Somo SEO digital marketing has been building websites since 2008 and has tested several building platforms. They inevitably gravitated towards WordPress for multiple reasons including design flexibility and stabilization. It wasn't until 2015 that they began to understand search engine optimization and 2019 before working with ADA standards, which go hand in hand.
Website Accessibility (a11y) standards affect as much as 20% of the population. This means businesses can increase traffic and sales just by making their website accessible. Additionally, there is a federal tax credit of up to $5000 to do so for small businesses that meet certain criteria.
Today there are many options for obtaining a website including many DIY (Do It Yourself) website builders. While website builders are typically low-cost and easy to get, one must wonder what is missing? A lot!
Website builders are easy to use and may even look impressive. However, from a search engine and developer standpoint, it is missing a valuable website structure. The optimization is limited to the setting allowed by the builder program. There is no access to the code required to fully optimize a website for search engines. There is also a disconnection in the ranking algorithm, which limits exposure, therefore, limiting traffic and sales. But this is only the beginning, there is also the issue of website accessibility.
Website accessibility has become a growing concern amongst website builders and web 2.0 properties. Out of the billions of websites online 97% are not ADA compliant. In 2019, there were approximately 9,000 lawsuits regarding WCAG 2.1 AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). In 2022, the number expected to rise to over 100,000 lawsuits. While most business owners want more sales, exposing your business without website compliance does potentially open up this concern.
The good news is that the IRS offers a federal tax credit to businesses for ADA improvements. While most people instantly think of sidewalk ramps and grab bars, this also includes your website, website content, and on-page SEO to comply with the WCAG web standards mentioned earlier.
Website accessibility is really just an extension of good SEO. Unfortunately, there are people offering a quick fix to accessibility via a plugin, this is also the case with SEO. However, experts agree that these plugins do no correctly address accessibility or search engine optimization. They can even become a target to identify a shortcut that is not effective.
Updating a business website to ADA standards will not only help with SEO and expand the audience, but it will increase traffic and ultimately sales.
Somo SEO offers fast, responsive, and mobile-friendly websites built in accordance with W3C and WCAG 2.1 AA (ADA Website Accessibility) website standards and protection audits that may qualify you for a tax credit. To find out how to get the IRS to help pay for your website, website improvements, and SEO content contact Somo SEO for a free consultation.
