See the best practical tips on how to improve your nonprofit website SEO to attract more visitors, build your donor base, get your message to a larger audience and raise funds online to help your organization and project.
SEO is essential for every website that wants to attract traffic. SEO for nonprofits, in that regard, isn’t that different from SEO for other businesses. For non-profits -often struggling to make ends meet- it can be a cheap and effective way of attracting traffic. Making sure your website is findable in search engines increases the chance that people will find their way to your non-profit organization. So, what SEO challenges are the most urgent for non-profit organizations? I’ll tell you all about those in this post.
SEO is a must for a nonprofit organization
Your non-profit organization needs to rank well on Google. Why? You want your audience, the people you’re aiming to help, to find their way to your website. When you’re findable, it’s much easier for them to get in touch and receive your information. Also, you want potential donators to find your website. Their sponsorship could help you to grow your non-profit business, expand your mission, and help more people.
SEO is relatively cheap. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a lot of work. So, you need lots of time, writing skills, and technical help with our plugin. Provided you have those at your disposal, ranking in the search engines is doable and will get you more traffic and visitors using nonprofit SEO practical tips.
Why is SEO still crucial for Nonprofits?
Search engines are one of the most important ways people find your nonprofit website. Finding your website means finding your organization, information about your services, events, and donation pages.
Search engine optimization is applying various strategies and techniques to rank well in the search results pages of search engines (SERPs) – including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others – to increase website visitors. And it ranks high. So, you can improve it using the website nonprofit SEO.
It is estimated that three-quarters of all web search clicks result in the top five rankings on Google. And with nine out of ten (91%) Google search clicks leading to first-page results, the value of SEO is straightforward. As more people donate online, top rankings are critical to an organization’s success.
What SEO aspects to focus on?
There are a few SEO tactics that are especially important for non-profit organizations. SEO for non-profits isn’t essentially different from SEO for other companies. However, a few SEO tactics will prove to be extra beneficial due to the distinct nature of (most) non-profit organizations.
Content: write about what you do!
Your content should be the first SEO aspect to focus on as a non-profit organization. While many businesses have trouble coming up with topics to write about, for most non-profits finding inspiration won’t be the problem. On the contrary, every non-profit organization has stories, a mission, a reason to exist. Translating those stories into excellent content is a great SEO strategy. Write about what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and why that’s such a great thing. You’ll probably write content around your most important keywords without knowing it.
A good strategy is to write a few excellent lengthy cornerstone articles which genuinely reflect your primary mission. Other (smaller) posts should link to those cornerstone articles.
Optimize for your brand
Make sure that people find you when searching for your non-profit organization’s brand name. Lots of non-profits are known for their name. You want to be found on your brand name when people search for it. So you’d better ensure you rank number one for that name. This shouldn’t be hard if you focus on decent writing and ensure your site structure is in order.
Local nonprofit SEO to improve the website
Lots of non-profit organizations focus on a specific location or have multiple locations. You want people in your area to find you. If that’s the case for your organization, make sure that your website is findable on Google maps. Enter the information about your organization via Google Local Business Center. Check out our local SEO plugin if your non-profit organization focuses on multiple or specific locations. That’ll then really pay off!
Mobile
Mobile search is becoming more and more critical for nonprofits. Google announced that in 2018 the rankings in the search engines would be based on the mobile index. So your website must be mobile-friendly. Many people will search for and visit your website on a mobile phone. The design should be responsive, and your site speed on mobile should be in order. Check out Google’s mobile friendliness test to see whether or not your site is mobile-friendly.
Use the proper keywords for your nonprofit website SEO with practical tips
Keywords are the ideas and topics that define your content. In terms of SEO, these are the words and phrases that searchers enter into a search engine, also known as “search queries” (such as Phoenix Homeless Shelter or Oxford Animal Welfare). It’s essential to use the language of your audience because you may currently describe your business in a slightly different way.
Find your keywords by talking to customers, visiting forums and community groups, and doing your keyword research using tools like Keyword Explorer. Build your keyword list based on this research.
Here are some tips:
- Use keywords in page titles, preferably near the beginning.
- Put the keyword in the article as soon as possible (in the first 100 words), up to 15 times in total. If you use this keyword too many times, you will be penalized.
- Use keywords in H1 tags.
- Put the keyword in each image alt text.
- Use keywords in your meta description.
High-authority websites links with practical SEO tips to improve a nonprofit website
Search engine rankings are also determined by other sites linking to your site. The more other sites link to yours, the higher your order. However, links from top-ranking trusted sites will be considered more.
Backlinks are the so-called “off-page” factor that affects SEO. This is how Google determines whether you have a reputable website that your visitors can trust. Trust is becoming an increasingly important factor in a website’s Google ranking. Here are a few ways to get high-quality backlinks:
- If you are mentioned in a story, ask the news site to add a link to your website.
- Request backlinks from your corporate partners and sponsors.
- Partner with other nonprofits and have them a link to you in their blog posts.
- Write guest blog posts on other sites and include links to your site.
- Produce great content other people naturally want to link to (tip #2). Make it detailed (2000+ words) to get top search rankings
Conclusion on nonprofit SEO
SEO for non-profits isn’t that different from SEO for businesses, blogs, or online shops. SEO should be part of the online marketing strategy of every non-profit organization, as Google is the most crucial channel for information for most people. Ranking high on Google is the way to reach your audience.
Non-profits should have no problem coming up with ideas for content. Focusing on writing excellent content will probably be the best and most effective SEO strategy. Top that off with outstanding technical excellence and good site structure, and there’s no doubt your non-profit organization will be on the (search) map!
