site would rise. As such it is important that a website is well designed, that is, it is easily accessible both to the visitor and to the machines which are assigned the task of going through sites looking for appropriate information.

Ranking the information on the site

When designing a site which has to be accessible and at the same time be ranked very well, it is vital that the information be arranged in a way that satisfies visitors to the site. The way the information is arranged on the site affects the time it would take before a search engine discovers a statement thus influencing the ranking. Most successful websites have the information ranked in terms of relevance with the most relevant on the top.

Spell out all the acronyms and abbreviations

Just like it would take time for a search engine to go through a heap of statements and files before it picks what it is looking for, the same search engine may fail to get the information as it may be in abbreviations and acronyms. In most cases a designer may abbreviate the words important words which may be keywords. As such by expanding abbreviation one would be increasing the weight of keywords.
As Accessible websites expand abbreviations the first time they are used on the page. Expanding abbreviations not only allows those less familiar with the terms to understand the content, but also helps with keyword density and ensuring content is indexed appropriately.

Text versions of non-text objects should always be available

Search engines easily access text files on a website and if there are text versions of non text items such as movies, music, presentations and portable document format then these would also be accessed. By accessing these, the search engine would index the file which would affect the ranking at the end of the day. It is interesting to note that having the text versions of some of the files does not affect the contents on the website and at the same time is easy thus it should be taken up if one is serious about appearing on the top in terms of ranking.

Use of ‘clean’ documents

During web design, it is important that there is a clear separation of presentations from content on the site. This could be achieved through the use of CSS during web design. This separation makes a document clean and it is easily accessible to search engines. This accessibility ensures a top ranking. This is a simply initiator SEO technique which serves many purposes as it is controlled by the developer without engaging third parties.

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