The Cost of Ignoring Website Accessibility - Searchlite

This month's Searchlite intro written by SEO Analyst & Copywriter, Skye Sonnega.

Hello, Searchlite!

If January was a preview for 2022, it’s going to be a pretty great year! In the past month, we welcomed two new employees, Ben Blanchard and Tatiana Hasbargen. Tatiana joined the SEM team as a Senior Paid Analyst, while Ben joined as an SEO Analyst. We can’t wait to get to know these two better over the next few months!

In other news, Uproer went on its second company ski day at Afton Alps. Like most Minnesota days in January, this one kicked off at a balmy negative five degrees. With everyone dressed head to toe in multiple layers, it was difficult to tell who was who!

We hit the slopes for the morning, and once everyone’s feet got substantially frozen we headed to a local restaurant for lunch and drinks. Some may call us crazy, we call it fun.

How does Google rewrite case studies? What is content arbitrage? We have some great pieces to cover in the January edition of Searchlite, keep reading to learn more!

Content Arbitrage: Shopping at the Thrift Shop of Ideas
by Ryan Law, for Animalz

Key Takeaways:

• Content arbitrage means that one idea that is relevant to one audience can be interesting to another audience when repurposed.
• To source arbitrage opportunities, we need to identify where “information asymmetry” exists. Where does useful content live that is rendered inaccessible to another potential audience?
• There are three content arbitrage tactics: curation, summary, and translation.

Why it Matters:
We can create lasting value by repurposing existing content for a new audience. This is a great way to create content that is unique, while also saving yourself the time and effort that comes with creating something new. The key is to tap into sources where your audience isn’t. When you’re reading the latest findings in the New York Times, or watching your favorite Office episode, challenge yourself to find ways you can relay the story and information back to your audience.

We Studied 81,000 Page Titles – Google Rewrote 61% Of Them
By Cyrus Shepard, for Zyppy

Key Takeaways: 

• Google rewrites pages with parentheses in the page title “(2021 Version)” less often than those with brackets “[2021 Version]”
• Using a dash “- Brand Name” as your title separator results in less title changes than using a pipe “| Brand Name”
• If your H1 matches your page title, Google is significantly less likely to change your page title

Why it Matters:
You spend a lot of time and effort crafting engaging, on-brand page titles. When Google rewrites them, it risks lowering click-through-rate, brand awareness and more. By following a few of these simple guidelines, you reduce the chances of Google putting its own spin on your page titles. In our humble opinion, it’s well worth it.

The Cost of Ignoring Website Accessibility
by George Nguyen, for Search Engine Land

Key Takeaways:

• Not being ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant can be a costly endeavour if you’re caught out. With costs for SEO help, costs for designers, and costs for developers, you’re not only out the money you were fined, you’re out their pricing too.
• There’s a lot of resources out there on website accessibility, and with these lawsuits becoming more and more prevalent, it would be wise for SEOs and other marketers to invest up front in a compliant web presence, rather than leaving some of those recommendations on the “nice to have” list.
• There are recorded instances of lawyers racking up multiple suits of this kind, indicating that they’ve found this to be a lucrative vein for easy settlements and wins. Our advice, be on the front foot and make your website accessible - and remember, accessibility isn’t accessible unless it’s maintained.

Why it Matters:
Accessibility has always been in and around the scope of SEO, with some practitioners leaning UX and into it, and others leaning tech and out of it. But the reality is that accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. No, I’m not talking about page speed accessibility, I’m talking about accessibility in the true sense of the word. Accessibility is about making the web more accessible for everyone.

Recently, we’re seeing a trend - outlined in this article - where companies that have traditionally not focused on website accessibility are being sued for non-compliance with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). It’s become an easy win for lawyers and their clients and it’s costing businesses big money in both fines and updates to the website.

While being ADA compliant isn’t all about the money, it can be an unforeseen line item that could really hurt your bottom line, especially if you’re trying to get acquired. Be sure you’re working with vendors that know their stuff around ADA compliance and start putting those items towards the top of your to-do list.

Other Interesting Reads:

• Europe's Move Against Google Analytics is Just the Beginning
• Google Loses Top Domain Spot to Tik Tok