June 6, 2021
Accessibility Concerns in Your Digital Marketing Plan
Building a website can be complex and complicated, and your focus may be on your site’s ranking. But search engine optimization (SEO) is only one consideration in your marketing plan. Your marketing plan should also consider the people using your website.
As part of that, your site should be accessible to all users. But what does that mean? How do you make your site more accessible for users? Check out our tips below, or talk to an SEO team about your dental website.
Why Accessibility Matters
One quarter of people in America alone have a disability, and those disabilities may make accessing your website difficult. While websites are adjusting to be friendlier for those with disabilities, many sites still have issues like flashing lights, small text, or text that a screen reader may be unable to read.
That makes it more difficult for visitors to your site to get the information they need and contact you for your dental services. Unfortunately, they may choose not to use your services in these cases.
Because of this, rankings are an important part of your strategy, but climbing the rankings only gets people to read your content. From there, you’ll need to provide an accessible design and content that the reader doesn’t have to work hard to read.
Inclusive Design Practices
When designing your website, it may be tempting to make your website flashy and exciting. But that may not be accessible for your visitors. For example, flashing icons may cause problems for people with photo-sensitive epilepsy. They may navigate away from your site to avoid a serious health problem, rather than remaining and potentially suffering a serious problem.
Similarly, making sure your design supports multiple ways of viewing the content can also help others use your website. For example, adding clear, descriptive alt text to your images helps those with screen readers follow all the content on the page.
Ease of Reading for Content
But it’s not just about how your website looks. Readability is a key part of your site—if your potential dental clients can’t easily identify what services you offer and how to contact you, how are they supposed to convert from visitors to clients?
Because of this, it’s important to keep in mind how difficult (or easy!) it is to read your content. The average American reads at an eighth-grade level. That means using complex words and long sentences may be difficult or frustrating for the reader. How many of us stay on a website that’s already frustrating to use?
Making your website accessible for all helps to cut down on the number of people, with and without disabilities, who leave your site confused or frustrated.
Ready for a More Accessible Site? Call an SEO Company
Building a beautiful, well-performing site is a big part of SEO. But what about the people using your site? Many people have a disability, like low vision or hearing loss, that prevents them from using many sites—don’t let your site be one of them.
The marketing team at ApricotDental can help you build a site that’s accessible and easy to use for all viewers. If you’re concerned that your site isn’t accessible to all visitors, reach out for a free site audit. Call 877-491-6981 or complete the following online contact form to learn more about our services.