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We hope you’ve enjoyed this series on SEO and accessibility. In the final installment, Cooper shows you how the technical SEO strategies you implement across your site can help make it more perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
Hey, Moz fans. Welcome to the latest edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Cooper Hollmaier. I've been doing SEO since 2016, and today I work for a large outdoor retailer helping our technical SEO strategy come to life. Thank you so much for attending this series on SEO and accessibility.
I hope that you've gained a broad perspective and new tips and tricks for creating content that not only is resonating with your audience, performs well in search, but is also accessible to more people. Today we're going to talk about technical SEO and accessibility.
Let's dive in. Last time we talked about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and you might remember that the four principles of WCAG are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
As a technical SEO, you're probably most concerned with perceivable because your day-to-day operations, your day-to-day work stream involves making sure that the pages, the content, the experiences you're creating are accessible to search engines and perceivable to search engines.
A lot of times when we go through SEO recommendations or SEO audits, I hear a lot of common themes, like the header tag is baked into the image and so a search engine can't see it, or the content I'm producing is visible to bots but it's not visible to people. These are issues with base level perception. I want you to take that mindset and consider if you apply that to your whole audience as well. So can all of your people that are hoping to engage with your service or product or experience, are they able to perceive all the things you have to offer at a base level?
Some things you might be thinking would be similar to what you would be seeing in this audit, like: Is all of my text on the page visible? Is it active text? Is it native to the page, so can I select it and copy and paste it, or is it baked into the image and unreachable by assistive technology or browsers or what have you? You might also be thinking: Is the color contrast to my background and my text, is it the right contrast?
Is there enough clarity and crispness between my layout elements? If things seem a little bit fuzzy or it's not quite clear that something is accessible to a search engine and a user, go back to the drawing board and figure out how to make both of those things work out well.
We also like to add images, text, video, and audio to the pages that we're building for our customers. It's important that these rich elements, now that we're kind of past the basic text and the styling elements, the rich elements we're putting on the page are perceivable by all of your users as well. There's a couple of things we can do to make that happen. For images, giving them a text alternative and providing something that is in addition to that imagery will help it be seen by a screen reader and understood by someone who has a visual disability.
Also naming things with human-friendly names versus "DSC1352.JPEG" is going to help search engines as well as assistive technology see that image and understand what it is. On-page context, it's also important that you put images on pages that add value. You want to enlighten a user with some additional content to give them a little bit more of a feeling or give them some more context on what you're talking about. Add images for value, not just to show up in Google image search.
What about video? So video is a little bit different. Video has a series of moving images. So every time I think about movement, I think to myself, "How can I make sure that if a user wants to stop this movement, they can?"
Having clear playback controls is crucial when we're talking about accessibility as well as having a great video player experience for any user. In addition, synchronous equivalents for those text alternatives. We talked about images having text alternatives. Videos need to have text alternatives as well, but they need to be synchronized to time with that video. Otherwise they won't make sense in context.
Then making sure that they're distinguishable. This is the same between video and audio. We want to make sure that the foreground and the background are easily distinguishable from one another. If your video feels muddy, if your audio feels muddy and it takes me straining my ear or straining my eyes to be able to see that content and understand what's happening, you need to be a little bit more crisp, a little bit more clear on those two distinctions.
Then text transcripts. Just like you need closed captions for videos, for audio you want to have a text transcript, so if I'm maybe in a loud place and I can't hear the audio or I don't have my headphones plugged in or I needed to use assistive technology, I'm able to access that audio.
These are all things that you'll be seeing as you're reviewing code as a technical SEO and you should be aware of.
If you don't have these things going on, on your website, I would empower you to ask those questions, the hard questions like: Hey, is there a text alternative to this image? How will a person with a visual disability, how will a person with an auditory disability access these things?
Three and four are about page structure and semantic HTML. So this is a little bit less about is this perceivable and is it kind of understandable.
It's kind of grazing the understandable, but it should be a little bit about perception, too. Having a bunch of H1s on a page, as you can imagine, a search engine might perceive as very confused, right? They're like, okay, there's a bunch of H1s on this page. I'm not really sure what this page is about. Adding structure and cascading headings to signify parent-child relationships is going to help your content be a little bit more perceivable. It's going to be easier to understand what's happening.
Same thing with semantic HTML. We tend to put lots of divs and spans and unidentifiable elements in our HTML. But by marking them up in more appropriate ways, so that we understand what their meaning is, understand what those tags contain, whether it's navigation or forms or tables, providing that extra layer of information and understandability is going to allow search engines and assistive technology to be able to parse through those things, to allow them to perceive the things you're putting on your page that are different from one another and provide a richer experience.
Okay, so we're able to perceive the content. But how do we make sure that it's operable?
A couple of SEO recommendations that I often see people making are build an HTML sitemap and put breadcrumbs on your page. A lot of times you might get some pushback from that. The HTML site map is super important we know for SEO, for discoverability of those pages deep in our website's hierarchy.
We know that breadcrumbs are also pretty equally important for discoverability. Both of these elements help users with assistive technology better navigate the website. The HTML site map allows for if your menu doesn't include all the pages on your website or if it's confusing or you're using JavaScript or some other technology that's not accessible to my tech stack.
Then breadcrumbs allow me to parse up and down the particular let's say it's a product search page on an e-commerce website without having to go back to the menu and then parse through every single menu item again. So these two are super important for navigation but also especially for people who are navigating with a keyboard and using assistive technology.
Then a non-SEO thing but important nonetheless and relatable, develop your website and your experience keyboard first. Not everyone has a mouse or the ability to use a mouse because of a movement disability or because of an impairment or because of a lack of technology or hardware. So make sure you develop keyboard first, and you're going to kind of encapsulate more of those people that you're looking to encapsulate with your audience.
Understandable. So we talk about in international SEO, when we're dealing with different countries and different languages, how important it is to use the HTML on our page to signify what the language of the page is. It helps search engines provide the right results in the right maybe national or international context. It also helps screen readers read your content aloud in the right language.
Then navigational layout and interstitials I think are pretty common, but nobody likes a navigation or a layout of a website that's confusing. The easier you make it, the easier it is for people to convert or do what you're looking for them to do with this website, whether it's learn, whether it's buy, whether it's engage in a service. That's easier when the navigation and layout is streamlined and we're not using different words in different places to mean the same thing. It's even more important for people with assistive technology.
Interstitials, nobody likes those pop-ups in our face, that don't allow us to browse the rest of the website. Google doesn't love them either. But especially people with assistive technology, if we're not treating those pop-ups in the right way, we're going to end up in a scenario where users may be in a keyboard trap and they can't get out of the interstitial, or they don't understand that an interstitial is even put up on the page. So it's important to be very mindful when using interstitials.
Last but not least is robust. How do we make sure that the content we're putting on the page is compatible for a large variety of devices and scenarios?
Just using proper HTML is a big way to do this. You can use a validator and you can look at your HTML, your CSS, and your JSON-LD. Creating the right code and especially when you're using semantic HTML as well providing meaning to that code, you're going to have a lot better experience and everything your building is more digestible.
Is your website responsive? You should be doing this already. But if you're not, make sure it's operating on a mobile and a desktop and a tablet device and the layout stays the same, it's just maybe resized or re-imaged in a different way.
Make sure it's interactable. If a user wants to be able to zoom in because they have a visual disability or they want to be able to change the colors, does your technology on your website allow them to do that? It should. If you do these three things on the bottom, I think it's going to do a lot of heavy lifting and you're going to have to do a lot less work because you've kind of built in the framework, the foundation to be accessible.
That's technical SEO and accessibility. If you have more questions or want some validation tools, there are some on the right-hand side here, or you can hit me up on Twitter @cooperhollmaier for some more advice. But thank you so much for listening to Whiteboard Friday and accessibility along with SEO. I hope that you take this and you become more and more inclusive in the way that you're doing SEO in the future.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
This year's MozCon Virtual is right around the corner, and we couldn't be more excited! If you've never considered it before, it's high time you became acquainted with the idea of a "couchference" — a full-fledged conference held from the comfort of your home office space, real office space, or even your sofa.
On July 12th, 13th, and 14th, join Ringmaster Roger under the MozCon big top for insights and tactical presentations from industry leaders, plus the opportunity to connect and network with fellow attendees!
Tickets are just $129 for Moz subscribers until May 31, including access to the professionally produced video bundle (a $350 value!), providing incredible marketing thought leadership at an unheard-of price:
Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!
And remember, this is a great opportunity for our friends around the world and those who aren't able to travel to experience the MozCon magic live! If this will be your first time attending, we'd love to hear what talk you're most excited for in the comments.
Read on to see what your favorite industry leaders are speaking on this year!
All talk times are in Pacific, so keep that in mind when planning your day!
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out exactly what you can expect over the next three days.
"You better be pitching that campaign into the press before 9am and definitely not on a Friday or Monday!”
“Link relevancy is important if you’re a link builder, but if you're a digital PR, it doesn't really matter.”
“You're asking the impossible to get links to category and product pages.”
Tired of hearing bold claims and questions like these? We are too. Shannon is going to challenge many of the digital PR and link building myths you're seeing debated on Twitter. From the old classic myths that stand the test of time and are always asked, through to new beliefs that are hot topics, she's going to use data, insights and case studies to show you how to cover some of these beliefs and improve your link building and digital PR efforts in 2021."
Some brands have achieved the dream: a large audience who believes in them, buying from them time and time again without questioning the value or authenticity of the products and services. And they've done it by developing an emotional connection with that audience. These days, it's more about building a community around your brand, rather than simply having clients. We'll explore the power of brand psychology that's been used by huge, successful brands such as Apple or Starbucks to earn customers that are loyal long-term.
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
No matter where you work, there's something we all seem to have a shortage of... time. Combine that with ambitious traffic KPIs and you'll quickly realize that a 100% new content strategy isn't sustainable. Enter the content refresh. Learn how to identify and execute the best refresh opportunities so you can rank faster and increase your existing content ROI.
Most competitive analysis ends in an avalanche of potential keywords to target, leaving you buried in indecision. Real case studies will show you how to forge your data into an actionable plan that drives strategic, targeted content. Escape from under the keyword pile and conquer your content rivals.
With the debut of Core Web Vitals, modern SEO is more relevant to website development than ever before. Sure, we’ve always been thinking about title tags and making sure our pages convert — but the actual underpinnings of a website might have been left to your web development team and maybe that one technical SEO. They're likely very skilled people, but the chances of them thinking about how development decisions impact SEO are typically slim to none. Let's modernize the relationship between the web development process and SEO.
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
Internationalization is one of the leading causes of technical SEO debt for multinational companies. We’ll talk through common internationalization mistakes and how to avoid them so you can win visibility and grow anywhere.
Successful websites are all different, yet nearly all Google-ranked websites succeed in the exact same fundamental ways. In our quest to optimize for Core Web Vitals, mobile-first indexing, and JavaScript rendering, have we lost sight of the content and user experiences that dominate the very top of Google search results? In this presentation, Cyrus explores the three Google click and engagement signals that top-ranking web pages master: clicks, long clicks, and last clicks. Using examples and experiment results, he demonstrates how any website — and SEOs of all skill levels — can leverage these signals for improved Google traffic.
Join fellow attendees in one of our Birds of a Feather Discussion groups to share ideas, and network with peers around a common topic. Birds of a Feather groups are informal, peer-to-peer conversations.
Networking remains open until 3:30.
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
Every single piece of content your brand creates is an asset. So why do we view them as an expense? In this session, Ross will talk about the parallels between content marketing/SEO and the world of investing. From the techniques that take blog posts and landing pages to the moon, to the fundamentals of content investing to create a competitive advantage, learn how an investment mindset can drive results.
Take charge over the indexability of your website! With a focus on aggregators and classifieds, Areej will share advice on how to best reduce index bloat for large websites. Diving into parameter handling, sitemap logic, robots directives, and more, we'll also assess how to analyze the most impactful changes, how to get sign-off from senior stakeholders, and how to prioritize work with product teams.
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
Much like with any other change, the change to Google Analytics 4 may seem daunting and a bit useless. But it's better to get started now before you have to. Plus, in this presentation we will uncover secrets Google hands out in GA4. Then, stick around to see what is new and may be even better in the future.
Along with the always-shifting landscape, one of the biggest things we as marketers struggle with is the sheer volume of information. For years we were told we had to produce as much content as possible. Then we were told to focus on quality but we still had to have a consistent schedule. What about YouTube or voice search or TikTok? The fact of the matter is, there's no one way to do content marketing. In this session, we’ll look at content from an entirely different perspective and talk about how you can start creating content on your own terms.
What value do Google Posts have, and how should the average SMB prioritize them? Dive into the data from two studies conducted by Sterling Sky to answer these questions.
The first study analyzes over 1,000 Google Posts to see what types perform better based on clicks and conversions, and measures the impact of various features such as stock photos, emojis, titles, and more. The second looks at whether posting on Google has any influence on where your business ranks in the local pack. Findings from both will have you reevaluating your clients' Google posting strategy!
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
The long sales cycles presented in B2B pose a unique set of challenges for converting visitors into coveted users. Success requires a strategic approach that goes beyond the landing page to include your entire site. In this session, we'll look at three tried-and-true methods for increasing your conversion rate and winning more business.
Modern SEOs have no shortage of data, but you could learn even MORE about your site, content, links, and competitors by working smarter, not harder. Rob will show you how to breathe new life into your standard SEO data, and walk away with more advanced insights that are sure to impress your team (and your boss!)
Reporting on website performance is an integral part of SEO, but not all metrics are created equal. If you think your metrics are telling the full story, think again. Start building more insightful reporting methods with data science. In this session, Britney will show you how to quash your reporting woes and make easy work of identifying exactly why your website’s performance changed.
Join fellow attendees in one of our Birds of a Feather Discussion groups to share ideas, and network with peers around a common topic. Birds of a Feather groups are informal, peer-to-peer conversations.
Networking remains open until 3:30.
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Tom explores the real SEO impact of Google’s shiny new metrics, which ones you actually need to worry about, and how to prioritize fixes.
One of the biggest FAQs in e-commerce: "How do you handle faceted navigation when it comes to SEO?"
We’ll ask the tough questions and answer them head-on! Join Luke as he walks through case studies, real-world examples, and how to leverage faceted navigation to really capitalize on high-converting long-tail keywords. If you're in e-commerce, you won’t want to miss this!
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
Keyword research is a vital process in getting insights into your consumer behaviour. However, it is often a very manual and labor-intensive process. How can we speed up the process so we can get to working on our implementations and getting results? Miracle walks through practical ways marketers can use APIs to do the heavy lifting and save time.
Is your link portfolio strong enough to withstand everything Google and your competitors throw at you? If you’re hyper-focused on acquisition and you ignore strategy, you can end up with a pile of weak backlinks that aren't relevant — and won't move the needle. Competitive analysis is your key to finding and filling the gaps in your link building strategy. I'll walk you through the process start-to-finish.
Learn why E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) has taken a front seat in SEO discussions in recent years, the numerous places where Google focuses on E-A-T, and how the growing emphasis on surfacing authoritative content has drastically changed the organic search landscape across search, News, Discover, YouTube, and more.
12:30pm — Networking
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.
Let’s face it, you aren’t getting what you want from your keyword data. Unlock your newest SEO secret weapon with this deep dive into the power of the Google Search Console API. This game-changing tool will help you crush the competition, sell SEO to your team, and win prospects with deep SEO insights you had no idea were available.
Search is a game of rankings. Only one can win the #1 spot and small tweaks can mean the difference between ranking #1 and #5. If you’re using the same tools as everyone else, what competitive advantage are you bringing to the table? Wil shows you how to transform your data into winning insights with 3 tools everyone has at their fingertips: your heart, your head, and a willingness to question everything you thought was true about SEO.
Join fellow attendees in one of our Birds of a Feather Discussion groups to share ideas, and network with peers around a common topic. Birds of a Feather groups are informal, peer-to-peer conversations.
That’s a wrap on MozCon Virtual 2021! Stick around for networking until 3:30, and hope to see you again next year!
Chatting with speakers via Q&A, connecting with peers and potential partners in Birds of a Feather groups, absorbing all the knowledge for another fruitful year of marketing... we can't wait to share it with you!
It doesn’t take a pro to do SEO.
But hiring one can certainly help.
For business owners who are ready to take their SEO efforts up a notch, it may be time to move beyond the DIY approach and onboard an SEO provider that can get the job done.
But the question is: How do you find and hire the right SEO company that can generate real, tangible results for your business?
Here are our top tips for smart SEO hiring — from weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing to knowing what questions to ask during the hiring process.
While there are countless resources online to help you implement SEO on your own, there are also many perks to either outsourcing your SEO marketing or hiring an SEO professional in-house. SEO isn’t always the easiest to figure out, so working with a professional may be the solution to avoiding headaches, wasted time, and marketing dollars down the drain.
If you’re asking yourself if it’s worth hiring an SEO company, it’s time to consider the benefits.
An SEO provider can help:
Take the guesswork out of SEO to start implementing an effective strategy from the start.
Save you money by running data-driven, highly targeted campaigns that make the most of your marketing budget.
Broaden your business’s reach online by expanding your marketing to a variety of channels.
Prevent costly SEO errors and, potentially, Google penalties.
Explain your website analytics, what they mean, and why they matter for your business.
Choosing an SEO company or consultant takes careful consideration, as your primary goal is to find a provider that best fits the needs and goals of your business.
For this reason, we’ve included some of the best tips for effective SEO hiring to help you weigh your options and decide on the right choice for you.
One of the best sources for SEO provider recommendations is your existing network, particularly those business owners who are in your industry. By asking your network, you’ll already have people who can vouch for the provider’s services, offer an honest review, and point you in the right direction.
When you end up reaching out to an SEO agency or consultant, you should request an honest estimate of how much their services will cost for your site and how long they expect those services to take. Any provider that’s cryptic about what they offer or how much it costs is one you should be wary of.
A decent SEO agency will know how much work is required to optimize your site, approximately how long it will take, and how much it will cost. There may be optional add-ons to be discussed later, but their upfront quote should give you a clear idea of what to expect when working with them.
Many providers pitch an “all-in-one” SEO package, but it’s important to be critical of anyone who takes a one-size-fits-all approach. You’re looking for a provider that will take the time to understand your business and craft a strategy that suits your specific needs and audience.
It’s essential to ask what’s included in their SEO package so you can be super clear on what you're paying for. Some of these services might include on-page SEO, local SEO, technical optimization, content creation, or link building.
Every business owner dreams of landing that #1 spot in the SERP, but SEO is about more than just rankings. A reputable SEO provider knows that the goal of any SEO strategy is ultimately to help the business make money, so they’ll look at key performance indicators (KPIs) beyond just rankings.
Some of these KPIs may include traffic numbers, conversion rate, leads, and revenue generated. They should be able to communicate the true value of SEO and why these metrics are most important when it comes to measuring the success of your SEO efforts.
Before you sign on the dotted line, it can help to have a face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) conversation with your potential provider. This will give you a chance to discuss your needs in more detail, ask questions, and get a better sense of whether this provider is right for you.
Before signing on with a new SEO provider, it’s best to conduct some initial research to learn more about their services, approach, and the results they’ve generated for their clients. This involves scoping out their social media profiles, looking out for client testimonials, and checking out case studies on their website.
Whether you’re referred by someone in your network or stumble across a provider on your own, it’s always a good idea to check out the provider’s testimonials to get a read on how they work, and whether their past clients have enjoyed working with them. Also look for evidence that they’ve generated results for their clients in the form of traffic, leads, or sales.
Many SEO companies are active on social media, and perusing their content is a good way to get a sense of their approach to SEO and how they work with their clients. Beyond reviews, look out for blog articles and posts being shared on their social media pages to see whether this is a brand you’d like to work with.
While you’re searching Facebook, Google, and Yelp for reviews, you should check out the provider’s website to see if they post any SEO case studies or examples of their past work. Testimonials may be able to tell you how much clients have enjoyed working with them, but case studies are a stronger indicator of whether their services actually move the needle.
During your research of a company, ask yourself: Do they communicate an in-depth understanding of analytics and how to interpret them? How do they measure success? Are they fixated on rankings, or on more discernible metrics?
These are all important questions to ask yourself as you read their case studies and website content. Their answers can build—or break—your confidence in their services, helping you determine whether they are the right provider for your business.
“Rank at the top of Google” may seem like a noble goal, but it’s likely that you have other, perhaps more tangible goals in mind. Be sure to communicate these to your potential provider so they know what you hope to achieve and to ensure you are both on the same page.
The right provider should be able to help you articulate your SEO goals and establish new ones. They should know what’s realistic for your business and be able to set your expectations from the very beginning.
You don’t have to pick the first SEO provider that comes your way. Feel free to compare your options, shop around, get a second opinion, or otherwise check out different providers so you can choose the right fit for your business. Ultimately, it should come down to who understands your business the best and proves that they have what it takes to bring your business positive results from your SEO campaigns.
Finding the right SEO agency for your business requires researching your options, asking the right questions, and looking out for proof of results. Any agency worth its weight will take the time to understand your business and come up with a strategy that serves to bring your business the best SEO results possible. This guide gave you some ways to identify a good SEO agency and choose the perfect fit for your needs.
There's plenty of room for paid tools in the SEO space — Moz is a prime example — but if you’re just getting started or lack the budget necessary for fancy tools, there are still many resources available.
In this piece, we’re going to cover five of our favorite FREE Google tools, and how they can help you step up your SEO game.
Google Trends is used to track the “trends” around search queries. This makes it a great tool for keyword research.
When you go to Google Trends, you’ll see a search bar where you can input a broad topic or specific search query. Upon entering your query, you’ll be presented with a trend chart of interest in the query over time.
While this may be useful, the real gems are at the bottom of the page: Related Topics and Related Queries.
By default, these boxes will both be set to “rising.” This means that these topics and queries are currently gaining traction. These are the keywords that you may want to capitalize on quickly, as you could be a first-mover and gain rankings quickly.
Even at a base-level, Google Trends is helpful, but you can always take it a step further. Across the top of Google Trends, there is a menu that allows you to specify a region, time period, category, and search platforms.
Region allows you to determine where you want to pull search data from geographically. This can be especially useful when working on local SEO projects.
Category allows you to select the category you’re competing in. This is a nice feature for people who offer a service in a specific industry, or who have a query that’s extremely common.
Search platform allows you to refine the data to specific platforms such as YouTube Search, Image Search, Google Shopping Search, and News Search. Search platform modifiers are great for those with an integrated SEO plan.
Though it’s almost impossible to predict what the Next Big Thing is going to be in e-commerce, you can still stay on top of the game with Rising Retail Categories.
This is Google’s compilation of data on retail. On it, you’ll find currently trending product categories and the searches around them, as well as where exactly they're trending.
As an e-commerce SEO, this can give you a good idea of which products to focus on for the most potential impact.
As an enterprise local SEO, you can use this data to determine which products to focus on in each market.
Google summarizes Visual Stories as “Bite-size visual stories for busy marketers, driven by trending topics and data from Google.”
These stories range from holiday shopping trends to specific industry case studies, and more. They're interactive slides, each with a few insights or data points.
For example, there's a Visual Story about the automotive industry. Throughout the story, there are data points shared to give insight into how the pandemic has affected the car-buying process.
These data points don’t just focus on search data, though. It’s clear that this has been a full-on case study by Google. Some insights shared address the desires, experiences, and perceptions of the audience.
This information can easily be used to change the user journey, including the things that matter to the customer earlier on. It could also be used to address pain points that hadn’t been previously uncovered, or, on a more basic level, give an SEO an idea of what keywords to focus on.
Grow My Store is a fantastic tool for those selling a product either online or in person. Grow My Store tests sites for Google Identifiers for Successful Online Stores.
These identifiers are broken down into five categories: Product Information, Store Details, Personalization, Customer Service, and Security.
This tool literally hands over Google’s idea of the must-haves for a product-selling business website. Some of the components included are product reviews, profiles for shoppers, live chat, and HTTPS.
To use Grow My Store, you simply answer three questions: what is your domain, what type of business do you have, and what industry are you in? Once you answer the questions, you will see a preview of your report with your overall score and some data around your industry. To get your full report complete with recommendations, you have to create an account. The report is then sent to your email.
You then get an account where you can create (and track) a checklist of changes that need to be made — according to Google.
In addition, you’ll get customized data and insights based on your industry. To find this data on Grow My Store, in the menu, select “Reach More Customers.” If you scroll down a bit, you’ll find a section with the heading “Understanding industry trends.” Here you’ll be able to choose your industry and specific category to get specific information such as top searches in that industry, top months for the industry, and so on.
Another great tool for measuring your site in the eyes of Google is Test My Site. Much like Grow My Store, Test My Site tests for three very specific categories of features on your site. These features are Speed, Personalization, and Experience. Unlike Grow My Store, Test My Site is for any website, not just product-base business sites.
The first report you will get from Test My Site is a mini report that breaks down your mobile site speed and any recommendations for fixes. There is also a tool to show the potential ROI of speeding up your site! Talk about buy-in.
If you want even more information, which you will, you can sign up to get the full report. The full report is emailed to you and breaks down recommendations and explanations for both marketers and developers. The report I got back was 16 pages long, filled with links to other resources and case studies as well as tactical tips in the form of a checklist.
While Google can often be cryptic about what they care about on websites, they’ve created quite a few resources that can give you insight into what they find important. Using these tools can easily get you a step ahead.
It’s not just about the tools, though. In 2021, data is more important than ever, and who better to get data from than The Giant themselves?
Now, go forth and be excellent — using free stuff!
As SEOs, our goal when we're creating content is to provide equitable access, which means that content isn’t just available to search engines, but also to people of all abilities. In the second installment of his three-part accessibility series, Cooper shows you how to ensure that your amazing content is accessible by bots AND people.
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Hey, Moz fans. Welcome to the latest edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Cooper Hollmaier. I started doing SEO in 2016, and today I worked at a large outdoor specialty retailer helping make our strategies for technical SEO come alive. Thank you for attending this Session 2 of 3 of our SEO and accessibility series.
If you've taken the intro to SEO course here at Moz, you're probably familiar with the concept called Mozlow's hierarchy of SEO needs. If you're not, the basic idea is that we have to have some foundational elements that are needed to make us rank in search engine results, and then we can layer some things on top to make us more competitive in those results.
But it all starts with crawl accessibility, and in the same way it starts with basic human accessibility as well. Our goal when we're creating content is to provide equitable access. So this means my content is not only available to search engines but people of all abilities as well. Let's look at an example.
Let's say I'm a restaurant. Commonly you'll see restaurants post their menu in the windows of their stores or shops. Well, the problem with this idea, while it seems easy because anyone can walk by, they don't have to look at my Facebook or my website, and they can look at the menu, see what they like or don't like, and then choose to engage with my business and enjoy my food.
What's bad about this is that we've made some assumptions about our ideal audience. We've assumed that they're the average height and that they're tall enough to be able to see the menu that I posted in my window. We've assumed that they have great vision, that they on a rainy day can see the menu items and still make the decision to come inside. We've also assumed that by not including any pictures on our menu people know what we're talking about.
They're familiar with the cuisine that I'm making or the flowery culinary, eloquent culinary language that I'm using to describe my dishes. But I think what you'll find is that these assumptions are exclusive versus inclusive, and we want to be inclusive of all of our audience members. So for example, assume maybe my person is not an average height. How do I account for that?
If they're not the average height, seeing the menu might be impossible. Assume that maybe they have low vision or blindness and ask yourself, "Is this available digitally or in a Braille compatible format that they can access, too?" Or maybe add some pictures, add some different language to your menu to help people understand the culinary language that you're using, because without that they might not understand and they might choose to avoid your restaurant versus come in and see it.
So these are things you can do to assume the best and provide a diverse group of people a better experience.
Let's do some math. If you have 1,000 people in your restaurant every month, we know from last time that 1 in 5 people on average have a disability in the United States. That means 200 of those 1,000 people have a disability, and you're excluding them by not including some information or other mediums to consume your menu.
That compounded as 200 people times let's say an average of $15 a meal, that's $3,000 a month you're leaving on the table quite literally. So think about that. It's not just about providing equitable access, but it will cost your business money too, and $3,000 a month is very expensive, especially for a small business. I'm sure you're saying, "Cooper, what if I'm not a small business? What if I want people to buy my product or give me a lead or come sign up for my service?"
That's okay. These rules apply to you too. It's the mindset. If you have a podcast, an email newsletter, a blog, a website, I would implore you to ask the question, "As a person with __________, can I __________?" Fill in that first blank with things like as a person with colorblindness, ADHD, dyslexia, hard of hearing, Down syndrome, can I and fill in that second blank with whatever you want people to do at your business.
Can I buy a product? Can I read this newsletter? Can I enjoy this podcast? If the answer to that question, that string of questioning, is no, you have a little bit of a problem. You have some work to do, right?
What I'm talking about is following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and these are commonly called WCAG or "Wikag." These guidelines are set up to make sure that our content on the web is accessible.
I think you'll find that as you make your content accessible for people of diverse abilities, you're going to have your content accessible for search engines of diverse abilities too. So following the four principles of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, they are POUR or "Pour": Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, or Robust, I think you'll find that your content resonates better with your audience, you exclude less audience members, and your search engine optimization will ultimately only be that much better.
So what do I mean by perceivable? What I mean by perceivable is we all don't want to look at a brick of text. I think that's pretty clear. We tend to include things like images, video, and audio on our pages. What I want you to do is consider any time you're using those rich media elements to include a text alternative. So this means images, include alt text. Videos, include captions and transcripts.
Audio, same thing, include the transcript so if I can't hear that audio with my speakers, I'm able to either convert it into something I can use or I'm able to enjoy it in some other way. Then when we're talking about video, including an ASL interpreter or converting your presentation into American Sign Language can also be a little bit more inclusive for the audience you're trying to reach and save you a little bit of that money we talked about earlier.
Operable, what I mean by this is: Are your links saying "Click Here" or "Learn More," or are they really telling me where I'm going as a user? Think about your users here. We know we love anchor text. We know that search engines love to see where we're going too. So "Click Here" and "Learn More" aren't as descriptive as they could be. They're not as operable. It's hard for me as a user to operate your website or your email newsletter or your podcast.
Is my content understandable? So this is something I have a hard time doing too sometimes, but considering is the content that I'm writing at a reading level that my audience is going to enjoy that. Have I described it in a language that my customers understand? Oftentimes I think we get stuck in SEO and we start to use a lot of SEO language, especially if you're working at like an agency with clients.
Taking the time to break it down into language that's more understandable will allow you to resonate with a larger set of audience members, but also it will allow you generally to capture those search terms too, right? People aren't looking up PhD level things in Google search. They're looking up language that we can all understand, so consider that.
Then robust, this kind of touches things like: Is my website mobile friendly? Is it responsive? Are the things that I'm producing compatible with a lot of technologies and these technologies include assistive technologies? So POUR, remember those things when producing web content. You shouldn't need a monocle to read what you're producing. You shouldn't need a PhD to read what you're producing. It should be really, really easy for a diverse group of people to access the stuff that you produce.
If you want some more information about WCAG, there's a link right here, and it will be linked in the bottom of this post as well.
So what can you do as a content SEO?
I would ask you to close your eyes and listen to the content that you've written on the page and ask yourself, "Is this SEO optimized, or is this built in a way that a customer would want to engage with it?" What I want you to try to do is try to figure out, "How can I write this piece of content in a way that is just seamless? It's invisible, and I've even optimized this for SEO. It just feels like it's a normal piece of content that resonates with me."
That's what you're looking for. The best SEO is invisible. Help people and bots. Not just bots or not just people. So focus on the Web Accessibility Guidelines. If you want some more information about WCAG, it's right there. Next time, we're going to talk about technical SEO and some behind-the-scenes code that will make your website more accessible for all.
Thanks for watching.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
If you’re currently working to make your website accessible to all users, you’ve probably already heard about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This piece of US federal legislation was passed to prevent discrimination against disabled individuals, either by government agencies or private companies.
Even though the ADA was created before most organizations had an online presence, recent legal precedent shows that the act applies to the accessibility of websites and mobile apps just as much as it does to physical locations, such as stores, restaurants, and movie theaters.
The ADA itself doesn’t set out any specific criteria for web and mobile accessibility. Instead, many web developers and legal professionals turn to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), widely accepted as the benchmark for digital accessibility today.
In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at WCAG, and outline the steps you can take to meet its standards. We’ll also briefly explain why accessible websites typically rank higher in search engines — making accessibility the right choice all around!
Ensuring that your website is accessible to all users already brings huge benefits to your company — if more people visit your website, you’re likely to see an uptick in business. It’s that simple.
Considering the fact that one in four Americans are living with a disability, and that globally, the disposable income of people with disabilities is $1.2 trillion, making your website and mobile applications accessible to everyone opens up your products and services to a new consumer base, and can also lead to significant enhancements in the SEO of your website.
Consider this example: Search engines aim to promote pages with content that is clear and correctly ordered. This means that you need to follow WCAG guidelines on things like headings. If you don’t include the heading ranks in the right order — for instance, by placing text with a fourth-level (<h4>) heading after a second-level (<h2>) heading — you can cause accessibility issues for people using assistive technologies.
Equally, if you don’t provide appropriate alternative text for images, or if you mix up captions with alternative image text, you’ll create issues for users with disabilities and also damage the image SEO on your website.
These are just a couple examples of how improving website accessibility can boost SEO, but for more, be sure to watch Cooper Hollmaier's new Whiteboard Series on the relationship between accessibility and SEO.
Indeed, any investment you make in digital accessibility will also be reflected in your search rankings. In its mission statement, Google says that its purpose is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” “Universally accessible” is the key phrase here. It suggests that as Google continues to evolve its search engine and align it with the principles of accessible design, websites with strong accessibility features will be bumped up higher and higher in its search rankings.
WCAG offers a set of rules for web developers who are looking to create accessible websites. It was created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a global community of public and member organizations that are committed to making the internet open to everyone.
Websites and mobile applications are constantly changing as new technologies and innovations become available. To keep WCAG guidelines up to date, W3C also works to provide fresh advice to web developers on an ongoing basis.
If you review recent digital accessibility lawsuits, you’ll see that WCAG 2.0 is the most widely cited version. However, you should note that this version is already out of date. WCAG 2.1 is now available and provides further guidance on mobile accessibility — and WCAG 2.2 is hot on its heels.
It’s also crucial to note that while “WCAG compliance” is a widely used term, it’s actually a misnomer. Technically, it’s more accurate to think about successfully meeting WCAG standards. The term “WCAG compliance” implies a regulatory body, and W3C is not an industry regulator, nor is it a part of federal legislation. That said, WCAG compliance is the accepted phrasing at both web development conferences and law seminars, so we’ll use the term in this article.
If you’re in the US, yes, it does. Every website that is used by a US citizen, or owned by a US company, is required by law to comply with the ADA. And because WCAG is often cited as a standard for digital accessibility during litigation, following its guidance can help your organization avoid costly and damaging lawsuits. The notion that any company is exempt from ADA compliance is a myth, too.
WCAG sets out four main principles. These offer a solid foundation that web developers can follow to build websites that are accessible to everyone. Let’s take a closer look at each one:
To be perceivable, all the information contained on a website and all the features in its user interface — such as links, text boxes, and buttons — must be presented in ways so that all users can perceive them by at least one of their senses. If any content is hidden to any user, then the website cannot be considered perceivable.
A website is considered to be operable when all users can interact with it and successfully navigate it. If a website has any interactive features, all users need to be able to operate those components.
All users must be able to understand the information and interface of a website. Web pages should appear and operate in predictable ways, and users should be protected against making input errors on pages that cause legal commitments or financial transactions to occur.
The content on a website must be open to interpretation by a broad variety of user agents. For instance, standard web browsers and assistive technologies such as screen readers must be able to access a website, and the content on a website must continue to be accessible as assistive technologies evolve.
On paper, the four principles of accessibility set out in WCAG sound simple enough. But how can you apply them? To help answer this question, WCAG offers more detailed guidelines for each of the four topics and breaks down each recommendation into a set of success criteria. WCAG also outlines several “sufficient techniques” that provide examples of how developers can achieve them in practice. Think of it as a checklist for compliance.
Each success criterion is also classified according to three levels: A, AA, and AAA. A indicates the most basic level of accessibility, and AAA denotes the most comprehensive. Currently, courts are interpreting the middle level, AA, as the benchmark.
While this article aims to provide you with a better understanding of WCAG criteria, it doesn’t list all the guidelines in full. If you want to find out more about each criterion, check out the “How to Meet WCAG” quick reference guide on the W3C website. This offers a definitive guide for each aspect of WCAG with suggestions on how developers can satisfy them.
The level A success criteria details the steps you can take to avoid some of the most serious violations of accessibility principles. For instance, guideline 1.4 focuses on distinguishability, which simply means making it easy for users to perceive content.
Section 1.4.1 Use of Color is a level A success criterion. It explains that websites shouldn’t only use color as the primary way to convey information that indicates action, prompts a response, or is a distinguishing visual element.
If a website included a passage of red-colored text and the hyperlinks in that text were highlighted in green, it would be impossible for a user with red/green color blindness to distinguish links from the text. One way to improve accessibility would be to add another visual cue to the links, such as underlining them or using a different font.
To meet level AA, you first need to satisfy all the level A success criteria. Level AA guidelines naturally build on top of the level A criteria, providing additional requirements.
In Guideline 1.4, for instance, the 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) level AA success criterion augments the guidance of 1.4.1 Use of Color. It outlines that text on any page must have a color contrast ratio of 4.5:1 or higher. There are some exceptions if text is large, or if the images of text are entirely decorative or part of a brand or logo.
You can learn more about how to achieve the correct color contrast in our full article on the topic. For the purposes of this blog, it’s sufficient to imagine the difference between a website where the main text is presented as black text on a white background, versus one where the text is pale yellow on a white background. Black-on-white has a high contrast ratio, while yellow-on-white has a very low contrast ratio. Users with visual impairments often struggle to see small differences in color contrast, which makes it all the more important for websites to ensure that the color contrast ratio of text is high enough to make it readable for all.
The AA level success criteria also include 1.4.4 Resize Text, which recommends that users should be able to enlarge text by up to 200 percent of the standard size without the need for assistive technologies.
As with the two previous levels, level AAA compliance requires meeting all the level A and level AA success criteria first. To achieve level AAA, websites must meet even more detailed standards. For instance, in Guideline 1.4, we find 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced), which lifts the required color contrast ratio from 4.5:1 to 7:1.
Criterion 1.4.8 Visual Presentation adds to 1.4.4 Resize Text by requiring that text can be resized up to 200 percent, while ensuring that the user can still read each full line of text without having to scroll their browser window horizontally. This criterion also makes additional suggestions, such as allowing users to select foreground and background colors themselves, and specifying settings for line spacing and justification that make text easier to read for people with visual or cognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia.
By following the principles of accessible design, you’ll also make it easier for search engines to parse and rank your site.
Of course, digital accessibility is a huge topic, so you may be feeling in need of direction! Happily, there are numerous resources to help, not least of which is the W3C’s complete Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which should become your touchstone for all things accessibility. You can also potentially use their quick reference guide as a checklist for major accessibility topics.
There are also many automated tools available to help you find and fix accessibility issues, including those created by my company, AudioEye, and you can try them out free of charge. We also provide managed services led by a team of accredited experts, so feel free to contact us for advice and recommendations as you take the next step.
