When people talk about accessibility, they often frame it as a compliance job. Something you “have to do” for WCAG, procurement, public sector contracts, or to avoid getting shouted at (or worse).
But here’s the more useful way to look at it:
Accessibility improvements usually make your site easier to use for everyone. And “easier to use” is basically another way of saying “more likely to convert”.
In the UK, this matters more than many teams realise. Around 1 in 4 people in the UK are disabled (16.8 million in 2023/24). That’s before you even factor in temporary impairments (a broken arm), situational constraints (sun glare on mobile), ageing users, slow connections, stress, or neurodiversity.
So if your site is hard to read, hard to navigate, or fiddly on mobile… you’re not just creating a barrier for a small group. You’re quietly leaking leads and revenue.
This article breaks down why accessibility and SEO so often rise together, and how to turn WCAG work into measurable conversion lifts — not just a tick-box exercise.
What WCAG work really changes (and why Google tends to like it)
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is essentially a set of rules that push you towards clearer content, cleaner UX patterns, and fewer “gotchas”. WCAG 2.2 became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023.
Now think about what modern SEO has become:
- It’s not just keywords.
- It’s page experience, clarity, intent matching, crawlability, internal linking, and outcomes.
- It’s whether a user lands… and can actually do the thing.
That’s why accessibility often pulls the same levers SEO pulls — just from a different angle.
If you’re already running a proper SEO audit, you’ll recognise the overlap. Accessibility is tightly linked to user journeys, navigation, content structure, interaction design, and technical foundations — which are also core inputs to rankings and conversion.
The 3-way overlap: accessibility, SEO, and conversion rate
1) Accessibility makes intent easier to satisfy
If a page is easy to scan, understand, and interact with, users complete tasks faster. That reduces friction, which lifts conversion rate.
The same improvements also help SEO because search engines are trying to rank pages that satisfy users. When engagement improves (and pogo-sticking drops), your SEO usually benefits.
Practical examples:
- Headings that actually describe sections (instead of “Welcome” or “Our Solutions” 7 times).
- Clear labels on form fields.
- Error messages that tell people what to fix, not just “invalid input”.
- Buttons that look and behave like buttons.
2) Accessibility forces better structure (which helps crawlers)
WCAG pushes you towards semantic HTML and predictable structure. That’s great for screen readers — and it’s also great for search engines.
Things like:
- Proper heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3)
- Meaningful link text (not “click here” everywhere)
- Lists that are real lists
- Tables used for data, not layout
- Landmarks and consistent navigation
If you’ve ever done Technical SEO properly, you already know structure is half the battle.
3) Accessibility improvements reduce abandonment (especially on mobile)
A lot of WCAG fixes are, in reality, mobile UX fixes.
- Tap targets too small? That’s a conversion killer on mobile.
- Low contrast text? People bounce.
- Sticky banners trapping the page? People rage-tap and leave.
- Carousels and pop-ups hijacking focus? Goodbye lead.
This is why accessibility work often shows up as better conversion rate, better form completion, and fewer support tickets — not just “better compliance”.
The UK compliance angle
If you’re in the public sector (or supply into it), you already know accessibility isn’t optional. The UK accessibility regulations require public sector websites and apps to be accessible and to publish an accessibility statement.
But even if you’re not public sector, WCAG alignment is increasingly baked into:
- procurement checks
- enterprise vendor reviews
- university and charity partner requirements
- platform migration projects
- brand risk conversations
The point isn’t to panic. The point is to treat accessibility as a performance lever — and use it to make your site more usable and profitable at the same time.
The SEO wins you typically get “for free” with accessibility work
Better internal linking (and less “mystery meat navigation”)
Accessible sites tend to have clearer navigation and clearer link labels. That helps users find things, and it helps Google understand relationships between pages.
If you want a joined-up approach here, your accessibility work should sit alongside your SEO / Organic Marketing plan — not in a separate bucket.
Quick wins:
- Replace vague anchors (“Learn more”) with descriptive ones (“View pricing”, “See case studies”, “Book a call”).
- Make sure navigation labels match what people search (and what your pages are actually called).
- Add internal links inside content where users naturally have questions.
Stronger on-page clarity (titles, headings, and page purpose)
WCAG pushes you to be explicit. Google likes to be explicit.
A page that clearly answers:
- what this is
- who it’s for
- what to do next
…is a page that converts better and ranks better.
This is also why accessibility improvements often pair well with SEO Web Design — because design decisions directly affect comprehension and action.
Cleaner templates and fewer technical “edge cases”
Accessibility improvements often mean you tidy up templates:
- consistent components
- fewer random HTML patterns
- better keyboard and focus behaviour
- less JS doing weird things
That usually results in fewer crawl and rendering issues too. And that’s exactly the kind of foundation you strengthen through Website Design & Development.
The conversion wins (the ones your finance team actually cares about)
1) Forms that people can finish
Forms are where most sites lose money.
Accessibility-focused improvements that often lift completion rate:
- labels that remain visible (not placeholder-only)
- clear required field indicators
- inline validation that explains what went wrong
- error summaries at the top (especially for long forms)
- logical tab order
- focus states you can actually see
If you want to measure this properly, do it with clean tracking through Tag Manager and sanity-checked reporting via a Google Analytics Agency London.
2) Stronger trust signals
When a site feels polished, stable, and easy, users trust it more.
Accessibility work often improves:
- readability
- consistency
- predictability of UI
- error handling
- perceived quality
That has a direct impact on lead forms, checkout confidence, and “should I bother contacting you?” decisions.
3) Better performance in “real world” conditions
A lot of accessibility improvements help people who aren’t disabled — they’re just busy.
Think:
- one-handed mobile use
- poor lighting
- slow connections
- noisy commutes
- stress and distraction
Your best customers aren’t always browsing in perfect conditions with infinite patience.
Where to focus first: the WCAG fixes most likely to lift SEO and conversion
You don’t need a 6-month programme before you see value. Prioritise the changes that hit core journeys.
High-impact quick wins
- Colour contrast on key pages (especially body text, buttons, error messages)
- Tap targets (buttons, nav items, close icons)
- Form labels + error messages
- Keyboard navigation (especially menus, filters, pop-ups)
- Focus states (make them visible, consistent, not “designer-hidden”)
- Heading hierarchy (stop using headings for styling)
- Link text clarity (“Read more” is rarely helpful)
- Alt text for meaningful images (and empty alt for decorative ones)
- Skip links / landmark structure
- Stop auto-playing / auto-rotating stuff
If you’re working in eCommerce, this becomes even more important around filters, faceted navigation, and product pages — which ties neatly into how we approach technical audits like this eCommerce SEO audit breakdown.
Accessibility improvements that help local and brand discovery
If you’ve got a physical presence, accessibility details also impact local performance and trust (think: “wheelchair accessible”, “hearing loop”, “step-free access” info, etc.). Even Totally’s own local SEO thinking highlights how attributes like accessibility can influence decisions.
How to prove the uplift (so it doesn’t turn into “nice-to-have”)
If accessibility is always “important” but never “urgent”, measurement is usually the missing piece.
Here’s a simple way to structure it:
Step 1: pick 1–3 journeys
Examples:
- contact form submission
- brochure download + enquiry
- checkout completion
- demo booking
Step 2: define success metrics
Use a mix:
- conversion rate
- completion rate (start → finish)
- error rate (form errors per session)
- time to complete
- assisted conversions (if your cycle is longer)
Step 3: track properly (before you change anything)
Make sure events are clean and consistent:
- form starts
- field errors
- submit attempts
- successful submissions
- drop-off points
This is exactly the kind of job that sits inside a joined-up Data & Analytics Agency approach — because guessing with messy data is how teams waste quarters.
Step 4: roll out improvements in controlled chunks
Don’t change 50 things and hope. Ship improvements in batches you can attribute.
If you’re already doing broader performance work, tie accessibility tasks into your SEO Performance Agency roadmap so it stays commercially focused.
The “hidden” SEO benefit: accessibility improves content usefulness
When you make content clearer:
- you reduce ambiguity
- you answer questions faster
- you make pages more skimmable
- you improve task completion
That tends to improve:
- engagement
- return visits
- branded search
- conversion rate from organic traffic
And if you’re investing in content updates anyway, accessibility fits naturally into a refresh programme (Totally’s approach to content refresh is a good model for doing improvements without throwing the whole site in the bin). Content refresh strategy
Common mistakes (that stop WCAG work from improving performance)
Treating accessibility as “design polish”
Accessibility is not just colours and fonts. It’s interaction patterns, semantics, navigation logic, and behaviour.
Fixing the easy pages, ignoring the money pages
People love auditing blog templates and ignoring checkout, forms, pricing pages, and key landing pages. Do the opposite.
Not involving developers early
A lot of accessibility improvements are design + dev together:
- focus management
- ARIA patterns
- component consistency
- keyboard behaviour
If you want the work to stick, it needs to be baked into how components are built and reused — not applied as a last-minute patch.
Not measuring anything
If you don’t baseline, you can’t prove uplift. And if you can’t prove uplift, accessibility work gets deprioritised the moment something “urgent” appears.
Accessibility, SEO, and growth are the same job (when you do it properly)
WCAG improvements aren’t separate from growth. They’re one of the cleanest ways to reduce friction, improve clarity, and help more people complete the actions that matter.
And the upside isn’t small. In a market where 25% of the UK population is disabled , making your site easier to use isn’t a niche improvement — it’s basic commercial common sense.
Want to turn accessibility work into measurable conversion lifts?
If you want a plan that ties WCAG improvements to SEO outcomes and conversion rate (with proper tracking so you can prove what changed), start with an SEO audit or talk to the team via the contact page.
If you’re tired of traffic that doesn’t convert, Totally Digital is here to help. Start with technical seo and a detailed seo audit to fix performance issues, indexing problems, and lost visibility. Next, scale sustainably with organic marketing and accelerate results with targeted paid ads. Get in touch today and we’ll show you where the quickest wins are.