ARIA Labels Don’t Boost SEO – Here’s What You Need to Know

What is ARIA?
ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a set of special attributes you can add to HTML elements. These attributes help make web content more accessible to people with disabilities who use assistive technologies, like screen readers.

But here’s the thing – ARIA isn’t used for ranking or indexing by Google Search.

What Google Says:

This topic came up on LinkedIn, and both John Mueller and Martin Splitt from Google confirmed it. Here’s what they had to say:

John Mueller:

John mentioned that he looked into ARIA and said, “I don’t think ARIA is used for search. It doesn’t affect crawling or indexing.” He pointed out that ARIA attributes are mostly used on links but don’t replace the actual link, so it’s unlikely Google would use them for indexing content. In short, ARIA labels don’t help with SEO.

Martin Splitt:

Martin agreed and added, “I wouldn’t rely on ARIA for SEO.” He also gave an important tip: ARIA should be used for accessibility, not as a replacement for regular HTML tags or content. So, while ARIA is good for making websites more accessible, it’s not something that will boost your search rankings.

Do ARIA Labels Improve SEO?

In a past Google SEO office hours session, John Mueller answered a question about whether ARIA labels improve SEO. His answer was simple: No. ARIA labels don’t give any direct SEO advantage. However, using them is important for accessibility, which helps users with disabilities, even if it doesn’t help with ranking.

Here’s a sample HTML code that demonstrates the use of ARIA attributes for accessibility purposes, not SEO:

The Bottom Line for SEOs:

Don’t use ARIA labels to try to improve SEO. They’re not meant for that. Instead, use them for their true purpose: making your website accessible to all users. Helping people with disabilities access your content is always a good idea, but ARIA labels won’t directly impact your site’s ranking on Google.