SEO 101 for nonprofit organizations

Photo by Edgeworks Limited

Andrew Jensen is CEO & Senior Consultant for Sozo Firm, Inc., which provides web marketing efficiency consulting to nonprofit organizations and corporations nationwide.

You’ve got a new website that’s user friendly and people like it. That’s great. However, can people find it? Maurice de Kunder estimates that the indexed web currently contains at least 21.1 billion pages. Adding a new 50 page website to the World Wide Web is roughly equivalent to adding half a tablespoon of water to a 500,000 gallon, Olympic sized swimming pool. 

It’s crucial that people are able to find your website amidst this great vastness, and, in today’s online world, that means your website needs to be readily found in search engines. According to PewInternet.org’s April 2009 survey, 79% of American adults are online with 88% of these internet users relying on search engines to find information. Digging into the numbers some more, we find that users repeatedly turn to Google for their web searching. According to comScore.com, Americans generated 13.8 billion searches in August 2009 with Google sites leading with 64.9% of all searches conducted and Yahoo sites trailing in second place with 19.8%. In summary, not only is it critical for a nonprofit organization to invest in a quality website, but it is equally as critical for a nonprofit to make sure that their website can be readily found by internet users in search engines, particularly Google.

How can a nonprofit organization improve their website’s ability to be found in search engines, especially in this challenging economy when their marketing budget might be tight? You can improve your site’s ranking in search engine result pages by carefully addressing these three steps:

1. develop unique, helpful content for your website
2. optimize your website
3. encourage others to link to your website.

Let’s take a brief look now at each of these steps.

First, recognize that “content is king” in the world of the web and its search engines. Carefully craft the text on each page of your website so that it is interesting and provides value to the reader. Aim for a minimum of 250 words per page on your website; featuring 400-500 words per page is even better. Minimize duplicate content on your website; original content is always worth its weight in gold. Write naturally with your readers in mind instead of artificially “stuffing” articles with reams of keywords. Understand that if your website doesn’t discuss a particular topic then people probably won’t find your website when searching in Google for that topic; therefore, be sure to write about relevant topics. Web savvy nonprofits realize that operating a regularly updated blog both increases the visibility of their website in search engines as well as provides a means to further connect with and expand their supporter base.

Secondly, follow search engine webmaster guidelines for optimizing your website. Each page title [surrounded by <title> tags in the underlying html coding] should accurately describe the content of its respective page. Meta keywords are of dubious benefit and should be removed or minimized; meta descriptions should be succinct and unique to each page. Keep the bulk of your website’s text readable by search engines; if you can left click your mouse while highlighting and copying the text on a webpage, that text is most likely search engine readable. While Flash technology adds features & functionality to a website, be careful not to overdo it as most forms of Flash technology are not search engine friendly. If your nonprofit serves a specific geographical region, be sure to include that information (full address, contact information, and regions you serve) in a footer or sidebar throughout the website.

Thirdly, encourage others to demonstrate their support for your nonprofit organization through adding links on their website to your website. In the world of the web, links are practically equal to favorable votes. In other words, if a corporation links to your nonprofit website, they are, in essence, saying “we like this nonprofit.” In turn, search engines will reward “higher rated” websites with significantly better rankings in search engine result pages. Don’t be afraid to ask individual & corporate supporters to each write a blog post (on their personal/corporate blogs) about why they support your nonprofit; be sure to let them know that this additional publicity will further your nonprofit’s effectiveness as even more people learn about your organization online and choose to partner with you.

Choose a “Yes, we can!” attitude with your nonprofit’s website. While there is no magical solution for immediately ranking in the top 5 listings in Google, you can begin today to invest in your website’s long term success.