∪ of Target Audiences (Accessibility, SEO, AEO/GEO)

Using SEO (search engine optimization) to justify accessibility was only ever a technique for bosses or clients or stakeholders who see accessibility as a cost center and are typically driven more by dashboards or money. Ideally, you want to get past that ASAP to drive better outcomes for humans, not SERPs (search engine results pages). I get it as a foot-in-the-door tactic — hopefully it goes no further. But SEO also drove bad accessibility practices, such as alt text keyword stuffing, low-contrast text, verbose headings, link text built around keywords, gratuitous landing pages, and more. Karl does a good job of demonstrating how little SEO and accessibility are connected. As such, I’ve always been wary of companies pitching accessibility and SEO in their marketing. Now I see companies pitching accessible & “AI-ready” or “agent friendly” work, often still including SEO. I’m calling foul. We’ve already seen anti-user guidance from LLM companies asking for their notion of accessible…