Jon Walter speaking on website accessibility, usability and conversion at Networking In… The Cloud

Three key takeaways from Jon’s talk:

Accessible functionality means you’re not excluding any of your potential audience – important from a business perspective, but also an ethical one

If your site’s not easily accessible for internet users with an impairment, you’re losing up to 1 in 6 potential customers before they even get to know you.

Your site should work for everyone, that’s the basic requirement.

Good web design shouldn’t be impacted by functionality designed to improve accessibility so there’s no reason not to include it.

Lead generation and conversion optimisation is about more than just having a contact form on your website

You should see your website as an active member of your sales team; set targets and measure the performance frequently.

Optimise your site structure to efficiently feed you new business leads at different stages of the conversion funnel.

Make your calls-to-action relevant and clear.

When planning your website content you don’t need to overcomplicate things

Think like a customer – if you hate something, your target audience may well hate it too (we’re looking at you, reCAPTCHA…)

Content should be easy to read, formatted with headers, and enhanced with value-adding elements like social proof, case studies and images/ videos.

Put the most important information somewhere it can easily be found – not in a carousel!

There are a few non-technical resources you can use to optimise your website and make it more useable for visitors with an impairment.

Don’t forget that from March 2021 Google will only be indexing your site in its search rankings if the content is accessible via mobile. (Read more about Google mobile-first indexing at
Search Engine Journal).

In an ideal world, you should be optimising for both devices by default, but if you’re limited on resources you MUST prioritise mobile or your site will be penalised.

WebAIM contrast checker is useful if you’re planning a website colour scheme. Type in the hex code values and the tool will tell you if they pass official web content accessibility guidelines.

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool powered by WebAIM gives you a visual breakdown of where your site may be difficult for impaired users to navigate using assistive technology, along with reasons why, and how to fix it.

Google Page Speed Insights gives your website a speed score out of 100 for both mobile and desktop along with recommendations on the most impactful changes you can make to improve it.

Twenty Eighty Online Skip to Content WordPress Plugin inserts a snippet of code at the top of your website that allows visitors using assistive technology to skip directly to the main content of your site.

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