Remember when that web developer bragged about the level of accessibility and SEO right before you launched your new site? Now that you’ve got the reigns, it’s up to you to maintain all of that hard work.
Why should I care about SEO and accessibility?
SEO makes your website easy for search engines to find, crawl through the pages and catalog your content. Web accessibility means your website can be used by people of differing abilities. The good news is, most tasks that make your site more accessible also make it more SEO friendly!
Combining all of these steps makes the most of your SEO and accessibility efforts.
1. Create a plan for all new content.
Before you create a new blog post or web page, define a very clear purpose for the content. It can help to come up with a list of keywords for the page and write a description. Every page on your site should be working to improve the experience of your users and help share your message via search engines.
Helpful hint: There are tools that can help. P&P uses Yoast SEO to add these meta tags to our WordPress sites.
2. Set a page title and description.
The page title and page description are meta tags, which help search engines understand the overall theme of your page. They also help users searching for specific content. Typically, the page title tag is displayed as the link text in search engine results, and the page description tag is displayed as the excerpt in the result.
Helpful hint: There are tools that can help. P&P uses Yoast SEO to add these meta tags to our WordPress sites.
3. Add alt tags to all images.
Alt tags describe the content of an image to people with visual impairments. Search engine bots also use them to understand images on your site. For an added boost, include keywords when it makes sense.
4. Use headings.
Break up content on a page with headings because people scan pages. They don’t usually read large blocks of text. Order headings like an outline, for example, H3s should come after/within H2s. Headings also have SEO value because they let search engines know the primary themes of the content.
5. Use descriptive words for link text and indicate external links.
Using descriptive words for link text (instead of something like “click here”) informs users and search engine bots of the link’s purpose. Adding a small icon, like opening in a new tab, to indicate external links is also a good idea.
6. Don’t use images of text.
Minimize the use of text as images so all users and search engine bots can read your content. Text should be generated and displayed directly in the browser.
7. Add transcripts for all video and/or audio content.
Help visitors with hearing and/or visual impairments by adding a transcript for all video and audio content. Transcripts tell search engines what your media is about and help drive traffic to your site.
Wrapping up
Search engines don’t magically decide what a web page is about. Search bots scan sites to find website that use the words a user searches for. For example, if you search for “nonprofit branding agency”, search engines will search for sites that use those terms “nonprofit – branding – agency” on their site. If you don’t use those exact terms, your webiste won’t show up in the search results.
Maintaining your website ranking in search results is on-going effort. It is made easier by having a brand platform that identifies your audience, a strategic content strategy, and a consistent brand message. P&P Creative helps nonprofits create brands that connect and websites the drive action. Drop us a line to discuss your next project.