SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Published December 3, 2011 |

: Photo tribute to Directory Maximazer

You might have this more or less clear idea that being visible on Google, Yahoo or any other search engine is important for your organization. This idea that has been created and is being exploited in the for-profit sector mostly does not apply to the non-profits.

Are you really competing with tens and hundreds of other community groups in your town that do the same thing as you do? Doubt that. Most of community agencies and groups are either unique in their geographic area or in the work that they do. Just this uniqueness in content and activities presented on the website makes it possible to jump up high in Google or Bing listings very fast. This is called “organic” ranking and most non-profits do not need all the extensive time, consultations and investment to be “visible”. Covering the SEO basics is good as basics are in anything you do.

Basics of SEO

Basics of optimization are a part of any basic website development. You create titles and subtitles that truly represent the most important elements of your message; you always give titles to your images; you make sure that links to your pages contain titles of those pages and can be searchable by engines; you include a site map; you integrate social media if you can into your website and you create and add meaningful content that people come back too! Following what like-minded organizations are publishing and getting into commenting and meaningful conversations is something to think about if there is people on your staff that can take this role.

Search Engine Rules are Changing

Some rules are going out of practice, such as over use of important or Key Words in your titles or text; not repeating often the same content or text that links to your site; not spamming other sites with useless comments or articles, etc. Those practices are even being penalized nowadays. For example, Google uses its analytics to measure how long people stay on the pages of your website and if they come back to it to regulate your ranking. How often you publish content and how often you repeat yourself can as well influence the authority of your site.

This is where the authenticity of your web activity is important. As much as you are loyal to your mission in your off line work, you should be true and honest in your online activities. SEO for non-profits and community groups is really that simple! The difficult thing is getting skilled and dedicated to your working life on the Internet!