A fake link can be bad for both accessibility and crawling
A clickable <div> may work perfectly with a mouse, but Google primarily discovers links through <a href>. A real link gives a screen reader the right semantics and gives search engines a crawlable URL.
A link “Read more” can be an SEO problem
For a screen reader user, 10 identical “Read more” links are difficult to distinguish. Descriptive link text also gives search engines information about the page being linked to.
Alternative text isn’t just an accessibility attribute
Good alt text provides an alternative when an image can’t be perceived. Google also uses alt text, together with the page content, to understand images. So writing alt text purely for keywords misses the point twice: it’s poor accessibility and poor practice for SEO.
A visually perfect heading can be invisible as a heading
Making text 32px and bold doesn’t make it an <h2>. A real heading gives assistive technologies structural information. Heading structure also helps search engines understand how content is organised.
Text hidden in an image isn’t the same as text in HTML
A designer may see the words perfectly, but important content embedded in images isn’t equivalent to actual page text. For accessibility, that can mean missing information or a missing text alternative. For SEO, actual text in the page’s content gives Google something it can process directly.
JavaScript links can create a surprising SEO gap
A custom click handler can make something behave like navigation for a human, but a crawler doesn’t interact with a page exactly like a human does. A standard <a href> gives both assistive technologies and search engine crawlers a clear, machine-readable indication that the element leads to another URL.
aria-label can hide useful words from more than users
ARIA can improve accessibility when used correctly, but replacing visible link text with an aria-label can mean the important words aren’t present as visible content.
Page titles are accessibility and SEO real estate
A good <title> helps people understand which page they’re on, including screen-reader users. It’s also one of the signals Google uses to help generate search-result titles.
Good web page structure makes long content easier to navigate and easier to understand
Logical headings, sections and landmarks help people navigate a page. They also give search engines more clues about the organisation and relationships within your content.
Both accessibility and SEO depend heavily on meaning
Accessibility asks: “What does this element mean to the user?”, while SEO asks: “What does this content mean and what is it about?”. When your HTML has clear meaning, you often make life easier for both.
Which of the facts you find the most interesting?
