3 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Should Invest in SEO
Anyone who runs or works on a website knows the value of appearing at the top of the search engine results page. Nonprofits in particular understand the importance of getting a mission statement out to as many people as possible.
If your nonprofit is seeking a broader audience, new volunteers, and/or more donations to fuel your fundraiser, improving your website’s SEO is a great way to kickstart these goals.
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is strategically setting up your website to appear higher in search engine results for your site’s target audience. It is basically attempting to bridge the gap between what users are searching for and what content is on your website.
You can optimize a website following a bunch of different steps. This can be through researching important keywords your target visitor base is searching for and integrating them onto your website, or by utilizing a search engine’s geolocation services.
Why should a nonprofit invest in improving its SEO?
Nonprofits are often mission-oriented and searching for locally-based donors to help them reach their goals. Improving a website’s SEO can help with all of these endeavors.
The biggest reason why you should optimize the content of your site is to help spread your mission statement to a broader range of passionate people.
There are plenty of people out there with the desire to reach an organization with a mission similar to yours. These people may be seeking organizations like yours to join. By ensuring that your website’s content features similar keywords to what a prospective site visitor is searching for, you can expand your website for a wider audience.
There are many other reasons why a nonprofit should invest in improving its SEO. Here are the top three:
It Can Help Locals Find Your Site, such as Potential Volunteers
If you are running a local nonprofit organization and are searching for new participants or volunteers, optimizing your website is a great way to gather the attention of those nearby.
Search engines have something called geolocation functionalities. By adding location-based keywords to the content of your site, you can help your site reach locals.
For example, “Recycling Center in Phoenix” will connect your website to more people in Phoenix than just a baseless “Recycling Center” would. When utilizing geolocation functions, make sure to add variety to your location words of choice. If your nonprofit is in New York City, use multiple different keywords like “New York, NYC, Manhattan, NY, etc.”
It can Increase User Engagement with the Rest of your Website
Leading visitors to your site is only half the battle, the second part is getting them invested in exploring the site. A website’s bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who click on your website and leave immediately after clicking.
You should make it your goal to make the website’s bounce rate as low as possible. This can be done by making sure a visitor has other pages to explore on your website. Interlinking your site is a great way to do this.
Interlinking consists of linking one page of your website to another page on your website. This can be done by inserting hyperlinks to important pages on the homepage, or adding “Contact” or “Donate” buttons throughout the site that lead to those pages.
Interlinking is good because if visitors explore your website, the search engine will register that users are enjoying it and will push it higher up the ranks. Additionally, a website that is easy to navigate is user-friendly, which helps potential new volunteers or donors reach the right place.
Improving SEO can Help Boost Online Donations
If your nonprofit relies on donations for fundraising and achieving your nonprofit goals, SEO is a great way to expand your donor base.
Make the process of donating as easy and user-friendly as possible. Increase calls to action to donate throughout your website, and add keyword-dense content to the site that optimizes your website to potential donors searching for a cause similar to yours.
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of SEO for nonprofit organizations, check out these sites:
Sustainable Digital helps nonprofit organizations like yours improve their search engine standing. If you are interested in learning more about what we can do for your organization, please contact bob@sustainabledigital.com for more information. We would be happy to work with you.
Some of the actions we can take care of include:
Creating a comprehensive SEO Report with personalized actions & recommendations
Additional pages/content
Adding calls to action
Making design improvements
Improving keyword density / suggesting specific keyword-density improvements
Running an in-depth audit of the website to suggest specific content changes to optimize each page for the primary keyword.
Link-building
Creating social media accounts and content for social media posts.
