9 Ways to Design Inclusive Content – Moz

Inclusive content is not just a polite little bow on top of your marketing strategy. It is the sturdy table underneath the whole picnic. When content is inclusive, more people can read it, understand it, use it, share it, and trust it. When it is not inclusive, your website quietly tells some visitors, “This was not really built for you.” That is not only bad manners; it is bad UX, bad SEO, and bad business.

The idea behind “9 Ways to Design Inclusive Content – Moz” is simple: content should work for real people in real situations. Real people use screen readers. Real people skim on phones while standing in line for coffee. Real people have low vision, dyslexia, slow internet, temporary injuries, different first languages, cultural backgrounds, learning preferences, and attention spans that sometimes resemble a squirrel in a hardware store.

Inclusive content design brings together accessibility, usability, plain language, representation, responsive design, and search engine optimization. The funny thing is that when you make content easier for people, you usually make it easier for search engines too. Clear headings help screen reader users and crawlers. Descriptive alt text helps blind users and image search. Plain language helps busy humans and improves engagement. Everybody wins, and nobody has to decode a paragraph that sounds like it escaped from a legal contract.

What Is Inclusive Content?

Inclusive content is digital content designed to welcome and serve the widest practical range of people. It considers disability, language, age, device type, internet speed, culture, education level, gender identity, race, ethnicity, and lived experience. It asks a better question than “Can most people understand this?” It asks, “Who might we be leaving out, and how can we fix that before we publish?”

Accessibility, usability, and inclusivity overlap, but they are not identical. Accessibility focuses on making content usable for people with disabilities. Usability focuses on making content efficient, understandable, and satisfying. Inclusivity goes broader by considering representation, bias, social context, and the many ways people experience the web. Think of accessibility as making sure the door opens. Usability makes sure the door handle is easy to find. Inclusivity asks whether everyone feels welcome entering the building in the first place.

Why Inclusive Content Matters for SEO

Search engines are increasingly built around usefulness, quality, and user satisfaction. Inclusive content supports those goals naturally. A page with clear structure, meaningful headings, descriptive links, readable copy, accessible images, and mobile-friendly formatting gives users fewer reasons to bounce away. That sends better engagement signals and helps search engines understand the page’s purpose.

Inclusive content also expands your potential audience. A visitor who cannot read low-contrast text is still a potential customer. A user who relies on captions is still a reader, buyer, subscriber, student, or patient. A person using a slow connection still deserves the information. Designing only for the “average user” is like opening a restaurant and serving only people whose elbows are exactly the same height. Technically possible, wildly unnecessary.

9 Ways to Design Inclusive Content

1. Assess Bias Before You Publish

Inclusive content starts with looking for bias in your words, visuals, examples, and assumptions. Bias is not always loud. Sometimes it slips in quietly through stock photos, default pronouns, examples that assume wealth or location, or language that treats one group as the standard and everyone else as the exception.

Review your content library with practical questions: Do your images show people of different ages, races, body types, abilities, and backgrounds? Do your examples assume every reader is in the United States, has a college degree, owns a car, or uses the newest device? Are you using phrases that unintentionally exclude people, such as “crazy,” “lame,” “manpower,” or “guys” for every group?

A useful habit is to build an inclusion checklist into your editorial workflow. Before publishing, ask who is represented, who is missing, and whether the content relies on stereotypes. This does not mean every article must become a United Nations group photo. It means your brand should reflect the real world, not a suspiciously identical room of smiling stock-photo executives pointing at a laptop.

2. Use Clear, Simple, and Respectful Language

Plain language is not “dumbing down” content. It is smart communication. The goal is to make your message easy to understand the first time someone reads it. Use familiar words, short sentences, active voice, and direct explanations. If a technical term is necessary, define it. If jargon is optional, give it a tiny farewell party and let it go.

Respectful language also matters. Avoid defining people only by a condition, identity, or demographic group. Many style guides recommend person-first language, such as “person with a disability,” while some communities prefer identity-first language, such as “disabled person” or “Autistic person.” The best approach is to respect how people describe themselves and stay current with community preferences.

Use gender-neutral language when gender is unknown or irrelevant. Instead of “chairman,” use “chair” or “chairperson.” Instead of “he” as the default user, use “they” or rewrite the sentence. Instead of “the elderly,” try “older adults.” Small edits can make a big difference. Also, please retire “click here.” It had a good run, but so did fax machines.

3. Design for Mobile, Zoom, and Flexible Layouts

Responsive design is a major part of inclusive content. People visit websites on phones, tablets, laptops, large monitors, older devices, and browser windows that are resized to the width of a sandwich. Your content should still work.

Avoid layouts that break when users zoom in. Many people increase text size because of low vision, eye strain, aging, or simply because tiny gray text is a crime against eyeballs. Use relative font units, flexible containers, and layouts that reflow cleanly. Do not lock screen orientation unless there is a truly necessary reason. A person should not have to rotate a device like they are cracking a safe just to read your article.

Responsive content also supports SEO because search engines evaluate mobile usability. A mobile-friendly page with clean structure and readable text is more likely to satisfy visitors. That means better user experience, stronger engagement, and fewer people angrily pinching the screen like it owes them money.

4. Use Free Accessibility and Inclusive Design Resources

You do not need to invent inclusive content design from scratch. Many trusted organizations provide free guidance, checklists, testing tools, and training materials. Accessibility checkers can identify missing alt text, low contrast, heading problems, form label issues, and other common barriers. These tools are not perfect, but they are excellent first responders.

Use automated tools as part of your workflow, not as the entire workflow. Accessibility is not a vending machine where you insert a URL and receive instant moral superiority. Automated tools can catch many technical problems, but human review is still needed for tone, meaning, reading flow, cultural sensitivity, and whether alt text actually explains the image in context.

For content teams, helpful resources include accessibility checkers, color contrast tools, inclusive language guides, screen reader testing, browser zoom testing, and built-in accessibility features in document software. The best teams make these checks routine. Inclusive design should not be a dramatic rescue mission the night before launch.

5. Structure Content with Clear Headings

Headings are not decorative confetti. They are the skeleton of your content. Good headings help readers scan, understand, and navigate a page. They also help assistive technologies and search engines interpret the content hierarchy.

Use one clear H1 for the main page topic. Organize major sections with H2s and supporting ideas with H3s. Do not skip from H2 to H5 because the H5 “looks cute.” Heading levels communicate structure, not fashion. If you want visual styling, use CSS instead of scrambling the outline.

Strong headings are specific. “Benefits of Inclusive Content for SEO” is better than “Benefits.” “How to Write Accessible Alt Text” is better than “Images.” Clear headings reduce cognitive load, especially for readers who skim, use screen readers, have attention challenges, or are trying to find one answer quickly before their meeting starts in four minutes.

6. Write Useful Alt Text for Images and Non-Text Content

Alt text gives people access to information conveyed by images. It is especially important for screen reader users, but it also helps search engines understand visual content. The best alt text is concise, descriptive, and relevant to the surrounding page.

For example, “Woman using a screen reader to browse an ecommerce website” is more useful than “image” or “woman computer.” If the image is decorative and adds no information, use empty alt text so assistive technology can skip it. If the image is a chart, infographic, or diagram, summarize the key insight and provide a longer text explanation nearby.

Do not stuff keywords into alt text. “Inclusive content design SEO accessibility Moz inclusive content design guide best practices” is not alt text; it is a cry for help. Write for the user first. Search engines are better at understanding natural, contextual descriptions than they are at rewarding awkward keyword soup.

7. Test Content Regularly, Not Just Once

Inclusive content is not a one-time project. Websites change. New blog posts are added. Plugins update. Designers adjust colors. Someone uploads a PDF from 2014 with microscopic text and suddenly your accessibility score is wearing a tiny black armband.

Build regular testing into your content operations. Run accessibility scans after major updates. Check templates before publishing campaigns. Review forms, buttons, menus, videos, downloadable documents, and email layouts. Test with a keyboard only. Increase zoom to 200%. Turn off images. Use captions. Try reading the page aloud. These simple checks reveal problems that analytics alone may never show.

Whenever possible, include people with disabilities in user testing. Their feedback is not a bonus; it is essential. Inclusive content gets better when teams learn from the people most affected by exclusion.

8. Check Color Contrast and Do Not Rely on Color Alone

Color can guide attention, organize information, and strengthen branding. It can also make content unreadable when contrast is too low. Light gray text on a white background may look elegant in a design mockup, but for many users it reads like a ghost wrote it during a fog advisory.

Check contrast between text and background colors. Make sure buttons, links, alerts, and form errors are distinguishable. Do not rely on color alone to communicate meaning. If an error message says required fields are marked in red, also include text, icons, or clear labels. This helps people with color blindness, low vision, older users, and anyone viewing a screen in bright sunlight.

Accessible color choices do not mean boring design. They mean thoughtful design. Your brand can still be stylish, lively, and memorable while allowing people to actually read the words. Revolutionary, yes. Also practical.

9. Make Social Media Content Accessible

Inclusive content does not stop at your website. Social media posts, videos, stories, carousels, and captions should also be accessible. Add alt text to images when the platform allows it. Caption videos. Avoid placing important information only inside graphics. Use readable fonts and strong contrast in social images.

Write hashtags in CamelCase, such as #InclusiveContentDesign instead of #inclusivecontentdesign. CamelCase helps screen readers pronounce multiword hashtags correctly and helps sighted users read them faster. Limit emoji strings, especially in the middle of sentences, because screen readers announce emoji descriptions one by one. Three dancing cats may be adorable visually, but read aloud, they can become a small audiobook.

Representation matters in social content too. Feature diverse people in authentic ways. Avoid tokenism. Do not use disability, race, gender, culture, or age as a visual prop. Inclusive social media should feel human, useful, and respectfulnot like a brand discovered diversity ten minutes before scheduling the post.

How Inclusive Content Improves User Experience

Inclusive content reduces friction. It helps users find answers faster, understand information more easily, and complete tasks with less frustration. This matters for every type of website: ecommerce stores, healthcare providers, SaaS companies, universities, government agencies, nonprofits, blogs, and local businesses.

For example, an ecommerce product page with descriptive headings, clear size information, alt text, high-contrast buttons, and simple return instructions is easier for everyone to use. A healthcare article written in plain language can help patients understand symptoms and care options without feeling overwhelmed. A software help page with step-by-step instructions, screenshots with alt text, and accessible video captions can reduce support tickets. That is inclusive design quietly saving time, money, and sanity.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Writing for Search Engines Instead of People

SEO should support the user experience, not hijack it. Repeating the same keyword until the page sounds like a robot stuck in an elevator is not inclusive. Use natural language, answer real questions, and organize content clearly.

Treating Accessibility as a Plugin

Accessibility overlays and plugins may help with some issues, but they cannot replace thoughtful design, semantic HTML, good writing, proper testing, and human review. Inclusive content starts at the planning stage.

Forgetting Downloadable Documents

PDFs, slide decks, spreadsheets, and Word documents also need accessible structure, headings, reading order, alt text, and clear labels. A beautifully accessible webpage that links to an unreadable PDF is like building a ramp to a locked door.

Practical Experience: What Inclusive Content Looks Like in Real Work

In real content projects, inclusive design often begins with small discoveries. A marketing team may realize that its blog images show the same type of person over and over. A UX writer may notice that form errors are vague, such as “Invalid input,” which is about as helpful as a shrug in a lab coat. An SEO specialist may find that pages have headings chosen for font size rather than structure. None of these problems require panic. They require a better process.

One practical approach is to audit a single high-traffic page first. Start with the title, headings, introduction, links, images, calls to action, forms, and mobile layout. Ask whether the content is understandable without images. Check whether each link makes sense out of context. Replace “Learn more” with specific link text like “Read our accessibility checklist.” Test whether the page works with keyboard navigation. Increase zoom and see if the design still behaves. This page-by-page approach is manageable and less terrifying than announcing, “We must fix the entire website by Thursday.”

Another useful experience is rewriting complex copy into plain language. Many teams are surprised by how much stronger their content becomes. A sentence like “Users may experience difficulty completing the authentication workflow due to credential validation errors” can become “You may not be able to sign in if your password or verification code is incorrect.” The second version is clearer, friendlier, and more useful. It also sounds less like it was assembled inside a filing cabinet.

Inclusive content work also teaches humility. You may write alt text that seems fine until a screen reader user explains that it misses the actual purpose of the image. You may choose a color palette that looks beautiful until contrast testing reveals that half your audience needs detective equipment to read it. You may use a phrase you have heard for years and then learn it carries a history or meaning that makes people feel excluded. That does not make your team bad. It means the process is working.

The most successful teams treat inclusive content as continuous improvement. They create shared language guides, reusable accessibility checklists, inclusive image libraries, accessible templates, and review steps before publication. They train writers, designers, developers, social media managers, and SEO specialists together because inclusive content is not one person’s side quest. It is a team sport.

From an SEO perspective, the experience is equally clear: inclusive content tends to perform better because it is cleaner, more structured, and more helpful. Users stay longer when they can read and understand the page. They trust brands that communicate respectfully. They share resources that solve problems without making them feel foolish. Search engines do not need your content to be fancy; they need it to be useful. Inclusive design helps you get there without wearing an SEO wizard hat, although nobody is stopping you if that is your thing.

Conclusion

Designing inclusive content is not about chasing perfection. It is about reducing barriers, respecting people, and making digital experiences work better for more users. The nine practices abovechecking bias, using clear language, supporting responsive layouts, using free tools, structuring headings, writing alt text, testing regularly, checking color contrast, and making social posts accessiblecreate stronger content for humans and search engines alike.

Inclusive content is good ethics, good UX, and good SEO. It helps your brand reach wider audiences, build trust, and publish pages that people can actually use. In a web crowded with noise, clarity and respect stand out. And honestly, making the internet a little less annoying is a noble mission.