Every company needs a strong marketing strategy — even nonprofits.
However, most nonprofits haven’t considered investing in search engine optimization (SEO), even though it can have one of the highest returns on investment.
SEO, specifically for nonprofits, is the process of optimizing your website to increase organic visibility when people search for topics like education, fundraising opportunities, volunteer opportunities, or other aspects that promote your mission.
Let’s dive into what SEO is, how it works, and SEO best practices for nonprofits.
What is SEO?
SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, is the process of driving users to your site from search engines organically. This means you aren’t paying for ads, using social media, or placing sponsored content to attract new users.
The goal of SEO is to help your site rank as high as possible for target keywords and phrases relevant to your website and mission.
For example, if your nonprofit is geared towards wildlife conservation, you would want to rank high organically for terms related to wildlife conservation. The higher your website or pages rank in the search engine result pages (SERPs), the more likely users will see it and click on it. Studies have shown that the higher you rank, the higher the average click-through-rate (CTR) is.
If you’d like a full rundown on SEO, take a look at The Ultimate Guide to SEO in 2022.
How does SEO work?
There are hundreds of factors that Google and other search engines take into account when ranking your site or content. These factors come from the three different pillars of SEO which are the following:
- Technical optimization
- On-page optimization
- Off-page optimization
Search engines are powered by people when they have a query and search for answers. Search engines use algorithms that decide what content and websites best fit the answer for the query. There are three steps that search engines take when assessing a site: crawling the site, indexing the site, and lastly, ranking the site.
Crawling, also known as the discovery stage, occurs first, then search engines decide if the pages should be indexed or shared on the search engine result pages and available for users to see and find. Lastly, the algorithm ranks the content in the search results, which is how users find your website or web page.
Learn more about how Aggregate Insights has helped our clients find better market fit.
