If you’ve read any marketing-related blog posts recently, you’ve probably heard about SEO. While it may appear to be just another digital marketing buzzword, SEO is essential for almost any organization operating today, including nonprofits.
So, what is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” It is the process of modifying your website’s design and content to enhance its visibility in search engines. This allows you to generate traffic from “organic” or “natural” search results on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
If you’re confused or nervous about the idea of becoming discoverable online and all that comes with it, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. In the article below, we will share detailed insights and actionable SEO tips and tricks with you.
Why Is SEO Important for Nonprofits?
One of the most common ways for people to find your nonprofit website is through search engines. Finding your website entails discovering your organization, information about your services, events, and donation page.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of employing various strategies and techniques to rank highly in the search engine results page (SERP), such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others, thereby increasing the number of website visitors.
With more people choosing to donate online, ranking high is critical to an organization’s success. A good SEO strategy can help you achieve your goals of raising awareness about an issue, increasing online donations, or encouraging volunteers to sign up.
How Does SEO for Nonprofits Work?
SEO does not discriminate based on your legal situation. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a for-profit or a nonprofit organization. In that regard, SEO for nonprofits is very similar to SEO for other businesses.
Search engines perform two major functions: crawling and indexing, and providing search users with a ranked list of the most relevant websites.
When a user conducts an online search, the search engine scours billions of documents (pages, PDFs, JPGs, and so on) and does two things: first, it returns only the results that are relevant or useful to the searcher’s query; second, it ranks those results.
For example, search engines will try to deliver relevant results to searchers by attempting to understand what the site is about using keywords, as well as displaying more user-friendly sites. Though search engine optimization can be quite complex with all of the different factors that influence your ranking, this basic process is not as difficult to understand.
Top Factors That Influence SEO for Nonprofits:
There are over 200 factors that influence your site’s ranking, but here are the top five factors that every nonprofit must consider:
- Satisfying Search Intent
- Page speed
- Improved Page Experience
- Choose the Right Keywords
- High Authority, Relevant Backlinks
Here are 8 Practical SEO Tips For Nonprofits to Rank Higher.
1. Satisfy Search Intent
Search intent is the foundation of any search engine. Search intent (also known as user intent) is simply the user’s goal when searching for a query.
If you give your visitors what they want, Google is more likely to rank your page at the top of the search results. Your primary goal should be to provide what your visitors want. That is exactly what search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing are looking for.
For example, suppose your church focuses on congregation growth, and you come across the search term “church congregation statistics”. People searching for this query are looking for updated congregation attendance statistics. Make sure your church marketing is tailored to your specific needs so you only rank for search terms that are relevant and helpful for your church or any non-profit organization.
2. Improve Your Site Speed
If you ignore your website’s page speed, you’re in big trouble. Google has officially announced that page speed is an important ranking factor in Google Search.
This is the official announcement.
Start working on your website’s page speed today. Use Google Page Speed Insights and GTMetrix to determine your page speed score and identify areas for improvement. We highly recommend reading the top SEO Expert’s articles and informative content on the latest speed optimization tips and strategies for better improvement.
3. Focus on Page Experience
Google officially announced that the page experience ranking factor would be implemented in May 2021.
This page’s experience ranking factors include core web vitals such as loading (LCP), interactivity (FID), and visual stability (CLS). Do not be afraid of these technical terms. It simply means that your website should provide a good page experience on both desktop and mobile devices.
Google has released an official guide to improving page experience. Do read that.
Here are some practical tips to improve the page experience on your website:
- If you haven’t already connected your website to the search console, do so first. Once connected, look to the left for the Enhancements tab. You’ll see a menu called “Core Web Vitals”. There, you can see which pages on your website are poor and need to be improved in terms of page experience.
- You can even check your Core Web Vitals score on Google Page Speed Insights. Try to maximize that score.
4. Get Your keywords Right
Keywords are ideas and topics that help define your content. In terms of SEO, these are the words and phrases that searchers type into search engines, also known as “search queries” (for example, homeless shelter Phoenix or animal charity Oxford). It is critical to use the language your audience understands because you may be currently describing your organization in slightly different ways.
Find your keywords by talking to your customers, visiting forums and community groups, and conducting your own keyword research with a tool like Keyword Explorer. Create a keyword list based on this research.
Here are some tips:
- Use the keyword in your page title, preferably near the beginning.
- Place the keyword as soon as possible in the article (in the first 100 words) and up to 15 times in total. If you use the keyword excessively, you will be penalized.
- Use the keyword in the H1 tags.
- Include the keyword in each image’s alt text.
- Include the keyword in your meta description.
- Include a keyword or phrase in the image file title.
- Use long-tail keywords and Google Trends to determine what people are searching for.
5. Have high-authority websites link to your content.
Other websites that link to your site also influence its search engine ranking. The more websites that link to yours, the higher you will rank. However, links from trusted websites with high rankings are given more weight.
Backlinks are an ‘off-page’ factor that influences SEO. This is how Google determines whether your website is legitimate and trustworthy. Trust is becoming a more important factor in a website’s Google rankings.
Here are a few methods to get quality backlinks:
- Request that news websites include a link to your website whenever you are featured in a story.
- Request backlinks from your corporate partners and sponsors.
- Collaborate with other nonprofits and ask them to link back to you in a blog post.
- Write guest blog posts for other websites, including a link back to your own.
- Create excellent content (tip #2), which others will naturally want to link to. Make it lengthy (over 2000 words) so that it ranks high in search results and attracts links and shares.
- Include social share buttons so that your content can be easily shared.
Conclusion
Search engine algorithms change frequently, so even if you do your best to stay on top of nonprofit SEO, there is always something new to learn, tweak, or experiment with. You don’t need to be an SEO and conversions expert to increase the number of people finding your organization through search, so work on it as much as your resources allow.
Always, and above all, focus on the human audience who will click on and read your website’s content, not search engines. If you focus on creating the best content possible on an easy-to-read and navigate website while also adhering to search engine optimization rules, you will be well on your way to establishing a successful online presence.
