Accessibility and SEO: Why Barrier-Free Design Matters for Swiss Websites

Accessible websites aren't just a sign of inclusion. They also rank better on Google. For Swiss SMEs, accessibility is now becoming a strategic advantage.

When business owners think about their website, the focus is usually on design, content, and maybe loading speed. One topic that's often overlooked: accessibility. That is, whether all people can actually use the website, regardless of physical or cognitive limitations.

But accessibility is far more than a social concern. It has a direct impact on your visibility on Google, on user experience, and — as of 2025 — on the legal situation in Switzerland and the EU.

What Does Web Accessibility Actually Mean?

An accessible website is designed so that it can be used by everyone. This includes people with visual impairments, hearing limitations, motor disabilities, or cognitive difficulties. In practice, this means things like sufficient colour contrast, alternative text for images, a logical heading structure, keyboard operability, and subtitles for videos.

The technical foundation is provided by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The current version 2.2 defines four core principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Where Accessibility and SEO Overlap

This is where it gets particularly interesting for website owners: many of the measures that make a website accessible also improve search engine optimisation. That's no coincidence. Google and screen readers experience a website in remarkably similar ways.

Neither can "see" images — both rely on alternative text. Both navigate via HTML structure and need a clean heading hierarchy (H1 through H6). Both benefit from descriptive link text instead of meaningless "click here" links. And both evaluate a website more favourably when it loads quickly and works flawlessly on mobile devices.

What Does the Data Say?

A study by AccessibilityChecker.org in partnership with Semrush from 2025, analysing 10,000 websites, delivered impressive figures: websites with higher WCAG compliance saw an average of 23% more organic traffic and ranked for 27% more keywords. There was also an improvement in Authority Score of around 19%.

These results aren't coincidental. Accessible websites tend to be more cleanly built from a technical standpoint, offer a better user experience, and therefore send exactly the signals that Google rewards with higher rankings.

The Specific Overlaps

Alternative text for images: Screen readers read alt text aloud so that visually impaired users can understand the image content. At the same time, Google uses these texts to index images and display them in image search. Around 56% of business websites lack alt text — a simple measure with a double benefit.

Clean heading structure: A logical H1–H6 hierarchy helps both assistive technologies and search engine crawlers understand and weight content.

Page load speed and Core Web Vitals: Google's Core Web Vitals are official ranking factors. These include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP). Many accessibility measures — such as compressed images, reduced animations, and clean code — directly improve these scores.

Descriptive link text: Links like "Learn more about our services" rather than "Click here" are more informative for both screen reader users and Google.

Semantic HTML: Correct use of HTML elements (nav, main, article, aside) gives both assistive technologies and search engines clear orientation about page structure.

The Reality: 96% of Websites Fail

Despite the clear benefits, according to the WebAIM Million Report 2025, around 96% of all websites fail to meet basic accessibility standards. Switzerland is no exception. Only about 17% of Swiss online shops are accessibly usable.

But this also means: anyone who invests in accessibility today gains a significant competitive advantage. In an environment where almost no one meets these standards, even basic optimisation can make the difference.

The Legal Situation in Switzerland

The Revised BehiG

On 28 June 2025, the partial revision of Switzerland's Disability Equality Act (BehiG) came into force. Federal authorities, cantons, and municipalities are now required to make their digital offerings accessible. The transition period runs until 2030.

For private companies, there is currently no general legal obligation in Switzerland. However, the Federal Council has initiated a further revision of the BehiG that is expected to extend requirements to private providers of digital services from around 2027.

The European Accessibility Act (EAA)

For Swiss SMEs serving customers in the EU, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has been binding since 28 June 2025. This applies to online shops shipping to Germany or Austria, for example. Depending on the EU member state, violations can result in fines, sales bans, and formal warnings.

The EU accounts for 58% of Switzerland's trade volume, making it the country's most important trading partner. For many SMEs, abandoning the EU market would be unthinkable. Those operating there must comply with accessibility requirements.

Accessibility and AI Search Engines

An often-overlooked aspect: accessibility is also becoming increasingly important for discoverability by AI-powered search systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews. AI agents crawl and interpret websites in much the same way as screen readers. They need structured, semantically correct content to extract and relay relevant information.

Building your website accessibly and with clean semantics doesn't just prepare you for today's Google search — it positions you for the AI-powered search of tomorrow.

What Should Swiss SMEs Do Now?

The good news: many accessibility measures are neither expensive nor time-consuming. A few steps that make an immediate difference:

Add alt text: Every image on your website should have a descriptive alternative text. This is the simplest and most impactful measure for both SEO and accessibility.

Check contrast: Make sure there's sufficient contrast between text and background. This doesn't just help visually impaired users — it helps everyone reading the website on their phone in sunlight.

Clean up heading structure: Use H1 through H6 in a logical sequence. No H3 without a preceding H2, no skipping levels.

Test keyboard navigation: Can you operate your entire website using only the Tab key? If not, there's work to be done.

Label your forms: Every input field needs an associated label element. This helps screen readers and improves usability for everyone.

Conclusion: Accessibility Is Not a Cost — It's an Investment

Accessibility, SEO, and user experience are not separate disciplines. They're three sides of the same coin. Making your website accessible automatically improves technical SEO quality, reaches more people, and prepares you for upcoming legal requirements.

Around 1.8 million people in Switzerland live with a disability — over 20% of the population. Add in older users, people with temporary impairments, and everyone who simply benefits from a more usable website. Ignoring this audience is not just ethically questionable — it's bad for business.

The question is no longer whether accessibility matters. It's whether you'll be among the 4% who benefit from it, or the 96% who fall behind.

Want to know where your website stands on accessibility? With webscore.ch, you get a comprehensive analysis of your website — including actionable recommendations to help you improve both accessibility and your Google ranking.