{"id":13879,"date":"2025-01-10T13:33:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T18:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/?page_id=13879"},"modified":"2025-02-04T14:16:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T19:16:49","slug":"accessibility-and-seo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/accessibility\/accessibility-and-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility and SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"
Across the ºÚÁÏÍø\u2019s WordPress network, over 70% of web traffic originates from Google searches. This underscores the critical role of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in ensuring your content reaches its intended audience.<\/p>\n
SEO is an ongoing process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for users to discover your site when searching for relevant information. At its core, SEO is about aligning your content with what users need and what search engines value. Following SEO best practices\u2014such as using relevant keywords, creating clear and engaging content, and ensuring fast page loading times\u2014helps boost your site\u2019s visibility, attract more visitors, and drive engagement. These efforts directly support your broader goals, whether that\u2019s disseminating knowledge, recruiting, or building a community.<\/p>\n
Accessibility (A11Y) is a vital component of SEO. Accessible websites are designed to be usable by everyone, including individuals with disabilities. This ensures inclusivity while aligning with SEO principles. For example:<\/p>\n
Focusing on accessibility doesn\u2019t just make your site more usable\u2014it also improves your search rankings, enhances user experience, and ensures compliance with legal standards. It\u2019s a win-win for both inclusivity and discoverability.<\/p>\n
\/medicine\/education\/residency\/curriculum<\/code> indicates that the page is about “the curriculum” for the “residency” which is part of “education” in “medicine.”<\/li>\n- Leverage XML Sitemaps:<\/strong> Our websites automatically generate XML sitemaps to ensure that all published pages, events, posts, profiles, etc. are discoverable by search engines – even if they\u2019re not linked in your site’s navigation menu or from other pages.<\/li>\n
- Monitor for Orphaned Pages:<\/strong> Identify and address pages that aren\u2019t linked anywhere but are still indexed through the sitemap. These pages can confuse users and dilute your site\u2019s SEO value.<\/li>\n
- Avoid Duplicate Content:<\/strong> Ensure all content is unique. For similar topics across multiple URLs, tailor content to specific audiences or consolidate to a single, authoritative page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
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Mobile Optimization<\/h3>\n\n- Design Mobile-Friendly Pages:<\/strong> Use responsive designs and content layouts, like those in the School of Medicine\u2019s Cells Plugin<\/a>, to ensure optimal display across devices.<\/li>\n
- Adopt Mobile-First Principles:<\/strong> Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, so accessible, mobile-friendly designs will improve your SEO performance. With 50% of visitors using mobile devices, prioritizing mobile usability will also align your SEO efforts with your audience needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
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Captions and Transcripts<\/h3>\n\n- Provide Captions for Videos:<\/strong> Enhance usability and SEO by adding captions to videos. Learn more about video captioning<\/a><\/li>\n
- Include Audio Transcripts:<\/strong> Text-based transcripts improve accessibility and allow search engines to crawl and index your audio content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
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Content Cleanup<\/h3>\n\n- Archive Outdated Content:<\/strong> Remove or archive old draft pages, past events, or content that no longer attracts traffic.<\/li>\n
- Consolidate Low-Traffic Pages:<\/strong> Rewrite, merge, or delete pages with minimal engagement to improve overall site relevance and search rankings.<\/li>\n
- Use Analytics Tools:<\/strong> Leverage tools like Google Analytics<\/a> to identify pages that need updating or removal based on traffic patterns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Learn more about cleanup strategies for your website<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n- \n
Streamline Plugins and Media<\/h3>\n\n- Deactivate Unused Plugins:<\/strong> Remove unused WordPress plugins to enhance site security and performance.<\/li>\n
- Clean the Media Library:<\/strong> Regularly delete outdated or unused media files, as all uploaded items are discoverable by search engines. Ensure all media items comply with accessibility standards and copyright regulations.<\/li>\n
- Ensure A11Y Compliance for Media:<\/strong> Confirm that all uploaded media items (like documents<\/a>) are accessible, with alt text for images<\/a> and captions for videos<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
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Optimize Site Navigation<\/h3>\n\n- Align Navigation with Page Structure:<\/strong> Organize your navigation menus<\/a> to match your site\u2019s hierarchy. This helps users find content easily and signals structure to search engines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Across the ºÚÁÏÍø\u2019s WordPress network, over 70% of web traffic originates from Google searches. This underscores the critical role of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in ensuring your content reaches its intended audience. SEO is an ongoing process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79967,"featured_media":0,"parent":9092,"menu_order":50,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-13879","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79967"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13879"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14008,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13879\/revisions\/14008"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}