Five Ways To Improve Video SEO and UX With Accessibility

Paul Smyth, the Head of Digital Accessibility at Barclays, believes that the need for web accessibility is justified. It is a proposition that can be summarized into these three things: “legal requirements, commercial opportunity and the moral imperative.”

Today, accessibility isn’t a never-heard-of concept. Instead, it has become an integral part of operations worldwide. By encouraging accessibility in their system, companies are strengthening their brand identity, boosting employee productivity and customer experience and steering clear of legal risks. 

What Are User Experience (UX) and Video Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Source

User experience (UX) is a user’s interaction with a website, products or services. From branding to function, UX designs the entire process to be suitable for the user. It provides solutions to users if they face difficulties while accessing services. The process doesn’t ever stop but keeps evolving as new problems come to the surface. 

Video SEO is the process of optimizing videos so that they index and rank better for relevant search queries. If you nail the syntax of video SEO, you enjoy more traffic from various channels. Additionally, your authority in the digital space increases as you rank higher for a search query or a keyword.

What Does Accessibility Mean?

Source

Accessibility is a concept applied to understand if all can use a product or a service. The goal is to provide the best experiences to people, despite their disabilities and limitations. People’s auditory, cognitive, neurological and visual aspects need to be considered to create content or websites that are entirely accessible. 

When working on website development with designers and developers, you need to ensure that your website helps all users:

• Navigate smoothly through the entire website.
  
• Find information they were looking for.
  
• Have a better overall user experience.

How Does Accessibility Improve Video SEO and UX?

Source

1. Transcribed Videos Create More Indexing Opportunities for SEO

As essential videos are to content marketing, so are transcriptions to videos. Transcription is a written version of the video content. This format makes the video content more accessible as it caters to more people. When you convert MP3 to text, you are making sure your content reaches in equal measure to the following:

• People with visual and hearing disabilities
  
• People in noisy surroundings
  
• People who react adversely to light

When you transcribe your videos, you should thoroughly describe what is happening in the video. It will aid Google in understanding your content and increase the chances of your video getting indexed. Additionally, people can easily search for your video, raising your ranking on search results. 

2. A Structured Web Page Takes User Experience to the Next Level

A structured web page will perform better than those web pages with no proper system. There might be bits and sections that a user would want to skip, and this structure is what will help them. Your users should be able to easily navigate through your website to find the content they’re searching for. 

People with cognitive disabilities can choose which web page sections should be skipped. For users, a structured and rhythmic flow of content will elevate the user experience in its entirety. When you become inclusive of your users’ needs, you will be helping video SEO and improving UX and its scope. 

3. Alt Text Makes It Easier for Google To crawl and Index Your Website

Alternative, or Alt Text, is used to describe the content of an image. Upon doing this, Google understands the purpose of this image and displays it to users searching for related information. When more users avail of alt text, Google will know that your content is accessible and will help improve SEO.

People having weak eyesight and are blind often use such methods to understand what a website is all about or read the content displayed on the screen. Alt text is supposed to be as descriptive as possible so that the user and SEO are happy. 

4. Accessible Video Formats and Players for Better Quality

You should be able to create content for video in such a form that it can easily integrate with the main video. Proper captions, descriptions and audio descriptions must be provided so that visually impaired people can understand the video in one go. 

Furthermore, you must have the recommended bandwidth in your video, nothing less or high. You can do this by compressing or converting videos into the recommended format. You will save a lot on bandwidth while hosting large files. 

5. Elevate User Experience by Implementing the Best Design Practices

User experience will help you retain your customers for the longest time on your website. If you see a high bounce rate on your website, it implies that users aren’t happy with the interface. You must use the best UI design tools to develop a website that is SEO-compliant and visitor-friendly. 

Even though user experience doesn’t directly impact Google rankings, it is one of the prime reasons your website ranks where it is. The trick here is to develop such a user experience that your website visitors and customers spend more time than usual on your website. This indirectly signals Google that your website satisfies searcher intent and will up your ranking.

Some of the UX best practices that you can follow for an accessible website are:

• Position your company logo on the top left of web pages and link it directly to the homepage.
  
• Left-align all text to simplify reading.
  
• Increase the page loading speed to reduce bounce rates.
  
• Optimize your website for mobile devices.

How Do Accessibility and UX Go Together?

Technological advancements have reduced face-to-face interactions and simplified online processes, and ensuring a positive user experience has become all the more important. Earlier, only website developers and designers had a say in UX. Now, the power has been passed on to the customer or the visitor. 

Content in the form of articles and blogs is convincing enough to push a customer towards making a purchase. Video content has become more interesting with the usage of colors, graphics, information, and much more. Accessibility and inclusivity are encouraged through the video’s captions and transcripts. These factors contribute to a better UX focusing on users and their expectations. 

How Do Accessibility and Video SEO Go Together?

Source

There is an unlimited amount of information on Google and other search engines. Not everybody can quickly find the data they need. Therefore, content needs to be created in such a way that it builds engagement and matches with search queries. The process where these metrics are taken care of is known as SEO. When video content comes into the picture, the process is called video SEO. 

Video content is consumed the most, but poor design and technical issues can make such content inaccessible to people with impairments. If your website isn’t accessible by all, the technical aspects like page loading speed, bounce rate and traffic will get affected. This is why all website design and SEO should be centered around the user. 

Merging Video SEO and UX for Wider Accessibility

Videos are great tools to keep the audience engaged for a longer duration compared to other formats. Companies are now investing big bucks into video production for their marketing videos and other forms. As trends and technology keep changing, there is a need to be thoughtful and innovative in how videos are created to benefit both parties involved. 

Video SEO is a concept that companies in the digital space often ignore. Doing so limits the videos’ reach and diminishes the quality of the user experience. The industry’s best players are constantly seeking ways to please users and make the best gains from SEO. With video content being in demand more than ever, there has been no better time to improve accessibility, create better website designs and welcome more people and viewing experiences. 

Conclusion

A perfect web design and content optimized for SEO will go a long way in improving the accessibility of your company’s website. Once you are end-to-end accessible, you can avail maximum benefits at a lesser expense, even on the technical front. All you need is the help of resources committed to providing you with accessible web design and video content. The future doesn’t see accessibility as an enhanced feature anymore but as a standard practice.