SEO For The Nonprofit Industry: 5 Tips

Today we are talking about some of the best strategies for SEO for the nonprofit industry.

We will also be talking about the myth that SEO is not important for nonprofits. 

Why SEO Is Important For The Nonprofit Industry

SEO is one of the fundamental pillars of modern online marketing. It’s how you get found on the internet and one of the most sustainable strategies for building traffic to your website over time.

While you likely already know that most companies implement various SEO strategies, it’s important to remember that SEO is just as central to the success of organizations in the nonprofit industry. Web users don’t care whether or not you are a profit or non-profit; regardless of their goal, they are likely using search engines in their quest to find information. This is something we point out in our ultimate guide to nonprofit marketing.

For example, let’s say that somebody goes on the internet and looks at ways to make donations to a cause that they care about. They search for “donate money to homeless shelters in Brooklyn” and are directed to the most relevant websites in their area. 

If you are a nonprofit that helps homeless people, and you happen to be based in Brooklyn, this is essentially a person that is trying to hand you money. Optimizing your SEO for the search term “homeless shelter in Brooklyn” is more likely to put you at the top of the search results, and because of that, more likely to win you another donation.

This is why you have to take SEO for the nonprofit industry seriously. Regardless of the industry, people’s online habits usually stay consistent. For a deep dive into SEO as a topic, be sure to check out our ultimate guide to SEO. In it you will find actionable tips and tactics to apply to your own organization.

Tips For SEO For The Nonprofit Industry

As we’ve seen, SEO for the nonprofit industry is just as important as for any other company. Here are four tips you should remember for long term success. 

1) Understand search intent 

The very first thing you have to understand is what search intent is. This is what a search engine search is actually looking for instead of just “what it looks like.”

This is one of the very first steps you need to take before getting started with your content plan.  Even if you do create content that is targeted on certain keywords, neglecting the true search intent of your audience will get worse results than you otherwise might have.

2) Make amazing content

When doing SEO for your nonprofit, you simply have to make awesome content. This is non-negotiable, as good content is what sets you apart from the crowd in modern marketing.

But what does “good content” actually look like for the nonprofit industry? While this will obviously depend on your organization’s mission, there are a few guidelines you should be following. 

• Make sure that your content is either educational or entertaining. This will often mean that you’re educating your audience about the issue that your organization addresses.
• Implement compelling formats. For the nonprofit industry, this could mean a number of things. Check out our post on user generated content for just one idea. 
• Ensure your content is easy to read. Even the most educational content in the world will be skipped over if your reader has a headache every time they read it. Here are some tips for a blog that people love to spend time on.

3) Optimize for technical SEO

When it comes to SEO for the nonprofit industry, one of the most important aspects to a successful strategy is the technical part. While technical SEO can appear complicated, it doesn’t have to be. 

In fact, the 80/20 rule applies here. 80% of the results that you will get from optimizing your website will come from only 20% of the efforts. Get the basics right and you will likely outperform most of your competition. This is especially true in the nonprofit industry, as these organizations often have worse websites than for-profit companies.

Need a guide for your next action steps? Check out Backlinko’s guide to technical SEO.

4) Get high-authority backlinks to your site

One of the most important components of effective SEO for the non-profit industry is a wide range of quality backlinks to your site. That said (as we have mentioned before on the blog), having a ton of backlinks to your website is simply not enough.

Instead, you have to make sure these backlinks are coming from high authority websites that are also in your niche or industry. For the nonprofit industry, one of the best ways to get these types of backlinks is through collaboration. 

You might also consider creating content for other websites in your niche. Many nonprofit organizations take content marketing more seriously than they did in the past, which represents a great opportunity for your own nonprofit.

While there are a ton of different ways to get backlinks to your site, check out our five favorite strategies. 

5) Always keep user experience in mind

Lastly, for effective SEO in the nonprofit industry, you always have to keep user experience in mind. Assuming you have done the previous four steps you will start to see an increase and monthly visitors to your website. This is great… if your website is set up for a good user experience. If not, you will likely have a high bounce rate and none of your strategies will result in higher donations.

Just like technical SEO, user experience is mostly about getting the basics right. You want to make sure that your website is not only easy to navigate but makes it very clear to your visitor what they need to do for a desired outcome. Your website should also be relatively simple. This includes not only the amount of options that a visitor has to take but also aesthetic elements like color scheme.

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Are you an enterprise, nonprofit or small business looking for help on your website? Give us a shout! We provide a free consultation. Email us at [email protected] or call us at (718) 855-1919!