Why SEO Matters, Even for Nonprofits

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4 Lessons about SEO for Nonprofits from Real Keyword Data

Do you get those annoying emails from obscure companies promising you thousands of ‘leads’ and better traffic if you let them do your SEO? In the era of the coronavirus, these types of sales tactics are even more distasteful, because so many businesses and nonprofit facilities are closed.

SEO has become, for many, a black box that feels like a cross between selling snake oil and computer wizardry. It is real? Are we being scammed? How would we know? What do those people do when you pay them $789 per month to “do” your SEO? And does any of this even matter for nonprofits?

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Let me start by making one thing clear – I’m on your side with this. I’m not an SEO expert. I have what I would call ‘intermediate’ SEO skills. That is, I know more than 90% of business owners, but I do not know the technical side of it, which is what makes the experts, experts.

I know enough to know that a lot of those annoying SEO emails are either scams, or they are services peddled by masters of incompetence. So yes – you should ignore them. And no – I am not going to sell you SEO services. That’s for experts.

Because it’s also true that, while there are a lot of bad actors in the SEO world, there is also a real skillset here. Doing SEO right is attainable, and there are companies and individuals who excel at it.

What I am going to do is explain why SEO matters, even for nonprofits. To do that, let’s start with a story.

SEO Helped Me Build My New Home Office

For a variety of reasons, my wife and I decided that it made sense to build a new office for me on our property. And I loathe home improvement projects. Nevertheless, off we went on a crazy splurge of trips to hardware stores, Youtube videos, sore muscles, cuts and bruises, and by the end, a reasonably satisfying sense of accomplishment along with a new office. Yes – we built a room. Pretty amazing…

Toward the end, we needed two particular products – laminate flooring, and a very particular type of cabinet hinge recommended by this incredibly helpful British craftsman on a Youtube video.

And HERE is where the power of Search Engine Optimization enters the story. Let’s start with the cabinet hinges.

Cabinet Hinges

I typed the specific model number of the cabinet hinge I needed into Google. I live in Washington state. The nearest hardware store that appeared in the search results that sold this hinge was in… Idaho.

The search results led me to their page, which included the exact hinge I needed, the model numbers, pictures to prove it, and everything else. So, I called them up, asked a few questions, ordered screws and five hinges, and paid for shipping. Yes – I paid for shipping. The horror…

But I wanted those hinges.

Here’s the important question: Do you think any hardware stores in all the state of Washington sell these hinges? Surely there’s at least one. Probably several.

And yet – Google sent me to a hardware store in Idaho. Why?

Because that hardware store has a page set up, offering that specific model number of hinge. That page was designed to sell what I needed, and because I searched for that hinge, the Idaho store won my business.

Laminate Flooring

Next, we needed laminate flooring for the new office. I searched for ‘laminate flooring’, and a handful of places came up. At first, I tried Floor & Décor. But their service was so awful (45 minutes on hold, and that was just the beginning….) that I ended up returning to search for something else. I forget the search term I used this time, but I had learned a few things and made a more precise search.

A store 15 miles away came up, Nielsen Brothers Flooring. I called them, was convinced they had what I needed, drove down that day and got a great deal.

Image by digital designer from Pixabay

But here’s the really interesting part:

On the way there, I noticed at least three other flooring places. But none of those places had shown up in my search results. I didn’t know they existed until I drove past them – until it was too late for them to win my business.

Remember, this is a 15 mile drive. Not just down the street. But I drove right past the others and went to the one I believed had what we needed, and that was friendly on the phone.

In terms of SEO, what this means is, those other three stores aren’t doing very much to show up in online searches. As a direct result of that, they missed their chance to win my business.

Samples of Real Nonprofit Keyword Data

Do you see why SEO matters? When people search for terms related to a nonprofit or a business, the companies and organizations that have set up their websites to connect to those search terms are the ones that get found.

Your nonprofit is no different.

I did a quick investigation of some search terms (known as keywords) related to various branches of nonprofits. Across the United States, here are the average monthly search volumes for a variety of keywords:

This was just a quick study so you can see some data. I took a multiple keywords from a couple industries so you can see some differences.

Also, some context: This data came three months into the coronavirus, which is probably one reason the food banks number is so high. But, this is a 12-month average.

SEO Lessons for Nonprofits

1) Win New Supporters

Suppose you run an art museum, and there are a handful of other art museums in your area. Thousands of people are searching for art museums. If one of them types in ‘art museums near me,’ will your nonprofit come up in the search results?

That is THE question behind SEO. Just like the laminate flooring and the cabinet hinges, it’s the nonprofit that puts some effort into their website and SEO that shows up when people search for terms like this.

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This keyword is what SEO experts call a “high value” keyword, because anyone searching for museums “near me” is very likely ready to show up and pay. They are not looking for random information. They are looking to hand over money in exchange for something. They have ‘buyer intent.’

If your website shows up in search results for this term, you will have a chance to win that business and turn a one-time visitor into a repeat visitor or perhaps a donor, volunteer, future board member, and evangelist for your mission.

All from a single search. Yes, there are other ways to find supporters, of course. SEO and online search is far from the only way. But it is one way, and the nonprofits using it are winning those donors.

2) Help Clients Find You

The same argument can be made for the term ‘food banks near me.’ In this case, some of these people are probably looking for help. So this term is not as high value as the museum one, because not all these searchers are donors. Some need food. But giving food to those in need is your mission. So you want them to find you!

But also, there are donors looking to support local food banks. They want to make a difference right where they live. They may be looking to volunteer. You want your site to show up for keywords like this.

3) Multiple Keywords Appeal to More Searchers

Notice the environmental and human trafficking keywords. Smaller search volumes than the two big ones, for sure. Though remember, I did a very quick look at this data. A more robust investigation would uncover hundreds of possible keywords for these nonprofits. You don’t build a website around just one. These are just examples.

But notice the differences. ‘Environmental nonprofits’ gets six times the search volume as ‘protect endangered species.’ So, should an environment-focused organization not waste their time on the endangered species keyword?

Absolutely not.

Think back to the cabinet hinges. How many people search for the specific model number of the cabinet hinge I needed? Hardly anyone, probably. It’s hyper-specific. But it’s also high value, because anyone searching for a specific model number is probably considering buying it.

Why might someone search for ‘environmental nonprofits’? Many possible reasons. They might want to find one to donate to. They might be looking to volunteer. They might want to partner with one for something, like a business looking to join forces. They might be a student doing a research paper. They might work for a nonprofit consultant firm and are collecting data on various nonprofits. Dozens more possible reasons.

How about ‘protect endangered species,’ or the comparable term, ‘climate change nonprofits’?

These two terms are much more specific. With these, you are attracting someone who likely has a personal interest in these goals. So, if you are an environmental nonprofit, and part of your mission is to protect endangered species and part of your mission is to fight climate change, your website should attract all three of these search terms.

Likewise for the human trafficking keywords. Why do four times as many people want to ‘stop’ human trafficking rather than ‘fight’ it? Who knows – but we want all of them to find the website!

4) Don’t Worry about Low Search Volumes

And again – don’t be dissuaded by the lower search volumes for some of these.

Someone searching for terms related to protecting endangered species very likely cares about this issue, a lot. Joe Blo sitting on his couch watching the game and drinking beer isn’t searching for this term. The person searching for this is a candidate for your email newsletter, for donations, for event attendance, for legislative activism, for peer-to-peer fundraising, for matching grants at their workplace, and for other forms of involvement.

To miss out on people searching for this term is to miss out on all this potential. And even if only ten people in your area search for a high value keyword each month, think about the potential within just ten people who wouldn’t otherwise know your nonprofit exists.

How much of a difference can ten people make?

It doesn’t actually take as much effort as you might think to create the content you need on a website to appeal to people searching for terms like this.

We Don’t Sell SEO. We Write Content.

As I said at the start, ProActive Content is not an SEO service. We don’t “do” your SEO. There are technical aspects to this that we leave to the experts.

But at its core, SEO is about content, meaning you need to have some. Many, many nonprofits have almost zero content on their websites, and they wonder why no one finds them online.

Write blogs about your work protecting endangered species, and you will show up when people search for that term. Write about how you are working to stop human trafficking, and you will show up when people search for that term. Put your art museum’s location throughout your site in appropriate places, and you will show up when people in your area search for museums near them.

Figure out the terms people might search for that should lead them to your nonprofit, and write pages related to those terms. That’s it. That’s SEO, in a nutshell.

The fundamentals of SEO are not tricky. They just require some consistent and targeted efforts.

ProActive Content can help you by writing blogs, web pages, eBooks, quick guides, checklists, and other content for nonprofits that strengthens your SEO by attracting people who care about your cause.

We can also teach you how to do it yourself.

If you want to talk more about how we can help create content that will strengthen your organic SEO, contact us here or click the button below.

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