Inclusive SEO: Definition, Its Importance, & How to Do It

Public Information Disclosure in Indonesia is rooted in the rights outlined in Article 28F of the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees everyone the right to seek, obtain, and access information to improve themselves.

To ensure that your technical SEO audit website reaches all audiences without exclusion, implementing inclusive SEO is needed.

What Is Inclusive SEO?

Inclusive SEO is the practice of optimizing website content and structure to ensure accessibility for everyone, regardless of physical, mental, or intellectual abilities.

This approach goes beyond search engine optimization to also focus on making content accessible to users with disabilities.

This practice includes using simple language, providing alt text for images, ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies, and making content easy to understand for users with special needs.

Implementing these SEO practices can expand your audience reach, enhance user experience, and support digital inclusivity.

Why Is Inclusive SEO Important?

A variety of disabilities can create barriers to accessing information online, including physical, sensory, mental, and intellectual challenges. 

Therefore, inclusivity in SEO is essential for reaching a broader audience and is reinforced by Law No. 14 of 2008 on Public Information Disclosure in Indonesia, which emphasizes the need for accessible information dissemination.

This SEO practice is more than a trend; it is a critical aspect of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. It enhances user experience, fosters inclusivity, and offers several benefits.

Here are some other reasons why this SEO strategy is important:

• Expands target audience.
• Improves user experience.
• Strengthens connection with the audience.
• Increases website traffic.
• Boosts conversions and sales.
• Enhances website ranking.

How to Do Inclusive SEO?

While the core principles of this SEO align with general SEO practices, the focus here is on enhancing the user experience for individuals with special needs. 

Here’s how you can implement it:

1. Understand Your Target Audience

First, you need to know your audience’s needs and preferences. 

You can gather demographic data and identify specific accommodations required, such as alternative text for visually impaired users or transcriptions for hearing impaired users. 

Then, you can create audience personas that reflect users' cultural, linguistic, behavioral, and special needs.

2. Use Inclusive SEO Keywords

After identifying your target audience, the next step is to determine the keywords you want to target.

Keyword research for inclusive SEO is actually not much different from regular keyword research. However, you need to consider the audience's perspective and need more.

3. Be Mindful of the Language You Use

The language you use in your content reflects your brand. You need to use simple, clear language that is easily understood by people of varying abilities.

In addition, it’s better to use inclusive language in this SEO practice and avoid language that might reinforce negative stereotypes or biases. The inclusive language helps SEO to open up your content for more people.

For example, don't hastily assume that cosmetics are only used by women.

4. Use Inclusive Design

Next, it’s better to use inclusive design to make it accessible for users with disabilities.

The use of inclusive design is also outlined in the Accessible Media Guidelines by SAPDA. It states that media should be presented in an accessible and inclusive format, even if the content already has simple and clear language.

For example, avoid using red and green and instead use more contrasting blues and oranges that are safe for colorblind audiences.

Aside from colors, you can also differentiate elements on the website, such as adding textures or patterns to help differentiate.

Moreover, content fonts can also be considered so that they are not too small for mobile users.

5. Use Alternative Text

The use of alt text is very important to make visual content design accessible to people with visual impairments.

Alt text is a short description of the image that helps the audience understand the image.

Besides usability, alt text can help search engines increase your website's relevance on search pages.

6. Use User-Friendly Navigation

The navigation structure of a website should be clear and categorized, for easy access by the audience.

You can use easy-to-understand descriptive text for navigation links, build internal links, and use heading tags in the content.

7. Improve Website Accessibility

To improve website accessibility, you can use responsive design for different devices, create content that is easy to understand, create user-friendly forms, and increase website loading speed.

8. Identify Bias

You can identify bias by avoiding sensitive keywords and content. Additionally, you must ensure that your SEO strategy doesn't focus on specific regions.

Also, check your website's accessibility regularly and use the feedback as evaluation material.

9. Collaborate with Accessibility Experts

You can work with experts to maximize website accessibility. This can help you conduct an audit and ensure that accessibility principles are integrated with a good and proper SEO strategy.

10. Perform User Testing

One important step you can't skip is user testing. This stage can help you make sure that your website is truly accessible to everyone.

To do this, you need to have some users visit the site and perform some activities on it, such as navigating pages, making purchases, or filling out forms.

You should include people with different types of disabilities so that you can identify the most common barriers to accessibility and optimize test results.