Accessible Websites and SEO: How Accessibility Impacts Rankings

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In today’s digital world, creating an accessible website is not just a matter of ticking compliance boxes; it’s about providing a great user experience for all visitors. However, in the constant fight to keep up with Google’s algorithm changes and chase traffic and conversions, accessibility is often overlooked.

What many businesses don’t realise is that web accessibility and SEO are closely connected. Search engines like Google aim to provide the best search results to users, and accessibility plays a significant role in determining what websites are considered user-friendly.

In this article, we’ll explore how accessibility affects SEO, what Google’s stance is, and why strategically investing in accessibility now could give you a competitive edge in search.

Why website accessibility matters

The meaning of accessibility in SEO does not change and still refers to the practice of making your website usable and understandable for all visitors, including those with disabilities. Common accessibility practices to ensure compliance include:

  • Making your site compatible with assistive technologies

  • Ensuring keyboard navigation is functional

  • Providing descriptive alt text for images

  • Using a clear heading structure (H1, H2, H3)

  • Optimising for mobile responsiveness and page speed

These improvements not only make your website more inclusive but also deliver direct SEO benefits, such as higher engagement, reduced bounce rates, and help search engine crawlers index your content more effectively.

Why Does an Accessible Website Matter for SEO?

When a website is accessible, it improves the user experience for everyone, not just users with disabilities. For example, improving accessibility can help people who use mobile devices or have slow internet connections.

The better the user experience, the more likely people are to stay on your site, engage with your content, and convert. These behaviours send positive signals to search engines that your site delivers value to users.

Many accessibility improvements, like page speed and alt text to images, also align with Google’s ranking factors. So, accessibility not only creates inclusive experiences but also strengthens your website’s visibility and authority in search results.

Learn more about the positive impact of accessibility in our guide on the benefits of digital accessibility for businesses.

Google’s approach to accessibility

Google’s official stance on accessibility is clear: while it’s not currently a direct ranking factor, accessibility is deeply intertwined with SEO. Google has stated that its algorithms are designed to prioritise content that provides the best user experience, and accessibility contributes to that.

In fact, many accessibility practices, like ensuring your site is mobile-friendly or improving page load speed, directly align with Google’s ranking criteria. According to Google, “a website that is usable by all users, including those with disabilities, is more likely to have a better user experience and be indexed and ranked more favourably.”

Additionally, Google has its own Google Lighthouse tool, an open-source, automated auditing tool that provides insights into the accessibility of your website.

It checks your site for common accessibility issues, among other factors, and offers recommendations for improvement. By using Lighthouse, you can ensure that your site is both accessible and adheres to best practices, making it more likely to rank well in Google’s search results.

SEO and Accessibility: The Overlap

It is clear that SEO and accessibility share a common goal of making websites easier to use and understand. Many of the same improvements that support people with disabilities also help search engines evaluate and rank your site.

Here are the key areas where accessibility and SEO best practices work together:

  1. Mobile Friendliness: Google considers mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor. Accessible websites often need to be mobile-friendly to ensure that users can access all content easily on smaller screens, which also aligns with Google’s mobile-first indexing.

  2. Page Speed: Accessible websites, particularly those that follow accessibility guidelines, tend to be leaner, faster, and more efficient. Google uses page load speed as a ranking factor, and a faster website equals better rankings.

  3. User Engagement: Websites that are easy to use tend to have lower bounce rates, longer sessions, and higher engagement, all of which signal to Google that the site offers valuable content. Accessible websites are designed with the user experience in mind, increasing the likelihood of higher engagement.

  4. Alt Text for Images: Alt text isn’t just helpful for screen reader users; it also helps search engines understand the content of an image. Alt text, as part of your accessibility efforts, also improves your image SEO by making images more discoverable.

  5. Clear Content and Structure: Ensuring that your website is logically structured with clear headings, lists, and content flow not only makes it more accessible to users but also easier for search engine bots to crawl and index. Embedding accessibility into your workflow efficiency processes helps make these improvements consistent across your site.

    Is Accessibility a Ranking Factor?

    Whilst accessibility is not yet a direct ranking factor, this may change in the future. Google’s algorithms are constantly evolving, and the search engine has indicated that accessibility could eventually become a more important ranking signal.

    John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate, responded to the question of whether accessibility provides a direct ranking advantage with the following statement:

    “No, not really. So I think accessibility is something that is important for a website because, if you drive your users away with a website that they can’t use, then they’re not going to recommend it to other people.

    But it’s not something that we would pick up and use as a direct ranking factor when it comes to search. Maybe that will change over time.”

    Source: Search Engine Journal

    Google has acknowledged that accessibility may play a larger role in search rankings in the future. As search algorithms evolve and accessibility becomes a greater focus in digital regulations, it’s highly likely that Google will integrate accessibility more deeply into its ranking criteria.

    This means that businesses should be proactive and begin improving their website’s accessibility now. Websites that have implemented accessibility best practices will not only rank better today but will also be better prepared for any changes that Google might make in the future.

    Accessible Website Best Practices

    Improving your website’s accessibility does not have to be complicated. In fact, many of the most effective steps are simple changes that make your site easier for everyone to use while also helping search engines understand and rank your content, delivering lasting SEO benefits in the process.

    To improve both SEO and accessibility, you should focus on the following practices:

    1. Ensure Mobile Compatibility: Make sure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so it’s essential that your site works well on all devices.

    2. Keyboard Navigation: Ensure that your website can be fully navigated with a keyboard. This is essential for people with motor disabilities and improves overall usability.

    3. Ensure Screen Reader Compatibility: Make sure your website is compatible with screen readers by using semantic HTML, proper heading structure, and ARIA attributes. This ensures that blind or visually impaired users can effectively navigate your site.

    4. Use Descriptive Alt Text: Provide meaningful alternative text for all images. This helps search engines understand the content of the images and makes your site more accessible to screen reader users.

    5. Improve Page Load Speed: Optimise your website’s performance to ensure that it loads quickly. Faster sites are favoured by both users and search engines.

    6. Use Clear, Structured Content: Break up your content with appropriate headings, bullet points, and lists. This makes it easier for users and search engines to navigate your site.

    7. Add Closed Captions to Videos: Adding captions to your videos not only makes them accessible to users with hearing impairments but also allows search engines to index the content of your videos.

    Final Thoughts 

    Making your website accessible isn’t just about compliance; it’s a smart SEO strategy. Google prioritises websites that offer a great user experience, and accessibility plays a significant role in that. Whilst Google has stated that accessibility is not currently a direct ranking factor, it has also acknowledged that this may change over time. As search algorithms evolve and accessibility becomes a greater focus in digital regulations, it’s highly likely that Google will integrate accessibility more deeply into its ranking criteria.

    To learn more about accessibility regulations, read our guide on How the European Accessibility Act will Impact your Business.

    By ensuring your site is accessible now, you future-proof your SEO, gain valuable SEO benefits, improve your rankings, reach a wider audience, and enhance overall usability. If your website isn’t accessible, you’re not only alienating potential customers but also risking lower search rankings both now and in the future. Businesses should take a proactive approach and start implementing accessibility best practices today to stay ahead of upcoming changes.

    Ready to take action? Find out how you can become compliant in just 30 days.

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    Discover how we’ve helped organisations overcome accessibility challenges and achieve success.

    FAQs

    Like accessibility, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance is not a direct Google ranking factor, but many of the steps required to meet ADA guidelines overlap with SEO best practices. This includes features like alt text for images, clear navigation, correct contrast, and keyboard-friendly design.

    Yes, accessibility has a significant impact on SEO by improving the signals search engines measure. An accessible website is easier for all users to read, navigate and interact with, which results in lower bounce rates, increased dwell time and stronger engagement.

     

    These signals indicate to search engines that the page is useful and valuable to users and therefore deserves better visibility.

     

    Simply put, accessibility strengthens SEO by improving the user experience metrics that the algorithm pays attention to.

    An accessible website helps search engine crawlers by making your website’s structure easier to understand and index. Key features like semantic HTML, logical heading structure, ARIA labels, and descriptive alt text give crawlers clear signals about what your content means.

     

    To ensure your site can easily be crawled, important content should not be hidden behind complex code or inaccessible elements. Otherwise crawlers will struggle to read, categorise, and rank your pages.

    Common accessibility issues that can undermine your SEO performance include:

     

    • Missing alt text – Search engines can’t understand images, and users relying on screen readers miss context.

    • Inaccessible navigation – If your menus and links can’t be accessed via keyboard or screen readers, you significantly limit how both users and search engines can navigate your site.

    • Poor heading structure – Lack of a logical hierarchy can confuse users and search engines.

    • Non-descriptive links – Vague link text e.g. ‘click here’, reduces usability and fails to tell users and search engines what the linked content is about.

    • Slow-loading or cluttered pages – Can frustrate users and can be penalised in rankings.

     

    Each of these issues creates barriers for people and search engines alike. By addressing them, you not only make your site more inclusive but also protect your site’s visibility in the search results.

    See more FAQs

    Website accessibility monitoring is the fundamental process of scanning your website to detect any issues that could prevent users with disabilities from using it. Automated web accessibility monitoring tools continuously check for accessibility issues across your site, providing instant alerts for new and updated content, as well as your overall site health.

     

    They track compliance with standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and show you how accessible your site is, where it should be, and what improvements should be made to deliver a better experience for all users.

     

    In addition to measuring your compliance, they also provide a clear picture of your progress over time, so you can track the impact of your improvements and maintain ongoing accessibility.

    The two main types are automated and manual monitoring. Together, they provide you with a comprehensive view of how accessible your site is and where improvements are needed.

     

    • Automated monitoring uses specialised web accessibility monitoring tools to scan your website for non-compliant features and common issues, such as missing alt text, poor colour contrast, or keyword navigability issues. These tools can also provide instant alerts for when site elements present accessibility risks and site health reports so you can prioritise any issues.

    • Manual monitoring is where accessibility experts and testers come in to review your site as a real user would, often using assistive technologies like screen readers. They will usually check how easy it is to navigate through pages, interact with content, and understand messages or instructions. The aim is to identify any areas which may present barriers for individuals with disabilities.

    Accessibility monitoring is crucial for ensuring that everyone can use and experience your site in the same way, regardless of ability. It is also essential for staying compliant with standards like WCAG and with laws like The European Accessibility Act 2025.

     

    Without regular monitoring, accessibility issues can easily appear when new pages are added, content is updated, or designs are changed.

     

    Continuous website accessibility monitoring gives you a framework to:

    • Stay compliant

    • Improve user experience

    • Respond to issues quickly

    • Track progress over time

    Accessibility monitoring should be integrated into your process rather than a one-time check. Websites can change frequently, with new pages, designs, and content changes, but each update can introduce accessibility issues.

     

    Continuous monitoring, both manual and through an automated website monitor, is recommended to catch any issues as soon as they appear, particularly after any big changes, such as adding interactive elements, redesigns, and when legal or accessibility guidelines are updated.

     

    Even without significant changes, monitoring should be a consistent part of your organisations website maintenance.

     

    The more you test the better, but for those looking for an exact amount, ideally once a month is a good starting point to catch any emerging issues.

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