Accessibility Audits: A 10-Step Checklist for Compliance and Ranking

In today's digital landscape, website accessibility isn't just a legal requirement—it's a powerful driver for SEO performance and user experience. At ideaflow.studio, we understand that creating accessible websites is both a moral imperative and a strategic business decision. Our comprehensive 10-step accessibility audit checklist will help you achieve WCAG compliance while simultaneously boosting your search rankings.

Why Accessibility and SEO Go Hand in Hand

Before diving into our checklist, let's understand why accessibility matters for your search engine rankings:

"Websites that prioritize accessibility tend to offer better user experiences, leading to increased engagement, lower bounce rates, and improved SEO performance indirectly."

Recent studies have shown a strong correlation between accessibility improvements and SEO performance. A joint study by SEMrush, AccessibilityChecker.org, and BuiltWith revealed that websites implementing accessibility solutions experienced an average 12% increase in overall traffic, with 73.4% seeing an increase in organic traffic.

This correlation exists because many accessibility best practices align perfectly with SEO best practices:

• Well-structured content with proper headings helps both screen readers and search engines understand your content hierarchy
• Alt text for images makes your visual content accessible to screen readers and helps search engines understand image content
• Keyboard navigation improves usability for those with motor impairments and ensures search engines can properly crawl your site
• Descriptive link text helps users and search crawlers understand where links lead
• Improved page speed benefits all users and is a known ranking factor

Now, let's explore our comprehensive 10-step checklist for conducting an effective accessibility audit.

The 10-Step Accessibility Audit Checklist

Step 1: Assess Your Website Structure and Navigation

Key actions:

• Ensure all pages have properly structured headings (H1-H6) in a logical hierarchy
• Verify that keyboard navigation works across all interactive elements
• Check that all pages are reachable through multiple navigation paths
• Ensure a visible focus indicator appears on all interactive elements
• Test skip navigation links to bypass repetitive content

SEO benefits: Search engines rely heavily on proper heading structure to understand content importance and relationships. Clear navigation patterns help search engines discover and index all your content efficiently.

Step 2: Evaluate Text and Typography

Key actions:

• Ensure sufficient color contrast (4.5:1 ratio for normal text, 3:1 for large text)
• Check that text can be resized up to 200% without loss of content or functionality
• Avoid justified text which can create "rivers of white space"
• Ensure line spacing is at least 1.5 times the font size
• Use readable font families and avoid excessive use of all caps

SEO benefits: Improved readability directly impacts user engagement metrics like time on site and bounce rate, which are important signals for search rankings.

Step 3: Review Image Accessibility

Key actions:

• Add descriptive alt text to all informative images
• Use empty alt attributes (alt="") for decorative images
• Ensure complex images have extended descriptions
• Avoid using images of text unless necessary
• Check that icons and buttons with images have appropriate text alternatives

SEO benefits: Descriptive alt text helps search engines understand image content, improving opportunities for image search traffic and providing more contextual information about your content.

Step 4: Audit Video and Audio Content

Key actions:

• Provide accurate captions for all video content
• Include audio descriptions for important visual information in videos
• Offer transcripts for audio-only content
• Ensure media players are keyboard accessible
• Provide alternatives to time-based media

SEO benefits: Transcripts and captions make your multimedia content indexable by search engines, dramatically increasing the searchable content on your site.

Step 5: Check Forms and Interactive Elements

Key actions:

• Ensure all form inputs have associated labels
• Group related form elements with fieldsets and legends
• Provide clear error messages and suggestions for correction
• Avoid time limits where possible, or provide options to extend
• Ensure CAPTCHA alternatives are available

SEO benefits: Well-structured forms improve conversion rates and reduce abandonment, sending positive user experience signals to search engines.

Step 6: Test for Color and Contrast Issues

Key actions:

• Verify color is not the only means of conveying information
• Ensure UI components have a 3:1 minimum contrast ratio
• Test site usability in grayscale
• Check for sufficient contrast in hover and focus states
• Review color combinations for common color blindness types

SEO benefits: Better visual clarity improves engagement metrics like time on page and pages per session, which can positively influence rankings.

Step 7: Verify Mobile Accessibility

Key actions:

• Ensure content reflows appropriately on small screens without horizontal scrolling
• Check that touch targets are at least 44x44 pixels
• Test gesture alternatives for complex interactions
• Verify orientation is not restricted
• Ensure consistent functionality across devices

SEO benefits: Mobile accessibility directly impacts your mobile usability scores, which are critical for rankings in Google's mobile-first indexing environment.

Step 8: Review Dynamic Content and ARIA

Key actions:

• Ensure custom widgets have appropriate ARIA roles and properties
• Test that dynamic content changes are announced to screen readers
• Verify that status messages are properly communicated
• Check that modal dialogs trap focus appropriately
• Ensure that interactive elements with changing states convey those changes programmatically

SEO benefits: Proper implementation of ARIA helps search engines better understand complex interactive elements and their relationships.

Step 9: Validate Code and Standards Compliance

Key actions:

• Run automated validators for HTML and CSS
• Check for proper language attributes
• Ensure page titles are unique and descriptive
• Verify that landmarks and regions are properly defined
• Test with multiple browsers and assistive technologies

SEO benefits: Clean, validated code makes it easier for search engine crawlers to parse your content and understand your site structure.

Step 10: Conduct User Testing and Gather Feedback

Key actions:

• Include users with disabilities in your testing process
• Test with various assistive technologies (screen readers, voice recognition, etc.)
• Create personas for different disability types to guide testing
• Document and prioritize identified issues
• Implement a continuous improvement process

SEO benefits: Real user testing identifies usability issues that might not be caught by automated tools but could still impact user experience signals for search engines.

Implementing Your Accessibility Audit Results

After completing your audit, you'll likely have a list of issues to address. We recommend prioritizing them as follows:

1. Critical issues that completely block access for some users (e.g., keyboard traps, missing alt text on crucial images)
2. Major barriers that significantly hinder usability (e.g., poor color contrast, unlabeled forms)
3. Enhancement opportunities that could improve the experience (e.g., better heading structure, enhanced ARIA)

Remember that accessibility is not a one-time project but an ongoing commitment. As you update your website, continue to incorporate accessibility into your development and content processes.

"An accessible website is not just about compliance—it's about creating an inclusive digital experience that works better for everyone, including search engines."

Case Study: How Accessibility Improved Rankings

One of our clients, an e-commerce platform specializing in home goods, implemented our accessibility checklist as part of their website redesign. Within three months, they saw:

• 18% increase in organic search traffic
• 23% reduction in bounce rate
• 14% increase in average session duration
• 27% improvement in conversion rates for visitors using assistive technologies

These improvements came not just from better accessibility, but from the parallel SEO benefits that accessibility enhancements provided.

Beyond Compliance: The Business Case for Accessibility

While legal compliance is a compelling reason to invest in accessibility, the business benefits extend much further:

• Expanded market reach to the approximately 15% of the global population with disabilities
• Improved usability for all users, not just those with disabilities
• Reduced legal risk from potential accessibility lawsuits
• Enhanced brand reputation as an inclusive, socially responsible organization
• Better SEO performance leading to increased organic traffic and conversions

Conclusion

Website accessibility is a multifaceted challenge that requires attention to technical, design, and content aspects of your digital presence. By following our 10-step accessibility audit checklist, you can create a more inclusive website that not only meets legal requirements but also performs better in search rankings.

At ideaflow.studio, we specialize in creating beautiful, functional, and accessible websites that deliver exceptional user experiences for everyone. Our team combines expertise in accessibility, SEO, and cutting-edge web development to ensure your digital presence is both inclusive and high-performing.

Ready to make your website more accessible and boost your search rankings? Contact us today for a comprehensive accessibility audit and customized implementation plan tailored to your specific needs.

---

This article was written by the ideaflow.studio team, a web design and development agency based in Kazakhstan specializing in creating accessible, high-performance websites for clients worldwide.