Search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect of digital marketing that every nonprofit should prioritize. After all, no matter how excellent your website is, it won’t be nearly as useful target audience can’t find it through the search engines they commonly use, whether that’s Google, Bing, or AI tools.
While SEO may seem daunting, there are three core elements that by themselves can make a huge difference:
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Technical Considerations: Are search engines aware of your pages? Can they understand the content? Do your pages meet the criteria for technical efficiency?
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Valuable Content: Are your pages highly useful and relevant to your audience’s search queries? Do visitors engage with the content after clicking through from the search results?
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Keywords and Links: Have you incorporated relevant keywords into your content to help search engines understand what each page is about? Have you created internal links to your key pages? External links from reputable sites can also be beneficial, especially for smaller websites.
This issue is dedicated to practical strategies you can implement right now to make a real difference across these three core elements.
First, I have a webinar about a powerful but underutilized tool for nonprofits: Google Search Console (GSC) (free subscription required). GSC, which is free, provides very useful insights, particularly regarding the technical aspects of your website. My webinar shares how to start using GSC to identify and address potential technical issues with your site.
Additionally, I’ve included other articles that address the remaining two areas – content quality and keyword strategy. You’ll find tips on creating compelling content that resonates with Google’s algorithms, defining and applying relevant keywords to your pages, and quick wins you can implement across your site.
There’s a lot here — and yes, they’re all practical and actionable, but if you read them all and try to act on them all now, you’re likely to get overwhelmed. Choose one element at a time, and a few pages at a time, and you can make some real improvements in a matter of weeks.
Dive Deeper
Webinar: A Nonprofits’ Guide to Google Search Console: Troubleshooting Technical SEO | Laura S. Quinn Consulting
Core Element 1: Technical Considering ✅
Google Search Console (GSC) is an important tool for nonprofits to understand. It’s free, easy to set up, and provides real insight into how Google perceives your web presence. From understanding how to read the key GSC reports to resolving common technical SEO issues to ensuring your pages are properly indexed, my article gives you practical strategies to tackle the critical first step towards improving your nonprofit’s online discoverability.
The crucial factors for establishing online trustworthiness | Search Engine Journal
Core Element 2: Valuable Content ✅
Google — and other search engines — look at your content in depth to try to gauge its quality. Google says it looks specifically for signals of E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, andTrustworthiness. Search Engine Journal tells you what these mean and equips you with tips for creating content that resonates with both users and search engines.
Practical, actionable SEO tips for nonprofits | Nonprofit Tech for Good
Core Element 2: Valuable Content ✅ Core Element 3: Links ✅
This article delves into the importance of creating quality, human-centered content that provides genuine value to your readers, positioning your nonprofit as a trusted authority. This one focuses on some specific, straightforward quick wins that you may not have thought of: your image alt text, titles, links, and metadata.
Rank a few pages higher fast: a keyword how-to using GSC and ChatGPT | Orbit Media Studios
Core Element 3: Keywords ✅
A complement to my article above, here’s a really helpful how-to that shows you how to use Google Search Console to boost particular articles for keywords. Note that this article starts by talking about how to find articles that will be easier to boost to get more traffic, but you could also use the same steps to try to move any page higher in the rankings. And this process should only take about an hour per page!