Good SEO involves crafting impactful and engaging content for your audience. It’s not as easy as slapping a few keywords onto your website and calling it a day. You need to produce content that people care about, and a big part of that requires you to consider the audience experience when viewing it.

You’re producing website content for real people with genuine emotions and unique experiences. If you’re not integrating DEI into your SEO strategies, you’re not doing it right.

Conversations revolving around DEI are taking center stage and with good reason. People care about inclusivity, and most respond positively to it in marketing. But how can you implement DEI principles into your marketing strategies?

With this guide from RankScience, you’ll learn why DEI is important and gain valuable tips on marrying DEI and SEO for lasting success.

What Is DEI?

DEI is an acronym that stands for:

• Diversity: Diversity is about recognizing various identities and backgrounds, including race, ethnicity, age, sexuality, gender identity, etc.
• Equity: Equity means to provide equal opportunities by removing barriers that may prevent some from accessing them.
• Inclusion: Inclusion means embracing and respecting all identities and backgrounds.

DEI represents three core values that many companies strive to embody. It’s an organizational framework that encourages businesses to promote fair treatment and full participation for all. DEI has roots that go back to the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

However, it’s at the forefront of modern business and covers various identities. Internally, DEI aims to establish an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable working together without fear of judgment or discrimination. But these days, DEI extends to customers and plays a big role in brand identity.

Why Is It Important?

The reason why DEI is so important to modern marketing and SEO is simple:

People like to see themselves represented in marketing.

DEI tells your audience that you see them, no matter how marginalized they might be. It’s about reassuring people you hear, support and care about them.

Inclusion matters in marketing. Throughout most of history, marketing reflected one type of person. It wasn’t that long ago when you’d be hard-pressed to find a person of color or an LGBTQ+ individual in an advertisement. To someone who isn’t part of those included communities, it’s hard to connect with brands. You can’t expect people to want to support your company when they feel invisible to you.

DEI breaks down those walls. It provides more representation, making people more likely to engage.

But that’s not all.

Integrating DEI into your SEO strategy can also make your content more authentic. Authenticity is a big deal to both search engines and web users. You’re supposed to write for real people! What better way to do that than by leaning into DEI principles?

Implementing DEI into your strategies ensures your content is relevant, genuine and impactful. That can make a significant difference in your rankings and your overall bottom line.

Tips To Incorporate Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Into Your Marketing

It’s impossible to craft content for every unique individual on the planet. There’s no such thing as perfection regarding DEI and marketing.

However, there are many things you can do to make your SEO strategies more inclusive than ever, ensuring you’re marketing to the masses while making everyone feel included. Here are several tips you can start employing today.

Know Who You’re Writing For

Knowing your audience is key to integrating DEI. You need to know your target audience and what they’re all about. Go beyond basic demographics. Dive deep to learn about pain points, experiences, existing knowledge, intent, etc.

This knowledge will help you approach your work with the right perspective. Despite how it sounds, you don’t need to ditch buyer personas and other data to lean into DEI. The key is recognizing that everyone is diverse.

Be Mindful of the Language You Use

The words you use in your content make a difference. It might not seem like much, but something like using biased pronouns or titles can greatly impact an audience. For example, say that you’re marketing for a makeup line. If you use “she” throughout your content, you’re excluding men and gender-nonconforming individuals who might otherwise support your brand.

Familiarize yourself with acceptable lingo and stay current. Language changes, and you must ensure you use inclusive words throughout.

Identify Biases and Knowledge Gaps

Unconscious biases and narrow perspectives are normal. We all have them. What’s important is that you recognize them and ensure they don’t prevent you from being inclusive.

Identify where you’re not well-informed about a certain experience or background. Do your research beforehand to understand new perspectives and produce your content from a place of authenticity.

Focus on Inclusive Imagery

It’s not just the words that matter. Imagery can also impact DEI. Focus on representation and inclusivity in all your marketing materials. Include people from all walks of life. That includes people of color, individuals with disabilities, folks of all ages relevant to your product or service, etc.

Avoid tokenization and make inclusive imagery a top priority.

Don’t Forget About Accessible Designs

The design of your site should be inclusive, too. Remember: Not everyone will have an easy time navigating your site. Provide detailed image descriptions through alt text, avoid flashing imagery, use contrasting colors and more.

Make your site ADA-compliant and ensure it’s accessible on various devices.

Key Components of an Inclusive SEO Strategy

There are countless ways to integrate DEI into your SEO strategy. But no matter what you do, there are a few key principles to remember.

The first is unity. At its core, DEI is about unity and ensuring everyone gets the best from your site, product or service. It brings people together and provides equitable access and representation while recognizing and respecting everyone’s differences.

Secondly, there’s compassion. It’s important to have compassion for all identities when crafting your content. It’s easier than most realize to make people feel excluded. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes, adopt person-first language and avoid any ounce of judgment or prejudice.

Finally, empathize with your reader. Empathy isn’t a quantifiable metric, but the key is to understand biases and prejudices. It’s about gaining perspective on other identities and people’s unique challenges. Crafting content from a place of empathy makes it easier to connect with while creating more inclusion in your work.

DEI-Focused SEO Practices

No company or website is perfect, but following these best practices can put you on the right track.

Be Willing to Learn

Society is ever-changing. Language evolves, and people become more aware of the plights of different communities. Don’t rest on your laurels. Keep learning and continue to put DEI into practice in everything you produce for your site.

Collaborate with Others

It’s impossible to understand the perspectives of every type of person. No matter how dedicated you are to having empathy, there’s no way to fully walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. That’s why it’s important to collaborate with diverse shareholders.

Get others involved and amplify the voices of many.

Perform DEI Audits

Get into the habit of reviewing your work. Have others look at content and perform detailed audits of your website. Make changes wherever necessary to make your site as inclusive as possible.

Accept and Apply Feedback

Part of integrating DEI into your SEO strategies is learning and growing from your mistakes. Be willing to accept and apply feedback. Listen to the concerns of others and be receptive to recommended changes as they come.

Supercharge Your SEO with RankScience

Diversity, equity and inclusion are principles that can take your SEO strategies to the next level. The ultimate goal of SEO is to engage your audience and create content that matters. With DEI guiding you, you can implement strategies that leave a lasting impact.

At RankScience, we understand how important DEI is to SEO. You can trust us to be your growth partners as we develop custom-built strategies that resonate with your target audience. Using proven techniques and AI technology, we’ll help boost your organic traffic while putting your company values at the forefront.Diversity and inclusion is important for your brand’s marketing strategy and company values. Learn how to integrate DEI into your SEO with these tips!

Contact us today to learn more and kick-start your journey to more inclusive SEO.