A Pragmatic SEO Guide for Nonprofits

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Tiny ship in an ocean: SEO writing to help find your content

SEO Condundrum

SEO is a buzz word that is bandied about as something nonprofit organizations should do to improve website performance but with little understanding of how to implement it effectively. Writers and web managers are thrust into learning a complex series of SEO activities and tools—designed for product sales websites not nonprofits. When all the extra time and effort produces miniscule, if any, increase in web visits, it’s no wonder SEO is quickly abandoned.

SEO fails in nonprofits because many techniques are overly cumbersome to manage and not applicable for a nonprofit website—and produce no results. I have seen many nonprofits purchase expensive SEO tools and web plugins that no one touches. Some organizations hire pricey SEO vendors that run scans and provide lists of things to update, which are ignored. If a lone web editor or small digital team cannot integrate SEO practices as part of their daily routine, the website will not reap any measurable benefits.

Here’s a basic and practical SEO guide (with a handy checklist at the end) that strips away the SEO clutter to improve your nonprofit website’s performance.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a practice of writing content and producing web pages that will be organically picked up by search engines (Google) and shown to people looking for your content. Most people come to a website using Google or other search engines; therefore, creating an SEO-friendly web page is vital for users to find your website. This is a feedback loop: the more people who find your page on Google and visit it, the more frequently and prominently it will be shown to even more people.

SEO is a simple a four-part process:

  1. Researching keywords to use in your web page
  2. Writing content that naturally incorporates keywords
  3. Setting up webpages to deliver keywords and capture Google search
  4. Evaluating the keywords/SEO performance over time

SEO involves both writing web content and laying out web pages; they go hand in hand. 

SEO is a craft not an algorithm and is best described as making strategic decisions that effectively speaks to your audience, while deploying certain techniques that search engines require. The purpose of SEO is to help you clearly organize a web page and make it easy for search engines to direct people to it.

SEO should not impose word choices that will alter the meaning of your information, or be clunky to read, all in service of driving more web traffic. Directing the wrong people to your page is futile, and Google looks at the overall relevance of your webpage (any attempts to “trick” search by dropping in keywords everywhere will be flagged and could harm your search results ranking).

SEO writing includes researching keywords and phrases that are popularly used to find your content. You want to select the right keywords and sensibly incorporate them into the text in specific areas. For a basic overview, watch SEO Writing Basics or other tutorials on LinkedIn Learning and YouTube.

SEO web page layout encompasses several elements that every page should have to be “optimized” so Google will find and deliver your web page on top of a search results page. Drupal and WordPress have simple SEO-plugins to guide the process.

SEO is measurable and is easily tracked in your Google Analytics and Console (and other tools). You can see if your keywords and other SEO techniques are improving the web performance. If not, try new keywords and make adjustments. SEO is not one and done; it’s an ongoing process of continuous improvement. First establish a baseline of web performance and then review the web page analytics regularly (monthly or at least quarterly) to ensure your SEO keywords are doing the job.

SEO Steps

Step 1: Search Google

You are looking for one or two keywords and/or phrases that are relevant to your subject matter and are popular on search. Think of a few or take words from your draft and background documents:

  • Add words or phrases into Google search
  • Note which words deliver results similar to your subject matter—and which do not

Tip: You may find good keywords on the websites that on the top on the results page.

If you have a Google Console or Google Ads account, check which search keywords people are currently using to find your website/web page. These existing keywords may also work on a new web page of similar content.

Step 2: Check Google Trends

When you’ve identified potential keywords, use Google Trends to see if they rank high (This is a free resource). If not, you can find resources to find others that will better target your audience. To do basic keyword research:

  • Go to Google Trends 
  • Add in your keywords to the explore bar
  • View the results graphic to see the popularity and commonality of your keyword
  • Change the time range to “Past 12 Months” (or at least 90 days)

The graphic will display how frequently your key word/phrase is used over time:

  • Valuable: If your keyword is high in the ranking chart and consistent over time 
  • Not Valuable: If your keyword line is low in the chart and/or has only modest episodic spikes

Scroll down to the Related Topics to view similar keywords/phrases that may be better suited and higher ranking.

Once you have identified the best keywords/phrases for your web page, you are ready to write the content. 

Tip: SEO Service Tools like Moz, SemRush, or Spyfu provide in-depth keyword research, website performance evaluations, and competitor analysis. These are paid subscription services and not worthwhile or cost-effective for a typical nonprofit website. However, an SEO Tool is useful for high profile marketing pages, major fundraising campaigns, or when launching a new website to get a baseline. SEO services offer free trials and limited-term subscriptions. 

Step 3: Incorporate Keywords

When writing web page content, readability is paramount. You want to artfully interweave keywords and SEO-friendly techniques into the content.

Add keywords to these critical areas:

  • Website address you plan to use (including a short alias)
  • Meta-description for the website (added in the backend)
  • Page title and subtitle
  • Headings in the body text
  • Alternative description on all images (added in the backend) or captions under the image
  • Links to relevant web pages on your site or external websites (at least two links will improve optimization)

Step 4: Layout the Web Page

Now that your content is ready, laying out your webpage is the final step:
  • Configure headings in the appropriate order
  • Add Call-To-Action buttons to transactional pages. Use an action verb: Register, Select, Sign up, Explore, Discover, Learn, Find, Watch, View, Join, etc.
  • If possible, link to an external website and an internal page (ideally, using the keywords) 
  • Add alt descriptions to images and captions with keywords
  • Add keywords to the meta-description and metatags
  • Create a short url (alias)
  • Ensure the parent/subordinate pages are properly linked and breadcrumbs are accurate
  • If applicable, fill out SEO plug-in fields with keywords 
Tip: SEO Plug-ins on your website are an inexpensive and efficient way to ensure optimization of your website. Drupal and WordPress have standard SEO plugins that capture and feed data to search engines. The plugins have simple fields to place your keywords, a meta-description, and an alias (at the basic level). Most can be customized by your web developer and provide further enhancement with paid upgrades to your account.

Review the page performance in analytics tools after launch at regular intervals. Publishing a web page is the beginning of optimization, not the end.
 

SEO Writing Best Practices

SEO is a framework for creating awesome content, not a prescription that limits you. SEO writing should integrate keywords into the natural flow of the text. Therefore, not every heading, sentence, and link will have a keyword. How and where to place keywords is different for every page. Think of keywords as synonyms to vary language. You can balance omission of keywords in one critical area where it doesn’t fit (such as a page title) by including more keywords in other areas (headings and image alt descriptions).

Writing Tips:

  • Add keywords in page titles, subheadings, and the body text judiciously 
  • Do not overuse of keywords on a page to avoid rejection by search engines as an SEO scam.
  • If you cannot find a way to weave them into the page title or text, be sure they are in calls-to-action, image alt descriptions, and meta-descriptions, etc.
  • Use variations of the keywords and key phrases instead of repeating the same word over and over. For example, if your keywords are “pet insurance,” try using: pet medical benefits, pet care, insurance for animals, benefits for your pets

SEO Checklist

The following are the most critical areas to cover for proper SEO. Your web page may not hit all the items, but strive to reach as many as possible. 

Checklist for Keywords in Text:

  • Page title
  • Subtitle
  • Headings
  • Topic sentences
  • Links (internal and external)
  • Call-to-Action buttons
  • Images: alternative text
  • Images: captions
  • Links to PDFs

Checklist for Web Page Layout:

  • Keyword/phrases to use on the page
  • Page Title (H1)
  • Subtitle (H2)
  • Connected to parent page
  • Headings (H2, H3, H4), H5
  • Meta-description (summary)
  • Images: alternative text
  • Images: caption
  • Alias (short web url)
  • SEO plugin fields (if applicable)