When you’re running a business that sells products online, the aim is to attract as many visitors to your eCommerce website as possible…and keep them coming back. Having a well-designed website that’s clear and easily navigable creates a better user experience for potential customers and contributes to visits and sales.
Web accessibility can be an afterthought when designing a website, but a large number of potential customers will also be disabled. Making your website more accessible for people with accessibility issues makes ethical sense and business sense.
Better UX for Everyone
An eCommerce website that is designed for as many people as possible has more chance of making more sales. There are lots of things your business can do to make visiting your website a more pleasant and easy experience for people with disabilities.
- Keyboard-based navigation
- Search by voice
- Better content readability
- Video transcripts
- Clear alt tag descriptions
If you produce lots of videos for your website or social media accounts then making sure you sub-title videos can allow people with hearing impairments to be able to enjoy visual content too.
It’s worth keeping in mind the layout of the content on your site aswell – people may be reading your site using screen readers and large font sizes.
Search Rankings
Websites that are inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities tend to rank well on search engines, Mainly because search engines can’t listen or watch video content, so if you’re producing video transcripts, captions and audio descriptions then you’re creating ways for search engines to read index text and index your content more. Coders and developers can also add semantics to code when using new HTML, so search engines can better understand what parts of your website are doing.
More Traffic
If your website is built in an accessible way then you’re opening it up to more potential customers. People with disabilities will find a website designed with them in mind easier to use and hopefully this means that they’re more likely to buy something, or visit again. Being faced with a difficult to use website that doesn’t cater to their needs tends to put people off. Increasing the pool of users you’re attracting with the design of your site can boost your inbound traffic and lead to more sales.
Your brand image will improve too. Supporting everyone when using your website and trying to make it as accessible as possible can only be a good thing and lead to more positive interactions with customers. You’re more likely to see people recommending your website to others if they have a good user experience.
There’s definitely a growing demand for more accessibility in society in general as many spaces, especially digital spaces are built with only a very narrow user base in mind. If you build your website with an inclusive mindset then you can tap into lots more potential customers and make your site an easy, enjoyable experience for everyone – boosting sales and brand loyalty in the process.
For any advice or requests, contact DOWO today.