SEO Resource Assessment for Non-Profits

Search Engine Optimization is the best way to get people to your non-profit’s web-site. It’s much more effective than on-line advertising (75%+ of Google searches are organic), extremely cost effective (free), and highly targeted to your ideal donor (targeting them exactly WHEN they are interested in your NPO’s cause).

What many small non-profits don’t realize is that they already have the resources to optimize their organization’s web-site for search engines! Before a non-profit hires a consultant, they should do a thorough assessment of the following resources:

Rich Content – SEO requires no programing language - just well written content. Non-Profit folks tend to be very well educated and prolific writers when it comes to their NPO’s subject matter. They can leverage this strength to create rich content with relevant keywords. Search Engines tend to give a high rankings to content that has the most depth and relevance. A quick search for youth non-profits in Massachusetts on Google came up with The Children’s Law Center. Notice how this site has several educational articles that explore legal issues for disadvantaged children.

Note: Do not post articles in .pdf format - they can’t be searched!

Unique and Creative Content – Non-profits tend to have very creative staff who can write engaging, lively content. This is exactly the kind of content that other websites want to reference via inbound links to your NPO’s site. Enlist the creative types within your NPO who can take existing articles and make them engaging and snappy! For example, The Human Rights Campaign has great examples of articles about GLBT issues that are informative and engadging.

Fresh Content – Google Alerts and Google Reader are easy ways to aggregate this source content for your writings.

Note: Consider implementing a blog where staff can post new content each week.

Again, the key to all of this is to develop a tactical plan to use the SEO talent your NPO already has before outsourcing.