SEO Best Practices for Your Non-Profit
Running a non-profit has a lot of ups and downs and more than a few unique quirks! With everything moving increasingly online, nonprofits need to keep up with the times. That means moving to the internet and making sure your name and purpose stay at the top of everyone’s pages.
One of the quickest and simplest ways to keep your company in your audience’s vision is by using SEO Best Practices. Keywords are used throughout your page and pieces to pull the page to the top of a search. Making your non-profit more visible with this method is an excellent way to keep moving forward!
Here are SEO Best Practices for You:
Use the Right Keywords for Your Non-Profit
To draw the right audience and keep everything coherent, each piece and page of your website or social media should have a keyword or words in mind. This will give Google and other search engines an idea about your content when it scans the entire thing.
But rather than simply write your keyword over and over again, you’ll want to make sure they’re put in strategic places within a natural sounding piece. One of the greatest draws of non-profits is their human connection. Don’t lose that connection when writing for an online publication! Tuck your SEO keywords into the piece without going overboard.
Before you can use keywords, you’ll need to identify which ones work best for your non-profit. These keywords should be relevant to your mission and the genre your non-profit fills. You can’t be too broad or too specific when choosing your keywords!
Quality Content is Key
Your keywords may connect back to your non-profit and help drive people to your site but when they get to your page, you need to have quality content for them to peruse. Empty search engine terms won’t drive up audiences or keep people coming back for more.
Quality content is more than just having a lot of words on your page or site. It needs to be focused, contains your keyword or words, and target your audience as well as boost participation.
Even in the world of nonprofits, you’re bound to hit a lot of competition when it comes to people’s attention. Keep things fresh and the quality content coming to continue bringing people back for more!
Best User Experience
Nonprofits are often people-driven. They focus on the needs of individuals and their audience rather than simply cashing in another sale. With this focus in mind, your audience should always be getting the best user experience when they visit your site.
Google searches out and finds sites that offer their audiences quality experiences and then push those sites to the top of the queue. Pages should load quickly, be direct and upfront with information, and take less than three clicks to navigate and negotiate through the content.
Many people are skipping the desktop version of websites entirely! You’ll want to keep your page relevant by making sure your mobile apps or sites are easy to read and just as easy to navigate. This may take some professional help but there are lots of companies willing to help you coordinate and determine what will make your page stand out in the best ways.
Utilize Local SEO
The adage “Location, location, location” holds even for websites and non-profit SEO. You have a better chance of being recognized by Google’s formula if you use your specific city and state.
Rather than compete against all the non-profits across the US and possibly even the world, narrow down someone’s search and your chances of being recognized by including your location within the SEO. To further advance your chances of being recognized by the algorithm, make sure your business is verified and you have all the information including your website uploaded and linked to your Google account.
There are some little things you can do for this local SEO as well! Include pictures on your Google profile, make sure there’s a summary of your non-profit available, and respond to reviews promptly. If there are any questions, this is also a good space for you to provide more information in a non-structured way.
SEO Trends
Just like the social media landscape, SEO trends are always changing and adapting! Keep a close eye on what’s happening and make sure your non-profit is incorporating and adapting these new trends as much as possible. While you may not be able to use all of them, there are always a few new, cutting-edge ideas that can make your business and non-profit even more visible!