Presentation for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service

1. Driving
Volunteers to
your Website:
Online
Marketing 101
Katherine Watier, 1-800-Volunteer.org

2. Learning Objectives
After this training you will:
 Understand why you need to be listed on
search engines
 Know how search engines work, and how user
friendly content can help your rankings
 Be able to start brainstorming and selecting
keywords
 Understand why inbound links are important
and have the tools to start a link campaign
(including links from social media)
5/1/2007 2

3. Lesson Overview
Step 1:
Make sure volunteers and search engines can find your
site.
 Keyword Research & Selection
 Modifying content for SE and visitors
Step 2:
Let SE spiders and visitors know your on the web
 Registering on directories
 Establishing a link campaign strategy
 Using social media to build links
Step 3:
Measure results & refine
5/1/2007 3

4. Why SEO or SEM?
 More than 86% of all people arrive at websites
through search engines.
 HUGE cost for volunteers to find you solely
through brand recognition/remembering your
URL/web address
 Without SEO/SEM you will not be found in search
engines
 Space on search engines is getting competitive.
Your competitors are engaged in SEO/SEM, and
you should to.
5/1/2007 4

5. How Search Engines Work
 Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com create their listings
automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web and add
those websites to their index.
Keyword Phrases
 When a human visitor to the engine puts in a keyword
phrase, the engine serves up relevant, fresh content
based on the pages in their index who have those
keywords, or are link to from other sites based on those
keywords.
5/1/2007 5

6. Tips for User Friendly Websites
 Tips:
 People scan online. Make sure content is
bulleted and short.
 Make use of underline and bold for key points
 Make sure “above the fold content is clear &
gives instructions
 Use Alt Text to make your site friendly to all
users
5/1/2007 6

7. Tips for Search Engine Friendly
Sites
 Fresh, relevant content that uses keywords
 Use of “meta tags”
 Keywords sprinkled throughout text
 All images have alt text
 Registered in Search engines/directories
 Links from other sites
5/1/2007 7

8. Step 1: Keyword Research
Brainstorm
phrases
volunteers
may use to
find you
How?
1. Brainstorm with staff, use thesaurus
2. Look at VC literature, competitor literature
3. Ask your volunteers
4. http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
5. Add variations: volunteer, volunteers, volunteering, Texas, TX
5/1/2007 8

9. Remember:
It’s not about the keywords
You want to be found on.
It’s about the keywords the
Volunteer uses to find you.
5/1/2007 9

10. Diversity of Keyword Phrases
 The Long Tail of Search:
 3% of Excite’s search traffic was 3 keywords – 97% of the
rest was in the “long tail”
 Amazon.com makes 57% of sales from keywords outside
of the “popular” terms.
5/1/2007 10

11. Selecting Keywords
 Step 1: Brainstorm keywords and phrases
 Home page should feature the most universal keywords,
such as “volunteer” or “volunteering” plus location based
keywords.
 Step 2: Visit Wordtracker, to learn:
 how times people used that keyword in their searches
 how many other sites contain that keyword, and
 the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI), a ratio between
how many other sites contain that keyword, and how
many searches were performed with that keyword. (a
free trial is available.) Higher KEI is better
5/1/2007 11

12. Other Keyword Research Tools
 Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
 Google AdWords Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
5/1/2007 12

13. What sections should have
keywords?
 Meta tags: Title, description
 Page text
 Alt text for all images
 Links
 Opportunity titles
 Footer
 Contact us section
5/1/2007 13

14. Step 2:
Registering in Search Engines & Directories
 It is important to get your site linked on the major and minor directories.
Submission for non-profits/non-commercial are free.
 Your site should be submitted to the following major directories:
 Yahoo! (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/): free for non-
commercial sites
 The Open Directory (http://dmoz.org/add.html): free
 Other directories, both paid and free, can be found at or Directory
Archives
5/1/2007 14

15. Step 2:
Creating a link campaign
 Who would place a link to your site?
 Newspapers you currently work with
 Schools, community sites, professional associations, chamber of
commerce, businesses
 Just ask the webmaster and follow up!
 SE like links from .edu and .gov more
 What should think links look like?
 Make sure the text around the link is relevant, and not all sites are
using the same phrase
 How can you place your own links?
 Search engine friendly press releases
 Postings on online boards, listserves
 Write articles for enewsletters
 DON’T BUY LINKS!!!
5/1/2007 15

16. Step 2:
Using Social Media to build links
 Post on craigslist.org
 Create Wikipedia account, or add to article with
link to site
 Create accounts in Local search engines
(local.google.com, local.yahoo.com, askcity.com)
 Create Flickr account, post pictures with links
 Post news on Reddit
 Optimize press releases, and use pr.com,
prleap.com to distribute releases
5/1/2007 16

17. Why Read Web Traffic Reports?
 It will highlight if visitors are actually USING
your website
 Helps you monitor success of your website
 Allows you to troubleshoot technical or
usability issues with your website
 Can provide you insight into what kind of
service your community actually wants to be
engaged in
 Without reading web traffic reports, you
don’t know if your online marketing is
working.
5/1/2007 17

18. Keep in Mind when Reading Web
Traffic Reports
 You are seeing a computer program translating a
report from a computer (server) and presenting it
to you a HUMAN. There will be translation
required
 Web tracking is a TREND tracking process.
 It’s like solving a crossword puzzle. Will give you
insight into marketing successes, and technical or
usability issues with your website.
 Free Tool!!: Google Analytics
5/1/2007 18

19. Problem: Site Not Listed At All
Problem:
Your branded website is not listed at all in Search
Engines
 Things to check:
 Did you register the site in the different search
engines?
 Are your web traffic reports showing that you spiders
have visited your site?
 If not, check 1. type of redirection, robot.txt file
 Areyou using your meta tags? (title, description)
 Does your page content match your meta tags?
 Does your page have real text or is it mostly
5/1/2007 images/Flash (SE can not spider graphics or text) 19

20. What things should you track?
 How many visitors are coming to your
website?
 Where are they coming from?
 What do you want them to do on the
website?
 What are they actually doing?
5/1/2007 20

21. Glossary of Terms
 Hits – measures spider PLUS human visitor traffic
(don’t use this)
 Visits (number of anonymous visitors who viewed
your page)
 Conversions – the # of visitors that did what you
wanted them to do when they were on your
website (signed up for an opportunity, filled out a
contact form, viewed particular content,
downloaded a .pdf)
5/1/2007 21

22. Tracking Business Goals on the
Web
Business Goals are tracked by “conversions”
1. Visitor clicks “express interest” on opportunity
(converts from visitor to volunteer, etc.)
2. Visitor clicks submit on “create a volunteer account”
3. Visitor clicks submit on “create an organization
account”
4. Visitor clicks on particular page or .pdf with content or
searches using related keywords
5. Visitor clicks on “holiday volunteering event”, or
visitors search using words “holiday volunteering”
**These are all called Key Performance Indicators for
your website**
5/1/2007 22

23. Learn More
 1-800-Volunteer.org SEO blog:
 http://www.1800volunteer.org.blogspot.com
 How Search Engines work:
 http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2168031
The expert on linking strategies:
 http://www.ericward.com/
 SEO Chat
 http://www.seochat.com/
 Web Marketing Today
 http://www.wilsonweb.com/
 Local listings
 AskCity http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/askcity_help.shtml#15
 Google maps http://www.google.com/lochp?q=
 Yahoo local: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
5/1/2007 23

24. Questions?
Katherine Watier
kwatier@pointsoflight.org
5/1/2007 24