This article contains general practices for any website on the internet, but is particularly designed for clients of Inkfire, who utilise the set-up we provide. If you’d like to talk to us about helping you with your WordPress, pop us a message.

Accessibility isn’t a one-time job, so once your website has launched there’s plenty of things you can do to help it to remain user-friendly.

Every new blog post, image, link or piece of content you add becomes part of your website. How you structure that content can either help people use your website or accidentally introduce new barriers. You should never assume that because a website was accessible on the day it launched, means it will remain as accessible with no input or as technology changes. It’s a bit like using a TV from the 1990s and assuming technology hasn’t moved on

The good news? Accessible content and good SEO have a lot in common.

Both benefit from clear headings, meaningful links, well-described images, logical structure and content written primarily for humans.

Keep this guide handy whenever you add a new blog post to your WordPress website.

1. Start with one clear topic

Before you begin writing, ask:

“What question is this blog post answering?”

Try to make each post primarily about one topic rather than squeezing several unrelated subjects into the same article.

For example, instead of:

Our Latest News and Some Advice About Exercise

you might create:

5 Ways to Stay Active When Working From Home

A clear subject helps your reader immediately understand what the article is about and makes it easier to optimise the post for search engines.

Think about what someone would actually search

Ask yourself:

If someone needed the information in this article, what might they type into Google?

That phrase can become your focus keyword or keyphrase in the tool we use for SEO, which is called ‘Rank Math’.

For example:

Blog topic: Preparing your garden for winter

Possible focus keyphrase: how to prepare your garden for winter

Keep it natural. You are writing for people first, not algorithms.

2. Give your post a clear title

Your blog title should clearly tell someone what they are about to read.

Avoid vague titles that only make sense if somebody already knows the context.

Better

How to Make Your Workplace More Accessible

Less helpful

Some Changes We’ve Been Making

Clear titles are particularly useful for people scanning a page, people with cognitive or learning disabilities, and people using assistive technology.

They are also useful for search engines trying to understand your content.

3. Use headings properly

Headings aren’t just visual formatting. They give your article structure.

Think of your page like a document:

H1: The title of the blog post

Then:

H2: Main sections

And, if needed:

H3: Subsections within an H2 section

For example:

H1: A Beginner’s Guide to Accessible Events

H2: Choosing an Accessible Venue

H3: Step-Free Access

H3: Accessible Toilets

H2: Communicating Access Information

H2: On the Day

Avoid choosing headings because of how they look

Don’t select H2, H3 or H4 simply because you prefer its size.

If you want text to look different, use the formatting options provided in your website rather than changing its heading level.

Also avoid jumping between heading levels unnecessarily. A clear hierarchy makes navigating longer articles much easier, especially for screen reader users.

4. Keep your writing easy to read

Accessible writing doesn’t mean oversimplifying your subject.

It means making information easier to understand.

Try to:

• keep paragraphs relatively short
• use familiar words where possible
• explain specialist terminology and acronyms
• use lists when you’re presenting several related points
• put the most important information early
• use descriptive headings to break up long articles
• write in a natural, conversational way

For particularly complicated information, ask:

Could someone quickly scan this page and still understand the important points?

If not, consider breaking the content into smaller sections.

5. Use bold carefully

Bold text can be helpful for emphasising an important sentence, instruction or phrase.

But if everything is emphasised, nothing is.

Avoid creating entire paragraphs in bold, italics or capital letters.

DON’T WRITE LARGE SECTIONS LIKE THIS.

Blocks of capital letters can be more difficult to read and can feel visually overwhelming and even threatening.

Use formatting to support the meaning of your content, not simply to decorate it.

6. Add images thoughtfully

Images can make an article more interesting, useful and easier to understand.

However, every image should have a purpose.

Before uploading one, consider whether it provides information, illustrates something being discussed or is simply decorative.

Image size

Avoid uploading unnecessarily enormous image files straight from a camera or phone. Large images can significantly slow down a website.

7. Add appropriate alt text

Alternative text, usually called alt text, gives an image a text alternative.

It can be used by assistive technologies such as screen readers and is particularly important when an image communicates information.

Describe the information that is useful in the context of the article.

Example

Instead of:

image123.jpg

or:

woman

try:

Woman using a wheelchair entering the building through the step-free main entrance.

You usually don’t need to write:

“Image of…” or “Picture of…”

The technology already identifies it as an image.

Don’t stuff keywords into alt text

Alt text should exist for accessibility, not as somewhere to hide SEO keywords.

If your keyword naturally belongs in the description, that’s fine.

If it doesn’t, leave it out.

What about decorative images?

If an image is purely decorative and adds no information, it may not need a spoken description. How this is handled can depend on how the image has been added to your website.

When you’re unsure, ask:

Would somebody who cannot see this image miss useful information without a description?

If the answer is yes, describe that information.

Helpful tip: If you’re still feeing stuck, feel free to reach out to our lovely developer team at [email protected] and they’ll be happy to have a look for you.

8. Make links meaningful

Avoid links such as:

• Click here
• Read more
• More information

when they appear within the main body of your article without enough context.

Instead, tell people where the link goes.

Instead of:

To see our timetable, click here.

Try:

View our current class timetable.

This helps everyone scanning an article and gives screen reader users much more useful information when navigating between links.

9. Don’t use colour alone to communicate something

Try not to write instructions such as:

“Items shown in red are unavailable.”

Some visitors may not be able to distinguish those colours.

Provide another way of identifying the information:

“Items marked ‘Unavailable’ and shown in red cannot currently be booked.”

The same principle applies to charts, tables and graphics.

10. Check videos and audio

If your blog post contains a video with speech, it should have accurate captions.

Don’t rely entirely on automatically generated captions without reviewing them. Names, places and specialist terminology are commonly transcribed incorrectly.

For audio-only content, provide a transcript or equivalent written information.

If important information appears visually in a video but isn’t explained through the audio, think about how somebody who cannot see the video will get that information too.

11. Use lists properly

If something is a list, use WordPress’s bullet or numbered-list function rather than typing your own hyphens, symbols or numbers.

Use:

• bullet lists where order doesn’t matter
• numbered lists when the order or sequence matters

This gives the content appropriate structure behind the scenes as well as making it easier to scan visually.

12. Write useful link and button text

Whenever you add a link or button, imagine someone reading the wording without the surrounding paragraph.

Would they know what will happen?

Good examples include:

Download our 2027 programme

Book an appointment

Read our accessibility policy

Contact our team

Less useful:

Click here

Go

More

Clear wording is particularly useful when people navigate using assistive technology.

13. Add internal links

Where it’s genuinely useful, link your blog post to other relevant pages or articles on your website.

For example, if your article discusses a service that you offer, you could naturally link to the relevant service page.

This helps visitors discover useful information and helps search engines understand how the content across your website relates to one another.

Don’t force links into every paragraph. Add them when they are genuinely useful.

14. Complete your Rank Math SEO settings

If your website was built by Inkfire, than it likely uses Rank Math to help manage search engine optimisation.

When creating a new blog post, complete the Rank Math section before publishing.

Focus Keyword

Enter the main phrase that describes what your article is about.

For example:

accessible event planning

Don’t automatically choose the name of your organisation. Think about what your intended reader might actually search for.

Use your focus phrase naturally within the article, particularly where it makes sense in:

• the page title
• introductory content
• relevant headings
• the body of your article
• the URL, where appropriate

Never force the phrase into sentences simply to satisfy the SEO checker.

Natural, clear writing wins.

15. Write your SEO title

Rank Math allows you to control the title that may be displayed for your article in search results.

Make it:

• descriptive
• specific
• relevant to the search
• appealing to a real person

Aim to keep your SEO title concise. Rank Math will show you a preview and indicate when it is becoming too long.

Your SEO title doesn’t always need to be identical to your blog’s visible title.

16. Write a meta description

The meta description is the short description associated with your page in search results.

Treat it like a miniature introduction to your article.

Tell someone:

What is this page about, and why should I read it?

As a practical guide, aim for approximately 150–160 characters, while paying attention to Rank Math’s preview.

For example:

Discover practical ways to make events more accessible, from choosing an inclusive venue to sharing useful access information.

Don’t simply list keywords.

Write something you would genuinely want a potential visitor to read.

17. Check your URL

WordPress creates a URL for your blog post.

Where possible, keep it short and descriptive.

For example:

yourwebsite.co.uk/blog/accessible-event-planning/

is clearer than:

yourwebsite.co.uk/blog/post-192837-new-event-information/

Avoid changing the URL of an established blog post unless you know what you’re doing, because existing links to the old address may stop working unless a redirect is put in place.

18. Don’t chase a perfect Rank Math score

This is important.

Rank Math is a tool, not the person you’re writing the article for.

Its suggestions can highlight things worth checking, including keywords, links and SEO information, but you do not need to rewrite perfectly good content purely to turn every indicator green.

If satisfying a recommendation would make a sentence repetitive, unnatural or less accessible, prioritise the person reading it.

Use the Rank Math score as a checklist and prompt, not as a measure of whether your article is good.

19. Choose your category

Add the post to the most appropriate blog category on your website.

Avoid creating lots of nearly identical categories.

For example, you probably don’t need:

• Advice
• Helpful Advice
• Tips
• Helpful Tips
• Resources

A smaller number of clear, useful categories creates a much easier blog to navigate.

20. Add your featured image

Choose a relevant featured image for the post and follow the image dimensions supplied for your website.

Check:

• the image isn’t blurry or pixelated
• important content isn’t likely to be cropped
• the file size isn’t unnecessarily large
• any required alt text has been added
• essential information isn’t communicated through text embedded inside the image alone

21. Preview before publishing

Before you press Publish, preview your post.

Check it on desktop and mobile if you can.

Look for:

Structure

• Is there one clear page title?
• Do the headings follow a logical structure?
• Are there manageable paragraphs rather than huge blocks of text?
• Are lists formatted as lists?

Accessibility

• Do meaningful images have appropriate alt text?
• Are links descriptive?
• Are captions provided where needed?
• Can the information be understood without relying on colour?
• Is the language clear?
• Does anything flash, move or play automatically?

SEO

• Have you chosen a sensible focus keyword?
• Is the keyword used naturally?
• Have you written an SEO title?
• Have you added a meta description?
• Is the URL clear?
• Have you added useful internal links?
• Is the article genuinely useful to someone searching for this subject?

Final check

Read the article once more as a visitor rather than its author.

Ask yourself:

Can I understand this quickly?

Can I find what I came here for?

Have I accidentally created a barrier for somebody using the website differently from me?

If all three feel good, you’re ready to publish.

The Inkfire rule of thumb

You don’t need to become an accessibility expert or an SEO specialist every time you publish something.

Remember:

Write for humans.

Give your content a clear structure.

Describe information that isn’t available through text.

Make links tell people where they’re going.

Use Rank Math as a guide, not a target.

Check your work before you publish.

Accessibility isn’t about creating perfect content.

It’s about making thoughtful choices that allow more people to access, understand and use what you publish.

Every new piece of content is another opportunity to make your website easier to use.