Inclusive writing and SEO: is it possible?

Inclusive writing and SEO Are they compatible?

Beyond the many debates raised by inclusive writing, web copywriting is subject to numerous SEO criteria for organic search.

What impact does non-sexist writing have on the ranking of web pages in search engines? How can you reconcile optimizing your website with gender-neutral language?

Here are the SEO best practices for writing inclusive texts!

What is meant by inclusive writing?

Inclusive writing, also called epicene language, neutral language, or non-sexist language, aims to de-gender the French language make it less discriminatory.

Besides, know that inclusive writing is actually a rightful correction, because the masculinization of the French language is, in fact, very recent in the history of writing.

You know the rule that the masculine takes precedence over the feminine. We owe it to a few very open-minded grammarians, like Nicolas Beauzée, who, to quote him, stated in 1767: "The masculine gender is considered nobler than the feminine because of the superiority of the male over the female."

This sexist rule eventually became dominant at the end of the 19th century, with the spread of compulsory primary education, and has only recently been questioned through a petition by the Ligue de l'enseignement.

Since 2017 many teachers have refused to apply this grammatical rule, despite fierce opposition from the Académie française. Indeed, the institution dubbed inclusive writing a "mortal peril," stubbornly refusing to evolve our language to include all the categories of people that make up a society.

Fortunately, the Académie française has no real authority over the proper use of the language and ultimately it is up to each of us to advancing writing for a more ethical society make it inclusive and egalitarian.

How to use gender-neutral writing?

The inclusive writing therefore consists of feminizing writing to give equal visibility to women and men

it is based on three main principles:

Gender agreement

this involves feminizing jobs, functions, ranks and titles, generally by adding an "e" to the end of masculine words. For example: principal/principale, author/auteure or autrice, chef/cheffe

Using feminine and masculine forms

here the goal is to use both feminine and masculine forms together whenever referring to a group

one then uses:

Use of gender-neutral terms

finally, this last principle involves replacing sexist terms with more neutral ones, such as replacing "men's rights" with "human rights" or "the editors" with "the editorial team"

Inclusive writing and SEO: how does Google handle the different forms of writing?

if inclusive writing is a major step forward for gender equality, what about SEO?

all of SEO is based on users' queriesconcretely, when an internet user performs a search on their search engine, they type a word or a set of words; this is called the query

to hope to see your blog post or web page appear among the top search results, your main keywords must therefore match the query exactly searched.

And that's where the problem lies, because Google's algorithms are still not able to associate a keyword written in inclusive writing with a non-inclusive query.

Since very few users perform searches including the typographic signs of gender-neutral writing, your content will simply be invisible!

As Oliver Andrieu demonstrates in his video Inclusive Writing and SEO, on an inclusive query the results will be inclusive — so far, so good. However, inclusive writing will not be found by a standard query.

The conclusion is clear: if you want your web content to rank high on the SERP, avoid inclusive writing until users start searching using gender-neutral language.

The good news is that habits are gradually beginning to change. The newspaper Le Monde, for example, has set new inclusive-writing rules for its journalists.

You should know that this editorial line carries weight with the search engine indexing robots. This new editorial stance is therefore a strong asset for a successful marriage between inclusive writing and SEO!

How to reconcile inclusive writing with SEO?

The big names in digital media are not the only ones who can influence algorithms, and web usage may eventually accelerate this move toward greater inclusivity.

If the editorial strategy of websites changes and all web editorial teams work in that direction, non-discriminatory writing will be the norm of tomorrow.

In the meantime, a few tips will help you reconcile gender-neutral writing and SEO copywriting without losing your website traffic!

Use inclusive writing only in the body text

If you want to include all your readers in your blog posts, web pages and, more broadly, in all your content creations, there's nothing to stop you from writing content in inclusive writing.

However, it should be avoided in your meta description, your titles and your subheadings (H1, H2...). These different tags are very important for your SEO and you could be penalized.

Also ban it from your URLs, especially the middle dot which may cause errors in your alternative tags intended for visually impaired users.

Avoid the interpunct (·)

Among forms of inclusive writing (parentheses, slash, hyphen, underscore and middle dot), the middle dot and the hyphen are considered as spaces by Google. Thus, if your main keyword is citizen·e, you will only be indexed for the term citizen.

A second disadvantage of the middle dot is that its use requires knowing the keyboard shortcuts: alt+shift+f on Mac and alt+0183 on PC. Consequence: very few users use it when searching.

Avoid new words

Try it in your search engine with words like agriculteurice or auteurice. Google will not only show you results where the exact term is mentioned, but will even suggest trying an ungendered spelling.

So, if you hope to reach the top search results, do not introduce new words into your written content.

Use generalizing words

Using generic terms avoids any form of distinction. In addition, they help smooth reading compared with slashes or hyphens, which tend to weigh down editorial content and harm the user experience.

For example, prefer "team members" instead of "player and female player" or "customers" instead of "male client and female client".

Prefer neutral, gender-neutral terms

If relevant, use gender-neutral epicene words like partner, athlete, artist, internet user…, and repeat the articles “la” and “le” when necessary.

Use both forms

Double both the feminine and the masculine: the female web editor and the male web editor.

Then use grammatical rules that exist and that have been displaced by the rule “masculine prevails over feminine.”

Our tip

Inclusive writing and SEO can coexist through will and perseverance.

Of course, non-sexist writing requires extra effort, because it is not automatic.

Content writing is longer, more thoughtful and the the proofreading work is even more important if you want to obtain quality, non-discriminatory, and optimized content.

However, the effort is worth it to move toward a more equitable society.

So, if you want to offer your female and male readers digital content that every person can identify with, entrust your texts to our web content writing !