In this time of social distancing and Stay at Home / Safer at Home protocol, it’s more important than ever to ensure that people are able to find your nonprofit online when they’re searching for ways to support the causes they care about...because let’s face it: Everyone is on their devices all hours of the day now! It’s time to improve your nonprofit’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so your donation needs, volunteer opportunities, and program offerings are easy to find. In this episode of the Nonprofit Jenni Show, Jenni’s sister joins us again to break down 9 tips from the mini-course to help improve your nonprofit’s website and SEO.
9 Ways to Improve Nonprofit Websites’ Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This episode was different from our typical episodes. Normally I’ll interview a couple nonprofit leaders to learn how they have faced a common challenge at their organizations. This time, though, I asked my sister to come on the show and help me talk about best practices for building your nonprofit’s website. We talked about a lot of SEO best practices, but I’m only listing nine of them in this article. I highly recommend listening to the full episode to get the full value from our conversation!
Top 3 Things Michelle Learned from the Nonprofit SEO Mini-Course
First I asked my sister to share the top three most important things she learned from my Nonprofit SEO Mini-Course. Here’s what she said:
1. All vital information needs to be easy to find. Michelle gets frustrated when she visits nonprofit websites which are vague and say “We serve the homeless” without offering specific information about the services they provide and what makes them special. Think about what questions you have about organizations you find for the first time, and what questions newcomers might have for your nonprofit. Then make the answers easy to find on your website and easy to understand.
2. Remember that people are searching for specific volunteer experiences. You should remember people aren’t just searching for information about your history and what you do; they also are searching for volunteer opportunities that match up with their passion, skills, and personal needs. People may be searching for internships, weekly volunteer opportunities, group volunteer projects, and other types of opportunities. If you offer special volunteer opportunities, make sure you talk about them on your website so people can search for them.
3. Include the information that seems obvious. The most obvious information about your organization’s mission is the information that will contain the keywords and search phrases people are typing into Google. Many nonprofit professionals are afraid of their website becoming too wordy or treating viewers like they’re dumb, but your website needs to be comprehensive if it’s going to be useful and searchable.
6 More Nonprofit SEO Tips
I also wanted to give you guys 6 more really important SEO tips.
4. Trade “above the fold” homepage design for “scrollable” design. The term “above the fold” refers to the way newspapers are folded in sales stands. Newspaper designers try to stuff as many captivating headlines and images as they can in the top half of the front page so passersby will be compelled to purchase the paper and look inside for more information. Unfortunately, a lot of nonprofits use the “above the fold” approach on their website, even though web visitors consume websites differently than they consume newspapers. Actually, over 50% of people who visit your website will be scrolling on a mobile device. The best way to win people over with your website is to tell a compelling story about your mission as they scroll.
5. Have a big, obvious “Donate” button. Make it very clear right away that your organization is a nonprofit and you need donations to keep moving forward. Sometimes nonprofit marketers are afraid to look pushy or like they’re begging for money… But if someone is going to your website because they want to financially support a cause they care about, you need to make it easy for them. Otherwise, there are plenty of other nonprofits they can support instead.
6. When possible, avoid using numerals, hyphens, and other symbols in your website copy. Sometimes a number (like 2,126) doesn’t make sense to type out into words, and you obviously can’t just get rid of punctuation altogether on your website. But when there is an opportunity to write “two” instead of “2” or to leave out a hyphen, take it! Our brains interpret numerals and symbols as a different language than English, so our minds have to take a slight pause when reading to “translate” them. The key to good marketing communications is ensuring people can understand the meaning as quickly as possible, so the less symbols, the better.
7. Remember that search engines can’t “read” images and videos. Even though Google is getting better at recognizing objects and faces in images, Google won’t be able to understand the situations in the photos you post. For example, if you post a photo of a child receiving free tutoring services from one of your volunteers, but Google will only be able to recognize that there are two faces and maybe some school supplies in the photo. On the back end of your website, include alt text describing each image and a caption describing each video so Google can accurately represent your website in search results.
8. Include a blog or “news” page. One of the most important elements Google checks on every website is how recently it was last updated because Google doesn’t want to show outdated, irrelevant information to web searchers. If you post on a blog at least a couple times each month, Google will see that your website is updated regularly and likely to contain accurate information for viewers.
9. Have a very clear call to action after every major section of your website. Most nonprofit websites only include one call-to-action per webpage, if they include any at all. That’s not enough! Most viewers will never scroll all the way through a webpage to get to the bottom, so you need to include a call to action at the end of each section of your website. For example, your homepage probably begins with a section about your nonprofit’s mission. Before you move onto the next section about another topic, insert a button with a call to action. The call to action could be “Sign Up for Email Updates”, “Follow Us on Facebook”, “Sign Our Petition”, or something else.
Get Professional Help Deciding Your Next Steps
I started this podcast series on the COVID-19 crisis because I’ve been hearing from so many nonprofit professionals who are unsure how it will impact their funding opportunities and relationships. I can’t wait to hear from you too! Schedule a free initial consultation call to chat with me about your idea for a new nonprofit, social enterprise, or other social sector organization. I would love to help you figure out the best next steps to take to protect your organization and mission. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the Nonprofit Jenni Show for free so you won’t miss any new episodes about resilience through COVID-19!
Also, I want to thank Little Green Light for sponsoring this episode! Little Green Light is my favorite donor management system because it was built by nonprofit development professionals who know what features and metrics nonprofits really need for their fundraising and relationship building. LGL is also extremely affordable for small nonprofits and offers free fundraising resources for my podcast listeners! Visit www.littlegreenlight.com/jenni for free ebooks like “How to Retain Donors After Your Giving Day”, “Six Steps to a Successful Appeal”, and more.