Search Engine Optimization 101 for Nonprofits

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Search Engine Optimization 101 for
Nonprofits
Richard Dietz
April 23, 2013
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Search Engine Optimization 101 for Nonprofits
Richard Dietz
April 23, 2013

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Today’s Speaker
Rich Dietz
President and Founder
Nonprofit R+D
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SEO 101 for Nonprofits www.NonprofitRD.com
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Rich Dietz
Rich has spent the last 20 years working both in and with a wide variety of
nonprofit, political, and government organizations, as well as technology
companies focused on the nonprofit sector, including Sage Nonprofit, Convio
and KIMBIA.
Rich holds a M.S.W. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in
Political Science from UCLA.
Nonprofit R+D is dedicated to helping
emerging and growing nonprofits fully
utilize technology and the web to support
their missions through training, best
practices, and support.

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Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Search Engines
3. Keywords
4. On-page Optimization
5. Off-page Optimization
6. Action Plan

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Our Goals Today
• Gain a better understanding of SEO and how it relates to
nonprofits
• Generate ideas to get you started looking at your website
with SEO in mind
• Encourage you to take action and test out new ideas

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Soap Box

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Text Heavy Slides… Oh No!
I promise I do not just read the slides
• Boring!
Why text heavy slides
•You don’t have to take notes – the info is there for you later
•You can focus on the “ah-ha” moments
•They will still make sense 6 months from now
Let me know what you think
Download the Latest Slides:
www.NonprofitRD.com/seo-101-nonprofits

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Don’t Panic
There is help out there
Google is your friend
Me Too.

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What You Talkin’ About Willis?
LSI, PPC, Long Tail
CRM, CMS
ROI, API,
wysiwyg
Open-Source
Blah, Blah, Blah

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The Latest and Greatest…
Many folks like to focus on the latest and greatest
tools and techniques (Shiny Object Syndrome)
At Nonprofit R+D, we instead focus on the basics
and building a solid foundation

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Off Soap Box

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1. Introduction

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Why Listen to Me?
I love testing and experimenting
• Nonprofit R+D
I love SEO
• Test blogs with high rankings
• Client sites
Recent Examples
• “Easy ways to grow your email list”
• “Richard Dietz” vs. “Rich Dietz”

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Example Site
Beer-FAQ.com - SEO test blog
• I no longer use client examples
Article: “What is the difference between an ale and a lager”
• #1 or #2 for multiple keywords (difference ale lager, etc.)
• Page gets over 8,000 unique visitors per month (80% search engines)

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Today – The Basics
Today we are coving the basics – 101 course
• This is the foundation
Each of these areas have much more to them
• Nuances, exceptions, contradictions, advanced techniques

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What is ‘SEO’
For our purposes:
• The process of getting your website found on the
internet… especially on the first page of Google.
Wikipedia says:
“Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the
process of affecting the visibility of a
website or a web page in a search
engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic")
search results.”

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Why Should Nonprofits Care?
May be 1 Billion websites online by end of 2013
• How does your website stack up?
Almost 90% of internet users use search engines to find info
• What the heck are the other 10% doing?
71% of Millennial donors get information about nonprofits
through web searches
Higher search results means:
• More clients, supporters, volunteers, partners, donors.

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2. Search Engines
(Google)

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Why Focusing on Google?
Google is up to 67-83% of the U.S. search market
• Up to 90% in some countries like U.K. and Australia
Work toward Google rank, the rest will come
Google is our future overlord… so be nice.

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How Do Search Engines Work?
1. User enters a search term – “blah”
2. Magic Happens (the algorithm)
a) No one knows exactly what is in the algorithm
b) Estimated 500+ changes per year in Google
c) Some criteria become evident over time
3. Search Engine sends back the best results
a) In their best interest to show the best results
b) Results are pages, not websites
Awesome site explaining how search works
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/thestory/

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Search Engine Result
Red =
Paid Listing
25% of clicks
Green =
Organic / Free Listing
75% of clicks
#1 gets 37% of clicks
#2 – 12.5%
#3 – 9.5
#10 – 2.2%
Only 6% go to page 2
(Optify.net)

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What Do Search Engines See?
What we see:
What search
engines see:
www.NonprofitRD.com

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Stay on Google’s
Good Side
(Avoid the Google Slap)

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No Magic Bullet
Google is getting smarter
• So are their engineers.. They always find the tricks
• No Black Hat or Gray Hat techniques
Pandas and Penguins
• Updates to fight the tricksters
• Panda attacked low quality content
• Penguin attacked low quality links

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Google Likes
Authoritative content
• Unique and interesting content,
linked TO from other authority sites,
reviews from peers, longer content
Cornerstone content
• Reports, whitepapers, infographics, resources that people want
Frequent content
• The more the better… Google wants fresh and new content
Social signals
Video
• Forrester Research - 50x easier to get page 1 with video

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Google Dislikes
Spam / Junk content
• Panda
Low quality inbound links
• Penguin
Duplicate content
Black hat / Gray hat techniques
• If it feels wrong, it probably is

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3. Keywords

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Keywords Are… Key
Keywords are the backbone of search
• It is what the user types into the search box
• It is what Google uses to figure out what you want
Keywords will be
the focus of your
content

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Finding Your Keywords
Get in the head of the searcher
• What are they looking for that you can provide?
• How would they type it in?
Other ways to find keywords
• Ask your Board, staff, volunteers, supporters.. How would they search?
• Analytics program – Keyword Report: it may surprise you
• Pages of similar organizations
• Keyword software like Google Keyword Search Tool
• Google Suggest

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Don’t Forget the Long Tail
Long tail keywords
• 3+ words
• Low search volume
Easier to rank for

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Example – Google Keyword Tool

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4. On-page
Optimization

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What is On-page Optimization?
SEO factors that apply to the
content and structure of your website
• It lets Google know what your page is all about
• This is where you have the most control

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#1 Rule – Write Awesome Content
Remember its not about tricks
Remember what Google likes
• Unique, interesting and authoritative content
• More words the better – at least 500 words
• Written for humans, not search engines
Now, use your keyword in your content

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Using Your Keyword (General)
Don’t over do it!
• Write for people first, search engines second
• No keyword stuffing
• Pretend Google is human.. Soon it may be
Need good relationship between
• Keyword > Description > Page content
• Needs to make sense

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http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization

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Using Your Keyword (Specifics)
Page Title (<title> tag)
• Most people will not see this but first thing search engines will look at
Page URL
• SEO friendly URL, using keyword
Meta Description (<meta> tag)
• No SEO benefit, but will be used in the search listing
• Like a small advertisement, use a call to action to get the click
Headline
• May be better to use keyword in beginning, but still make sense
• eg/ Overview of the Top Literacy Programs
Top Literacy Programs – An Overview

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Using Your Keyword (Specifics)
SubHeadings (H2, H3)
• Also good for humans, easier to skim content
Keyword Density
• Be careful here… no keyword stuffing
• Think of synonyms and variations (LSI on next slide)
Images
• Use relevant images for content
• Use keyword in Alt Text on images IF appropriate
• Helps search engines / helps make more accessible
Links
• Internally to your content
• Externally to relevant resources (Google likes this)

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LSI – Latent Semantic Indexing
LSI – How the search engine determines what a page is
about by looking at patterns of related words.
Example – “fork”
Fork in the road OR dinner fork
Important to use synonyms and variations of the keyword
• This usually comes naturally when you write awesome content

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Example:
Keyword:
Difference ale lager
LSI Keywords:
Beer
Yeast
Brewing
Fermentation
Keyword Variations:
Ales and lagers
Ale lager differences

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5. Off-page
Optimization

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What is Off-page Optimization
SEO that applies to building backlinks
• Google sees a link back to your site as a positive vote
• Enhances your sites importance and authority
• The web is nothing without links

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#1 Rule – Real Links
Get links for visitors first
• Good links will bring what you really want… Traffic!
• Best links will have real people following them… Traffic!
This is where many tried to game the system
• Google always figures out the tricks
• You will lose ranking or get penalized
Links to all of your pages, not just homepage
• Remember:
• pages are what is ranked not websites
• Long tail is easier to rank

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Quality Links
Authoritative / credible / popular sources
• CNN is better than Joe’s blog
Relevant to the content on the page
• Does the link and website connection make sense?
Content links better than sidebar links
• Links in the text are more natural
Link text diversity
• Some with keyword, some click here, etc.

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How To Get Those Links?
Ask supporters for links
• Board, staff, volunteers, etc.
• Make it easy by supplying example links, ideas
• “SEO friendly” badges or banners
Ask other orgs/groups you work with
• Sponsors, partners, related organizations
Guest Posting
• Write articles for other sites, get link back in author box
• Have others write articles for your site, they will promote it

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How To Get Those Links?
“Link Bait”
• Create amazing content, reports, videos, infographics … cool stuff
• Sites will want to link to it
Social signals
• Big factor now for Google. Is your content being shared socially?
• Make it easy for visitors to share – social share buttons
• Ask people to share it – supporters, Board, volunteers, etc.
Many other ways to get real links
• Google “Ideas for link building”, etc.
• Make sure to do it the right way!
• If it looks to good to be true…. Probably is.

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6. Action Plan

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Action Plan
1. Start writing more and better content
2. Find your keywords
3. Optimize your pages with the keywords
4. Get inbound links to those pages
5. Get others to share your content
6. Rinse and repeat

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Richard Dietz
Nonprofit R+D
richard@nonprofitrd.com

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Search Engine Optimization 101 for Nonprofits

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