BlogAnna Nyberg-Sukeva 18.03.2025

Accessibility and SEO: Success Factors in the Digital World

Marketing development Digital marketing Conversion optimization E-commerce Hakukoneoptimointi

Accessibility is an increasingly critical part of a website’s functionality and user experience. Although accessibility laws do not oblige all private sector actors to provide accessible services, everyone should invest in them. If only because there are about 55,000 visually impaired people and about 480,000 red-green-color blind people in Finland. In addition, the proportion of seniors in our population continues to grow. Accessibility does not require large investments, but its benefits are significant.

Why are accessibility and SEO important for businesses?

Wider customer base: Accessibility expands your potential customer base when everyone can access your site.

Better user experience: A highly accessible website gives everyone a better user experience. This can lead to longer visits, stronger engagement, and higher conversions.

Improved search engine visibility: Accessibility and SEO go hand in hand. Search engines, such as Google, value well-optimized and accessible sites and highlight them better in search results. This will increase your site’s visibility and attract more visitors.

Legal requirements: In many industries, accessibility is a legal requirement.

Better brand reputation: Accessibility shows that your business cares about all of its customers and strives to provide equal opportunities for everyone. This strengthens the brand’s reputation and creates a positive public image.

Accessibility laws

• Digital Services Act (306/2019): The Act on the Provision of Digital Services obliges the public sector and some private and third-sector organisations to comply with accessibility requirements on websites and mobile applications.
• Act on Public Procurement (1397/2016): This Act ensures that accessibility requirements are taken into account in public procurement.
• European Accessibility Act (EAA): This directive applies to, among other things, online stores, e-books and ATMs, which must be accessible from June 2025.

Content, SEO, and Accessibility

• Clear language: Use simple language that is appropriate for your target audience. Keep in mind that people read digital text differently than printed text. Most people glance at the text, not necessarily read it completely.
• Heading: Use descriptive headings and keep the heading levels in a logical order. Well-structured content improves user experience and search engine visibility. Titles are good places for keywords, but don’t overuse them.
• Links: Choose a distinctive style and descriptive name for your links. For example, use an underline and a distinctive color that meets contrast requirements. Avoid direct URLs in anchor text, as they are not accessible.

Visuals

• Images: Make sure that the information in the images is also conveyed to those who cannot see the images. Use alt texts that describe the content in your images. Image SEO helps to elevate your site in search engine image search.
• Videos: Subtitle videos and provide video speech in text format as well so that search engines can understand their content. Videos increase the visibility of the site, improve the user experience and make it easier to understand instructions, for example.

Structure and technical implementation

• HTML Sitemap: An HTML sitemap displays the content of a site on a single page, without images or other stimuli that might distract the visitor. A dynamically updated HTML sitemap is also a functional way to provide the entire structure of the site for search engines to find and index.
• Schema markup language: Schema.org is a joint project of major search engines that allows you to tag different information on a web page so that search engines can display information directly on search results pages as “rich” search results. Markup language allows both search engine robots and screen readers to better understand the content of a site. The more complex the content of the site, for example in online stores and recipe pages, the more important the markup language is.

Accessibility and SEO are not just technical requirements, but they are the key to success in the digital world. They improve the user experience, expand the potential customer base, and strengthen the brand’s reputation. By investing in accessibility and SEO, your business can achieve better results and stand out from the competition.

We are happy to help you develop your website in a more accessible direction!

AUTHOR

Anna Nyberg-Sukeva

SEO Specialist

anna.nyberg-sukeva@dagmar.fi

+358444932163

SEO Specialist Anna helps clients get their content visible online. According to Anna, the internet belongs to everyone, and that’s why web accessibility is particularly close to Anna’s heart.