Nonprofits do vital work to help our communities every day. So, what’s the best way for them to get the help they need to keep their organizations running? It starts with making sure they can connect with donors, constituents, and other key audiences.
One simple way to do just that is to make sure your nonprofit is up to date on the best SEO practices. That way, stakeholders can find you with a simple internet search. Whether you’re new to SEO or looking to grow your knowledge base, this guide has all the tips you need to create a winning SEO strategy for your organization.
Understanding SEO: What non-profits need to know
SEO, or search engine optimization, is vital to the success of any organization. These best practices help your website rise to the top of search engine results pages (like the first page of Google), called SERPs for short. When your target audience has questions, a strong SEO strategy ensures your organization’s answers are the first they see.
From attracting volunteers for your latest event to catching the eye of big donors, SEO is central to sharing your nonprofit’s mission, reaching the communities you serve, and inspiring donors. SEO can help you improve:
- Reach: SEO helps you get the attention of community members who might not know about your work. For instance, if your animal rescue organization is hosting a local adoption event, a highly ranked event listing on your website could get more pets in homes. If an animal lover looking to get more involved in their community sees the event, they might reach out about volunteer opportunities, too.
- Increasing donations: Every dollar counts and SEO can help you bring in a lot more of them. This could come from large one-time donors or recurring donations from individuals who believe in your work.
- Establishing credibility: Organizations that rank higher in search results are often thought of as the experts in the field. Good SEO practices can strengthen your organization’s reputation as a thought leader. Read our tips for becoming a thought leader!
10 SEO tips for non-profits that you can start ASAP
1. Make sure your NAP is accurate across the internet
First things first—the whole point of SEO is making sure it’s easy for people to find your organization. To do that, your name, address, and phone number (NAP) need to be accurate everywhere this information is featured. If you’ve ever changed offices or rebranded your organization, it’s essential to check that all your online listings are updated.
It’s not too hard to remember to do this on your Google Business Profile, which is an important tool for sharing essential information about your nonprofit. But it’s easy for listings on community pages or on websites of your strategic partners to slip through the cracks. One simple way to make sure you know every location where your NAP needs to be updated is to keep track through a simple spreadsheet. That way, when you relaunch with your new name or break ground on a new office, you’ve got an easy checklist handy to make your updates.
2. Focus on the user experience
Websites that offer a good user experience (UX) don’t just make for a better browsing experience. User experience is also central to SEO. A website with easy navigation and clean design will rank higher than sites that don’t put in the effort or haven’t been updated in a while. Regularly producing high-quality SEO-focused blog content is also a great way to provide your audience with valuable information while increasing your search engine rankings.
You can use external sources to measure your site’s core web vitals, so you have an exact idea of your website’s overall SEO health. These vitals indicate your website’s performance and responsiveness, so you know exactly how users experience your site and content from their end.
3. Put effort into a fast website
Faster website load time is important for SEO, but not for reasons you might think. Yes, a slow website is more likely to send your viewers back to the search page, but it also impacts how high up you appear in search results. With SEO, every extra millisecond of load time counts against your ranking.
If your website uses a lot of images, make sure the files aren’t too large, so load speed doesn’t get bogged down. It’s also vital to avoid large files, complicated pop-ups, and other features that might slow down your site. And remember, sometimes a slow webpage isn’t directly your fault. Make sure you’ve picked a website host that can handle all of your content and your projected flow of visitors.
4. Take advantage of free data-tracking tools
You have to know where your SEO weaknesses are before you can put in the work to fix them. The good news is there are tons of free tools to help you build a data-informed SEO strategy that works.
The latest version of Google Analytics (GA4) is one such free tool. This product helps you track website traffic and analyze user behavior patterns. If your organization’s About page is getting tons of visits but donations have slowed, maybe it’s time to add a well-placed donation button where you know donors are congregating.
Google Search Console is a helpful resource for tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) for your website, like click-through rates (CTR), so you know which parts of your website get the most engagement. You can also use this tool to get a sense of which unique keywords are attracting visitors.
Not sure which keywords you should be incorporating? Not to worry—there are free sites that can help you generate a list of relevant keywords for your cause. Doing this research early in the year, instead of right before Giving Tuesday, is a great way to get ahead of the game, so you can craft a content calendar that hits the bullseye with your target audience.
5. Understand your audience — and speak to them
Speaking of your target audience, if you want to reach them in a way that resonates—and keeps them interested in your organization’s work—your content has to be authentic.
Yes, you want to include the right keywords and headings. Long tail keywords, or specific phrases that average three to five words in length, tend to be effective for nonprofit SEO because they indicate the searcher is more serious. If you’re trying to attract a local audience, longtail keywords are especially worth investigating. For example, an LGBT Center in a specific city is more likely to drive traffic with search terms like “LGBT Support Los Angeles” and “LGBTQ+ Services Chicago.”
But that alone isn’t enough to reach your intended audience. You still need to prove that you’re an expert in your field and prioritize storytelling that captures your audience’s attention.
Narratives that focus on the material impact of your work are perfect for showcasing why your organization is so important. Spotlight stories are also a great way to appeal to donors. To return to the LGBTQ+ Center example, you could ask a few clients to share their success stories with your job placement program. There’s no greater spokesperson to advocate for your cause than the people your organization actually helps.
6. Put mobile website design first
In 2024, nearly 65 percent of all web traffic globally came from mobile devices, so it’s no surprise that search engines prioritize pages with mobile-friendly design. Google in particular uses mobile-first indexing to determine what ranks highest, which means that websites designed for optimal smartphone displays are prioritized in search rankings. Digestible content on a page that’s not too cluttered is essential.
You’ll also want to optimize your data for mobile. For instance, keep your meta title tags to 60 characters maximum. To ensure your site looks as good as it can on every size screen, tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights analyze mobile performance.
Most importantly, make sure your donate button shows up correctly on mobile!
7. Implement accessibility best practices
It doesn’t matter if disability justice is the focus of your mission. Every member of the community needs to be able to enjoy your content. And every organization, for profit or not, should be putting accessibility at the center of their work.
As a nonprofit, your organization will especially be held to a higher standard in this area. Simple practices such as adding alt text tags to your images is an easy and effective way to ensure a high quality user experience, and thus higher search rankings, for everyone.
Learn more about accessibility best practices in this free LinkedIn webinar replay with Stella and Samantha from The Stellastra Effect!
8. Make sure your content is structured properly
Even if you have great writers to help with your content, blog posts that aren’t structured for SEO are way less likely to get read. Utilize headings that break apart large sections of text and present your information in a way that’s easy to scan for those in a hurry.
Let’s say a potential donor is researching organizations to support before their next corporate social responsibility meeting. If you just posted a blog that summarizes your work in a bulleted list, you’ve got a better shot than organizations that prefer the kind of lengthy paragraphs you’d include in a grant application.
Blogs are also a great opportunity to drive traffic from other pages on your own website. Internal links with strong anchor text can be a great way to point folks toward other services and programs you offer. If you’ve just published a blog about a summer camp your organization runs, get creative and find a way to incorporate links to your year-round educational programs.
9. Claim your free listings
Setting up a business listing on popular search engines is free and easy. All you need to get a Google Business listing up and running is to create a free Google Business Profile. Yelp and Bing offer free business listings as well, and these hubs are also great for connecting with your community through user messages and reviews.
10. Connect with your community
You don’t have to do all the SEO legwork on your own. Reach out to your strategic partners and see if they’re willing to feature backlinks to your website in their content. You could even take a cue from the for-profit world and partner with influencers who have large social media followings.
And don’t be afraid to contact directories that feature other organizations in your field to see if they’ll list your organization. SEO can be a lot like fundraising, as you have to cast a wide net and try a lot of different connections before one bites. It’s worth it to extend your reach as far as possible—you never know who will say yes when they see your mission in action.
Need an SEO guide? The Stellastra Effect has you covered
With these simple practices, you can improve your nonprofit’s SEO and skyrocket your reach, drawing in more donors, volunteers, and advocates for your cause. Of course, when navigating new territory, it always helps to have a seasoned expert light the way. The Stellastra Effect is here to help you craft an SEO strategy that gives back, with non-profit specialist consultants on staff who ensure your message is impactful and far-reaching. Reach out to boost your SEO and take your organization’s vision to new heights.
