Web accessibility and ensuring your content can be consumed by all people, is one of the most important issues facing online businesses today. Yet still, it remains surprisingly under the radar amongst many brands, particularly with SMBs. Because of this, many small business owners don’t fully understand how accessibility Impacts their business.
4 Reasons Why Digital Accessibility Is Crucial to Your Business
Accessibility impacts Revenue and Bottom Line
We live in a world where online purchases are part of everyone’s daily life. Its estimated that 1 in 5 people have a disability. People with disabilities globally & their families have a $13 trillion annual spend per year.
Many businesses don’t build with accessibility in mind and are essentially “closed” to a large proportion of websites visitors. Many websites don’t allow users with a disability to convert due to the browser and checkout experience which can significantly impact a business’s bottom line.
However, for those websites that are accessible businesses can see an increase in revenue and a higher conversion rate as less users with a disability bounce from bounce from they site.
Accessibility Impacts Customer Experience
Accessibility Impacts User Experience through the entire website journey, accessible content has better functionality and adaptability for all users, with or without disabilities. To stay relevant within a competitive digital market, brands frequently invest in updates.
Great digital accessibility gives people with disabilities the ability to experience something with an equivalent depth and completeness as everyone else. In a world where 97% of home pages are inaccessible, this offers you to the chance to differentiate your business against the competition, gain customer loyalty and drive better experiences for all your customers.
Accessibility Impacts Brand Reputation
In a highly competitive online space having an accessible website can super charge your brands online presence and reputation. However, if a website user has a poor experience In impact your entire brand image. In a particularly tried 2019 story, instead of fixing its online ordering feature and Domino’s pizza which was originally brought by a blind man named Guillermo Robles, who sued the pizza chain after he was unable to order food on Domino’s website and mobile app despite using screen-reading software.
By making your website accessible it doesn’t only create a positive web experience and customer loyalty, but they won’t stop there they’re likely to share their stories and experiences with family and friends and remined your products or services allowing you to expand your reach.
Accessibility Impacts Search Engine Optimisation
In the digital world ensuring websites are accessible and usable for everyone should be a primary concern for anyone who works within the online space.
There is a huge overlap between SEO and digital accessibility. In 2021 Google started penalizing websites that under perform on digital accessibility, this impacts your entire digital marketing strategy by relegating your website to a lower SERP.