Quick and easy guide for nonprofits (and other businesses to follow in order to improve their online presence and authority.

1. SEO for Nonprofits
How to implement search engine optimization techniques
to increase exposure for your organization.

2. 2
Contents
Summary: In the past ten years the number of nonprofits in the United States has nearly
doubled. Whether you are a local or international charity, getting exposure and increasing
donations for your nonprofit is difficult.
Learning and properly utilizing some basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques
discussed in this document will make a big difference – increasing traffic and online donations.
Topics Page
The Importance of Search Engine Optimization………………...……………………..……...….3
Keyword Research…..…………………………………………………………….….……....……..4
On-page Search Engine Optimization...……………………………..…………………………....5
Internal Linking Structure.………………………………………....................…..................…….6
Inbound Link Building …………………...………………………………………..………………...7
Fresh Content……………..…………………………………………...….……………...................8
SEO for Nonprofits

3. 3
The Importance of Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization Increases Exposure for your Organization
One of the main ways that people look for information online is by using a search engine. In
April 2011, within a single month, Americans alone conducted over 18 billion queries using a
search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo (via Comscore).
Although modern day search engines are great at delivering results, there is a lot of
competition and without utilizing search engines optimization techniques your organization will
most likely be buried in the results.
A recent study by Optify was released showing the importance of ranking high in search
engine results. The study shows that a websites ranking number one for a keyword receives
about 37% of the total clicks for that keyword and 90% of search engine users do not even
click a result on the second page (via Optify).
Ranking high in the search results pages is crucial for increasing exposure and online
donations. The concepts in this document will provide the foundation you will need to
understand and implement search engine optimization techniques and obtain higher rankings.
Note: We typically perform a quick SEO audit before beginning any optimization. If you would
like to take a look at the template we use to perform these audits, we would love to share it with
you. It can be found here: SEO audit template (Excel Document). We filled in some of the fields
to give you the general idea.
If you need advanced search optimization services contact ROI Pop and we can help.
SEO for Nonprofits

4. 4
Keyword Research
Importance of Keywords and How to Perform Keyword Research
As a search engine reads your website it tries to figure out what your website is about so it can
later produce relevant results for its users.
Using the right keywords is one of the most important ways to help search engines understand
your website and increase rankings.
Think of keywords that may be relevant to your nonprofit organization, just a quick brainstorm
and add them to a list.
Next, visit a free keyword research tool like Google Keyword Tool to give you additional ideas
and to show you how often people type in certain words.
This keyword list will help you incorporate specific phrases into your content and into the
structure of your website.
Example of Google Keyword Tool Results
SEO for Nonprofits

5. 5
On-Page Search Engine Optimization
Incorporating the Keywords
Now you have your list of keywords, it’s time to begin looking at ways to incorporate them. One
of the easiest ways is to add the specific keywords or phrases from the list into the text of your
site.
Start by reviewing your homepage and see if you can add in any relevant keywords from the
list. Consider adding them to page titles, paragraph headings, body content, or image
alternate text. After reviewing your homepage, complete the same process for each of your
interior pages. Keep in mind that you may need to generate additional keywords if the theme of
your content changes.
If you are comfortable making changes to your website’s source code and you need some tips,
we recommend taking a look at The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet .
Some additional on-page SEO tips to consider are:
- Avoid ‘keyword stuffing’ by making sure the text still reads naturally. Remember you are
writing this for people, not just search engines.
- Integrate relevant keywords into your page URLs. Again, the keyword should reflect the
content of the page. A number of content management systems used by nonprofits have the
functionality to easily make these changes.
- Incorporate keywords into the filenames of images and rich media. An example is to use;
“[your organization’s name]-logo.jpg” instead of something as generic as “logo.jpg”.
- A topic for another document, but which is a factor for SEO is how quickly your website loads.
Visitors do not like slow websites and search engines will penalize those sites which under
perform. Visit Web Page Test.org for a free website performance check.
ROI Pop offers website performance optimization services and we can significantly improve
the load time of your website. Contact us for more info.
SEO for Nonprofits

6. 6
Internal Linking Structure
Make Your Site Easy To Navigate
Your site should be as easy and intuitive to navigate as possible. This not only helps the
visitors explore all pages of your website, but it also makes it easy for search engines to find
existing or updated content on your site.
Your homepage should have links to internal pages – especially those that are the most
important for your organization. Similar to your homepage, a visitor on any interior page should
also be able to easily navigate to other pages.
When a search engine is analyzing a website it navigates from page to page via internal links –
similar to a subway system. If a page is a dead-end or links to a missing page then the search
engine robot eventually leaves your site. This is not good and it needs to be addressed.
SEO best practice is not only to ensure that your internal link structure is multi-faceted, but also
to create a sitemap which includes all of the URLs for all of the pages on your website that you
would like to have indexed.
Like the name implies, a sitemap is a file which maps not only the location for all of your pages,
but also includes a defined priority of each specific page. This file is extremely helpful for
search engines and should be present on your website if you would like your pages to be
found.
To view an example of a sitemap and for access to a free sitemap generator visit:
XML-Sitemaps
SEO for Nonprofits

7. 7
Inbound Link Building
The Most Important Factor in SEO
When a search engine is analyzing another site, it sometimes finds links to other websites.
When this happens, the search engine records the reference.
If a website references and links to your organizations website in a positive way, this is viewed
as an endorsement or vote for your website. Ultimately, as the number of relevant inbound
links that your organization receives the authority and ranking of your website for specific
topics and keywords increases.
Increasing the number of inbound links is the most time intensive process for SEO, but typically
the most important in the long-run. The process is ongoing and should be done organically
and consistently. A great start is to make sure that your website is added to some general
directories such as DMOZ and Yahoo Directory . A press release via a service like PRWeb
generally produces good results as well.
Some additional linkbuilding tips include:
- Create a page on Wikipedia about your nonprofit and make sure to include links from the
Wikipedia page to your site.
- Create a profile for your organization at Google Places, Yahoo! Local, and
Bing Business Portal .
- Write articles or helpful comments for other sites that link back to yours.
- Start a blog and write helpful and informative posts. Make sure to reference applicable
websites when possible - you might get a link back in return.
- As a nonprofit you can ask for links from relevant government agencies and educational
institutions. Examples include getting your next event or fundraiser posted to your local
library’s site, or your local city’s site.
SEO for Nonprofits

8. 8
Fresh Content
Search Engines Prefer Updated Content
The last basic SEO concept is to give your unique and up-to-date information. Share with them
the latest news and developments. Not only do visitors like updated content, search engines
prefer new content as well.
A blog is excellent at helping generate unique and fresh content and if your site currently does
not have the functionality for a blog then visit Wordpress , Blogger , or Tumblr and signup for a
free blog.
You can start off with having an article published once a month and eventually work towards
increasing the frequency. When creating the new content make sure to use all of the
techniques discussed earlier and before you know it your exposure will increase. Aside from a
blog and adding pages to your nonprofit organization’s website, consider incorporating some
of your social media feeds like Facebook and Twitter into the site. Social media platforms have
widgets that you can embed directly into your site very easily.
If you are a nonprofit and would like to have our have experts handle your SEO or pay-per-click
(PPC) optimization give us a call toll-free at 1-855-764-7671 or send us an email at
contact@roipop.com.
Good luck and happy optimizing!
-The ROI Pop Team
Find out more about ROI Pop at:
http://roipop.com
SEO for Nonprofits