SEO For Nonprofits: 15 Tips To Improve Rankings & Traffic
BLOG / Marketing 6 October 2023
For nonprofit websites, every single visitor matters. That one visitor might help in raising funds and spreading the charity message to a larger audience. However, getting traffic from paid channels such as PPC, PPV, or PPV can be costly. A better alternative to paid traffic comes from SEO for nonprofits practices.
Essentially, these practices try to get more organic traffic from search engines such as Google, Yandex, Bing, etc.
Needless to say, the best way to increase organic traffic is through search engine optimization (SEO).
Over the long run, spending money on SEO is considered to be cheaper than paid traffic. That’s why more and more nonprofits are now stepping up their SEO game to get more organic traffic.
Today, I will be employing my years of SEO experience to list some actionable SEO tips to help you gain more green traffic for your charity website. And don’t worry; I’ll ensure everything’s clear and steady that you don’t need to be an SEO to keep up!
CDC’s top 15 SEO tips for Nonprofits
Optimizing a charity/nonprofit website for improved search engine visibility is known as nonprofit SEO. This process increases a charity/nonprofit website’s rankings on the search engine result pages (SERPs) and thus helps it to get more traffic.
The traffic on the nonprofit website can help it to get more volunteers and donations or to get get more people to know about their cause. This was the case with one of our nonprofit clients, where we worked on rebranding their charity and revamping their website. The results!? Tripling their visitors and conversion rates for three years in a row!
Now, let’s look at 15 SEO tips that can be used by any nonprofit/charity to improve their rankings on the SERPs:
1. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Google introduced mobile-first indexing on July 2019, which means it will be using the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking purpose.
In plain English, nonprofit websites that don’t have a mobile-friendly design and performance will lose the battle even before it is started (Google will give preference to mobile-friendly sites).
So, the first pillar of an SEO strategy for nonprofits is to ensure the website’s got responsive design and loading speed. In simple words, again, a responsive design is one that’s optimized for mobile and non-mobile devices alike.
For example, someone visiting a nonprofit website from their iPhone 14 should get a fully functional website optimized for mobile. Similarly, someone visiting a nonprofit website from their laptop or iPad should also get a fully functional and optimized website!
2. Avoid using too many popups
How would you feel if you opened a nonprofit website and were greeted by tons of popups that just keep appearing? Of course, it will diminish your experience & would prove to be a hindrance in accessing the site’s content.
That’s something Google really is not a fan of!
After all, anyone who’s using the Google search engine is a consumer, and Google would want them to have the best experience. But a website with too many popups can (do) diminish the user experience and affect content accessibility.
So, that’s another SEO tip to help your nonprofits get better rankings!
We know there are instances when using popups can be beneficial, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What we are discussing here is using too many pop-ups and the use of invasive pop-ups. As long as the pop-ups on your nonprofit website don’t lead to poor user experience and you are not using too many pop-ups, you will be fine.
3. Improve your site’s core web vitals
Core Web Vitals is a part of Google’s page experience signal and is thus an important ranking factor. This means nonprofit websites with a low score in core web vitals will get less organic traffic from Google. Accordingly, another way to ample up your SEO game is to ensure that your site’s core web vitals are up to par.
Google uses Google’s Chrome User Experience Report to determine the core web vitals. And to get a ranking boost in the SERPs, you need to ensure at least 75% of the visitors coming to your site enjoy a good user experience.
All of this raises the question of what exactly are core web vitals!? Well, it can be divided into three parts:
- Largest contentful paint (LCP) – It is a measure of the time it takes for a visitor to see the majority of the on-screen content after clicking a link.
- First input delay (FID) – It is a measure of the time it takes a visitor to interact with the website.
- Cumulative layout shift (CLS) – It measures the visual stability of a page. If a website’s elements move a lot during the loading, it leads to a high CLS score (which is bad).
You can view the core web vitals of your nonprofit website by visiting the Google Search Console > Enhancements.
To make it easy for you, here’s a quick list of actions you can take to improve your nonprofit website’s core web vitals (& to get better rankings):
- Remove any 3rd party scripts which are not needed or unnecessary
- Switch to a fast web hosting company or upgrade your hosting server
- Use a browser cache plugin to improve the page loading speed
- Defer the loading of javascript as it can increase the page loading speed
- Set a reserved space for the advertisements
- Add size attribute dimensions to images, videos, GIFs, and any other media
- New UI elements should be added below the fold while the page is loading
4. Get links from nonprofit directories & articles
SEO, most of the time, is pretty tied to the keywords one targets. The keywords should be visible with a good amount of traffic & are easy to rank for at the same time. But this is not really the case in the nonprofit industry.
Most keywords are staggeringly competitive, and your website may need direct linking from top websites in the niche. These links can come from directories and/or articles on those websites.
Why, you might ask, are these links so essential!? Well, think of them as testimonials from these websites… It’s like they’re using their authority to tell the boss (Google) this website is in our league… It would help build topical authority and relevancy & increase your visibility and SEO rankings as a whole.
In addition to the SEO perks, being mentioned in top nonprofit websites can help bridge the gap between you and your targeted audience. Trust can be built, and more donations and conversions can, thus, be expected.
At the end of the day, we can’t ignore the fact that backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking factors. In fact, these links will also be highly relevant and thus will improve your site’s chance of improving its ranks on Google.
For example, you can use search operators like these:
[City name] nonprofits, [City name] charities, [flood relief] charities, and so on. You can replace flood relief with the cause of your nonprofit!
5. Turn mentions into links
Nonprofits/charities receive a lot of coverage through press releases, media outlets, and partners. This can help a nonprofit organization receive brand mentions and even get traffic.
However, these mentions are usually without any link back to the nonprofit organization’s website. So, it’s a smart move to get valuable backlinks by DMing those who mention you and asking them to link back to your website.
You can use Google search to find mentions about your nonprofit organization:
UNICEF OR “United Nations International Children’s Emergency” -site:unicef.* -site:worldwide
You can also use your organization’s name with quotes to find mentions on the internet. For example, “Unicef” will return all the results that have mentioned that word on their pages.
The next step is to filter the results that don’t contain any backlinks to your nonprofit organization. After that, you can reach out to those websites and ask them to provide a backlink to your organization.
Sometimes, a website’s administration may not be closely watching the email address mentioned on the contact page due to excessive spam. That’s why it is usually best to use all available methods to contact the website (social media, contact submission form, email, phone, etc.)
6. Respond to journalist requests
Media coverage can help nonprofit organizations reach out to the masses and get brand awareness. And when that media coverage is online, it also helps nonprofit organizations improve their rankings on the SERPs.
To get media coverage, you can use a journalist requests platforms like these:
You can signup for all of these services and then subscribe for requests you would like to receive.
These platforms help journalists include relevant and trustworthy links in their content. For nonprofit organizations, it can prove to be a valuable chance to earn a relevant backlink.
Most of these platforms are very popular, which means journalists receive a lot of requests. That’s why answering requests as soon as you get them is important! And If you manage to convince a journalist with your pitch, you will get a powerful backlink in the published article!
A more convenient way to find the journalist’s requests is to go on Twitter and look at the feed for hashtags like #journorequest. This way, you can skip the above-mentioned platforms and contact a journalist directly!
We have to mention that the practice of getting backlinks is not really easy and is very tricky. Patience is the word of the sport here! Keep going, and your work shall be paid off!
7. Earn backlinks from guest blogging
Another SEO tip to improve your rankings is to secure links from established and high-authority websites via guest blogging.
This technique will allow you to get more recognition, authority, referral traffic, & relevant links. All of these are essential for SEO & thus will help you to further your nonprofit organization’s mission.
In case the term “guest blogging” sounds foreign to you, it means writing articles/blogs and publishing them on relevant websites. These articles usually contain a backlink to your website in the form of an external link or credits mention.
Besides earning backlinks, one of the major benefits of guest blogging is that it will expose your organization to a new audience.
This means that any published articles on 3rd party sites can also prove to be a traffic source for new donors/supporters.
The only thing to remember for guest blogging is to find relevant and high-quality websites. You can use Google or any other search engine to find guest blogging opportunities:
[keyword] “guest post.”
[keyword] “Write for us.”
Once you have made a list of potential guest posting sites, the next step is to check their authority. For that, you can use the Ahref authority checker.
You should aim to find websites with a minimum domain rating of 40, and while you are at it, also check the target site’s backlink profile. If you notice any spammy-looking anchor texts related to casinos, drugs, or obscene content, you should drop that domain from the list!
After filtration, the next step is to reach out to the guest blogging sites. You can do that by approaching them via the contact page, email, or social media.
When writing guest posts, remember to focus on high-quality and informational content.
Also, many people make the mistake of writing a highly promotional article that doesn’t add any value to the guest blogging’s website. This can increase the chances of your guest post being rejected by the admins of the guest blogging sites & that it may not send positive signals to Google.
8. Create content related to educational keywords
Another tip related to SEO for nonprofits is to create content that’s related to educational keywords. This will allow you to drive relevant traffic to the site while also helping you establish authority on the topic.
Nonprofit websites often fail to establish topical authority related to their main keywords. For example, let’s assume that your nonprofit organization provides free X health services. In this case, you should target educational keywords related to the X health condition topic on your site.
On the one hand, it will help you to draw relevant traffic to the website. On the other, it will allow your nonprofit website to establish topical relevancy on this subject. As a result, Google will start to regard your website as an authority on the subject and will be more likely to rank your content higher.
To better understand this, you can look at the WWF or also known as World Wide Fund for Nature. On the WWF blog, they share content based on educational keywords such as “Facts about Black Rhinos.”
On the surface, it sounds like fun and highly informative content for anyone interested in black rhinos. And when someone lands on the page, they are greeted with CTA (call-to-action) buttons for adopting a rhino by making a donation.
This strategy allows the WWF to leverage the traffic from educational keywords for raising donations and furthering its cause of wildlife preservation.
You can search for your primary keyword on Google search to find educational keywords. For example, let’s assume that your nonprofit organization is about climate change. If you search for climate change, you will notice that Google has included a section called “People also searched” & “People also asked” in the SERPs.
That’s a list of questions that people ask and fall under the category of educational keywords. So by writing content centered around such keywords, you can improve your topical authority and even drive traffic.
However, a more practical way to go about this is to do professional keyword research and prepare a content strategy.
9. Interlink your content
While you work to secure backlinks for your nonprofit website, let’s not forget about internal links as well! Internal linking helps you to pass link juice & authority between different pages on your site.
And as an added bonus, it also helps keep visitors on your site for much longer, ultimately lowering your bounce rate (bounce rate’s a measure of how long visitors spend on a website before bouncing back to the search engine result page).
The only thing to remember about internal links is that they should be relevant. In addition, the anchor text used for these internal links should be relevant and descriptive.
For example, a piece of health-related content can contain internal links to other health content on the website. But adding technology-related content’s link to a health content page would do you no good!
You can also automate this process by using a relevant posts plugin on your website if you use WordPress (you can automate a lot of things when it comes to nonprofit marketing!).
This plugin can find relevant posts and then show them to each page on your website. For other Nonprofit CMS & website builders besides WordPress, you can still find plugins and add-ons like this!
However, the internal links that are added inside the content and contain keyword anchor text are the best when it comes to passing link juice and authority.
10. Utilize broken link building
How many times did you click on a link present inside content only to find that it doesn’t lead anywhere? Broken links can occur due to many reasons… Sometimes the page is deleted by the website owner, and sometimes, the page’s URL is updated. Then there are some cases when the webmaster makes a typo when adding the link…
The scenario doesn’t matter much. The basic idea behind the broken link building (404 link building) strategy is to find broken links and then ask the website owners to link your site’s relevant content instead of the broken link.
To get started with this strategy, you can download the “check my links” extension on Google Chrome. Then all you have to do is open relevant pages on your Chrome and then use the extension to find broken links.
You just have to click on the extension icon (top right corner), and it will automatically search for any broken links on the page.
This strategy works best with pages that contain a lot of external links, as it increases your chances of finding a broken link.
You can use these queries to find resource pages related to your nonprofit website:
“target keyword” + “resources”
“target keyword” + “useful resources”
“target keyword” + inurl:resources
11. Create content related to statistical keywords
Another way to drive organic traffic to your nonprofit website is to create content related to statistical keywords. You would be surprised to know there is a lot of demand for such content & thus can help you get more traffic.
In addition, it will also allow you to spread your cause or even find new donors when they visit your site after searching statistical keywords. And last but not least, such keywords are also good “link earners,” as websites tend to include backlinks to such pages a lot!
For instance, the keywords like “human rights issues 2023” can be written by providing updated statistics and information about this issue. This will allow you to attract visitors who have an interest in human rights issues. And once they land on your site, you will have the opportunity to turn these visitors into donors and supporters of your cause.
Similarly, such content also attracts a lot of backlinks as websites like to include links to relevant statistics in their content.
12. Get experts to review or write content
Certain topics must be written or at least reviewed by an expert to stand a chance of ranking on the SERPs.
Google terms these topics as YMYL, which means “Your money, your life.” Here’s a short list of the topics that fall under the category of YMYL:
- Current Events
- News
- Finance
- Health
- Government
- Laws
- Civic
- Groups of people
It can also include other topics that can have a major impact on the people’s decision-making process or even have an impact on their lives, such as finding a job, choosing a college, fitness, etc.
A nonprofit website must demonstrate its EAT in order to rank for these topics on the SERPs. According to Google, EAT stands for these terms:
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
This means content written on the YMYL topics must pass the above qualities.
For starters, the writer of such content should be an expert and authority on the subject. At the very least, the content must be reviewed by an expert in the field for accuracy. In addition, the content must also have up-to-date information and include information from trustworthy sources.
And last but not least, the information about who wrote and reviewed the content must be clearly displayed on the page.
For example, here’s an article from Human Rights Watch about climate change & fossil fuels. This article clearly shows that the writer is a director of “Environment & human rights watch” at the HRW.
Upon clicking the author’s bio, more detailed information about the author is revealed, which reaffirms his authoritativeness and trustworthiness on this subject.
So if your nonprofit covers a topic under the umbrella of YMYL, you need to get an expert to write or review the content. And the information about the expert must also be clearly stated on the page!
13. Get a Google Knowledge panel
There’s a good chance you have already seen a Google knowledge panel during one of your searches. For example, searching UNICEF on Google will show a knowledge panel on the right side that includes information about the nonprofit organization, such as founders, subsidiaries, and so on.
You can claim valuable SERP real estate with a knowledge panel for your nonprofit organization! This also makes it easy for potential donors/volunteers to get information about your organization right from the search page.
And besides offering additional visibility, it also adds credibility to your organization. If a potential volunteer/donor sees information about your organization on the Google knowledge panel, it would appear as if Google is itself saying this organization is legit!
Especially for nonprofits that want to raise donations online, getting knowledge panels is a must-have for credibility and visibility.
However, the process to get your own Google knowledge panel can be a little longer as it involves a lot of steps. Here’s a short version of the steps you need to take to get your own Google knowledge panel:
- You need links and mentions from trusted and popular websites such as TechCrunch, Forbes, Yahoo, and so on. The more newspaper links and mentions you can get, the better your chances of getting a Google knowledge panel.
- Use schema markup for organizations on your site with all the details such as name, social profiles, URL, logo, etc.
- Since we are talking about nonprofits, there’s a high chance that your organization will also have a physical presence. So, another step that can help you get into Google’s knowledge graph is to signup for Google My Business.
- Create a profile on wikidata.org.
- Create a page about your organization on wikipedia.org.
14. Create great content
This one should be pretty obvious, but many nonprofits make the mistake of not investing enough resources in content creation. There’s an old saying, “Content is king,” which still holds true to this day.
If your nonprofit website only has a handful of pages, it will have difficulty performing well on the SERPs. On the contrary, a nonprofit website with a lot of content-rich pages will appear more authoritative in the eyes of Google & thus will rank better!
Another benefit of creating content on different keywords and topics is that it also increases your chances of attracting more traffic!
This raises the question of what great content is… Any content that is valuable, accurate, and written by humans for humans is good!
And the first step of writing great content starts with keyword research. In simple words, you need to create content for keywords that are searched by your potential donors/supporters. To find relevant keywords, you can use any of the following keyword research tools:
When writing content for your nonprofit website, you must ensure it contains your main keyword throughout the content. On average, a 1-2% keyword density is considered a good range for most types of industries, including nonprofits.
You can also improve the relevancy of your content by including LSI keywords in addition to the main keyword. To find LSI keywords, simply search your main keyword on Google and then scroll to the bottom. You will find a list of searches (keywords) that are related to your main keyword.
You only need to mention these LSI keywords once or twice in the content, and there’s no need to achieve a keyword density of 1-2%.
Here’s a quick list of tips related to keyword usage in content:
- Include the main keyword in the page title (h1 tag).
- Mention the main keyword at least once in the introduction.
- If possible, include the main keyword in the H2 tags.
- Use the main keyword as image alt text.
- Use the LSI keywords in the H2 and H3 tags.
And last but not least, be sure to add links to relevant and authoritative websites in your content that can provide value to your readers.
15. Don’t forget the small stuff
While you work on the big stuff, such as backlinks, mobile-friendly design, awesome-looking landing pages & great content, let’s not forget about the smaller things as well.
These small things can build up and significantly affect the ranking of your nonprofit site on the SERPs!
Here’s a quick list of things that you should keep in mind when it comes to SEO for nonprofits:
- Google is the biggest search engine, but you should also focus on Bing and Yandex as well.
- Include Google Maps location on your nonprofit website’s contact page.
- Keep your website URLs short and ensure it contains the targeted keyword.
- Don’t include any hyphens, underscores, or spaces.
- Create a sitemap for your nonprofit website. Also, upload your sitemap on Google Webmaster tools.
- Create a robots.txt file for your nonprofit website.
- If your site is using HTTP, then move it to the HTTPS protocol by installing an SSL certificate.
- Avoid the use of A.I. written and duplicate content.
- Update your content frequently and include the date of the update on each page. For example: (updated on: mm – dd – yyyy). This will inform google that the content was recently updated & will provide a ranking boost in the SERPs.
Conclusion
All of these tips mentioned above can help you to do SEO for nonprofits the right way! However, we can’t ignore the fact that Good SEO starts with a website design that’s built with SEO in mind… From the right meta tags to the use of correct H2 tags to having good core web vitals, it all depends on your nonprofit website’s design.
That’s why it is important that you think about an SEO-friendly design first before finding ways to do SEO for nonprofits.
At Canadian Digital Consulting, we can help you further your nonprofit organization’s cause by building an SEO-friendly website! Once you have an SEO-friendly website, any efforts made by your organization to improve the search engine rankings will yield results as you will be working on the right footing!
Hamid Nouasria
Hamid is a professional on-page SEO specialist and content writer. He holds a B.A degree in Media Literacy, and he is interested in marketing, leadership, and sociology.
