Is accessibility important for SEO?

TL;DR: Yes.

Accessibility on websites has always been important, and one of the key aspects of design. As technology increasingly helps people with disabilities, it has become intrinsically linked to search engine optimization.

More people rely on the Internet in their everyday lives, and more essential services are accessed online rather than over telephones and in person. So accessibility is essential for users if you are and essential service, an online store, a blog and everything in between.

Accessibility was previously seen as a legal requirement, or something to be complied with after the main designs – often an afterthought.

Rather than some form of obligation, accessibility is closely linked to user experience (UX), and your ultimate ranking in search engines. Almost all search engines include user experience guidelines and alternative options for those users with disabilities.

via GIPHY

How does website accessibility affect SEO and rankings?

One of the more common items of optimization is alt texts on images and some links. This increases the relevance of keywords on certain pages, but also helps those with screen readers and other devices to navigate the page.

So by increasing the keywords on pages, you may have helped users navigate your site anyway!

This is also linked to the idea behind structured data. Rather than compiling content and making sense to a user, there are more specific locations and formats for data for crawlers to understand, as well as...