By not being allowed to leave our homes, websites in 2021 had to work for multiple, if not all, demographics — not just the tech-savvy generations. Digital marketers, graphic designers, and e-commerce managers had to ensure that their websites were easy to use, find, and made accessible for everyone.
However, 98% of websites based out of the US fail to comply with accessibility requirements for people with disabilities. That is a lot of businesses that are neglecting a major consumer demographic. In fact, in 2021 alone, there were over 4,000 web accessibility lawsuits, up 19.8% from the previous year
While there is still a ways to go, there was a lot of focus on creating a more accessible online experience within the digital marketing industry in 2021. But what exactly does website accessibility look like? Here’s the criteria we align our work with:
Web Accessibility Criteria
Operable: Making it easy for users to navigate the website.
Perceivable: Improving the user experience online and removing any barriers.
Understandable: Make it easy for users to find the information they want.
Robust: Websites need to be able to be used on multiple platforms.
Web Accessibility Examples
For a business owner, let’s break down the value of ensuring your website offers an accessible experience to your customers online through two different examples.
For The Hearing and Vision Impaired
Up first: being accessible to the hearing impaired and visually impaired. To meet accessibility guidelines, this means adding text wherever and whenever sound is present. It is important to add transcripts and subtitles to any motion graphic or video added to a website. As a bonus, transcriptions also help your video get indexed.
But why do we need to do this? Individuals who are visually impaired rely on screen reading software to navigate the internet. When search engine optimizations such as proper HTML heading structure is not applied to page content or alternative text is not added to images, screen readers are not able to effectively scan a website, therefore excluding someone with a visual impairment. This is becoming increasingly important as we see a rise in voice searches, with half of smartphone users interacting with voice search technology on a daily basis.
As digital marketers we understand the value of search engine optimizations like proper heading structure, adding descriptive link text, and alternative text. In the past, users had to create search queries that fit what the Google algorithm would understand — AKA robotic keywords only. Today, Google has grown to use machine learning to populate results from more real-life language patterns. This means that rather than keyword-stuffing websites for search engine robots, it is now best practice to write using natural language for the ease of the user’s experience.
For Mobile and Tablet Devices
Second: being accessible on mobile and tablet devices. Ensuring that a website is operable for all users despite the device they are browsing on allows people to complete objectives online flexibly, which is a pillar of accessibility.
Did you know that even if you rank on page one for a search query on desktop, you are not guaranteed to be on page one across all devices such as phones and tablets? We learned that only 13% of websites have been able to maintain the same rank position for a keyword on all devices.
Even more interesting, 30% of websites that appear on the first page of search results on desktop do not appear on page one on mobile. According to SEMRush, 71.76% of domains change rankings by one position on mobile compared to desktop, 52.16% change up to three positions, and 29.16% change up to 10 positions. Moving down a couple of positions may not seem like a huge problem, but mobile search users have vastly different habits to users on desktop. When searching on a mobile device, users are less likely to browse multiple pages. Not being in the top three search results could have a serious effect on your mobile traffic.
Not only does choosing to make your website accessible to the masses enable you to connect with a bigger market, but when implemented properly, it increases a website’s ranking and performance on search engines like Google. This last year has seen Google has shifted their algorithm to reward those websites that provide a positive user experience, including making mobile-first indexing the default behaviour in search results.
Optimize Your Website For Accessibility with The Influence Agency
At The Influence Agency, we make sure that all our websites meet the requirements of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), but what we saw over the last year that was of significant interest, was the impact that those guidelines had on SEO.
If you are looking to increase your organic performance online, it has never been more important than now to make sure that your website is optimized for accessibility. Contact us to get started!
Rocco Bombardieri is the Art Director at TIA and also the one writing this little byline. All I, wait, I guess it's all he wants to do is drink a black coffee, go for a run, and make a killer website. The order of those don't matter, but oftentimes, that's the way it is. If you ever have to question whether or not I/he is making a joke, here's a hint: I/he am/is.
Rocco Bombardieri is the Art Director at TIA and also the one writing this little byline. All I, wait, I guess it's all he wants to do is drink a black coffee, go for a run, and make a killer website. The order of those don't matter, but oftentimes, that's the way it is. If you ever have to question whether or not I/he is making a joke, here's a hint: I/he am/is.
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Perfect Your PPC Marketing Strategy
Paid Search Checklist
1. Define Your Goals
Are you aiming to increase web traffic or grow your social media presence? Figure out why you’re leveraging paid media in the first place and build your strategy from there. Having clearly defined goals in mind will help you focus on your brand’s key priorities.
2. Outline a TOFU/MOFU/BOFU Strategy
Designing strategies that cater to all three stages of the buyer journey ensures that you’re maximizing your brand’s reach. Every user at every stage is valuable—and you have to make sure you’re creating paid media content that speaks to each audience type.
3. Research Keywords for Search
Effective paid media is tied to targeting the right keywords. If you’re leveraging paid search ads to appear on SERPs (search engine results pages), then in-depth research is necessary. Bid on the keywords that are most relevant to your business to trigger only the most effective ad appearances.
4. Craft Engaging Ad Copy & Stand-Out Creative
Gather your team—because it’s time to start coming up with ad copy that wins attention. The key is to resonate with your audience and inspire engagement. Be real. Be relatable. And most importantly, don’t underestimate the power of creativity.
5. Create Conversion-Friendly Landing Pages
Do the landing pages on your website effectively push visitors further down the sales funnel? If not, you’re letting potential customers slip through your fingers. Optimize each of your landing pages so that they nudge users towards converting.
6. Choose Your Paid Platforms
The options are plenty when it comes to paid advertising, including Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Pinterest among others. Analyze who your target demographic is, research where it’s best to connect with them, and then target the platforms where you wish to build awareness.
7. Build Campaigns & Ad Groups/Sets
If you’re ready to build your paid media ad campaign, you’ll find that it will be further broken down into “ad groups” to ensure more effective pay-per-click advertising. These ad groups house one or more ads that have similar targets or categories. Let’s say your brand’s website features categories such as clothing, shoes, and accessories. Creating ad groups according to keywords that fall under these categories will help the PPC system decide when to show ads for these products.
8. Don’t Forget About Retargeting Ads
Retargeting ads are bound to succeed because it’s a second shot at a conversion. Visitors have shown interest in the product/service once before, and sometimes all it takes is a little reminder to push them to the checkout page. So don’t forget to retarget and aim better this time.
9. Run A/B Tests
In the world of paid media, what works and what doesn’t? You’ll have to run A/B tests to find out! Whether you’re testing which keywords bring more traffic or which social platforms earn more ad engagement, you won’t find out what really works for your brand until you test it.
10. Track Your Results
Revisit your initial goals. Did your efforts bring about the results you expected? Tracking results is an essential step in your brand’s paid advertising campaigns. The data you collect from currently running ads will help lay the foundation for your future campaigns.
11. Adjust as Needed
After tracking your results, you’ll be able to see where adjustments are necessary. There’s always room for improvement, so keep striving to consistently resonate and build trust with your audience—it’s how to create paid ads that pay off.
Perfect Your PPC Marketing Strategy
Paid Search Checklist
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