I have been working with non-profit organizations for over 5 years. I help them build a sustainable and effective platform for networking and marketing to their audience and their donors. This includes social media management, website updates, and event marketing strategy.
In this article, I will talk about 3 of the best ways non-profit organizations can increase traffic coming to their website.
Why does website traffic matter for non-profits? Your website is your platform for explaining your work, your impact, and your story. Many non-profits use their website to make donor relationships easier, as well as an outlet for consistent communication through a blog or newsletter.
Optimize Your Website User Experience
Organizations tend to let their user experience fall through the cracks to make way for better pictures, updated content, etc. These are all important factors in user experience, but it’s best to optimize your website according to how you want your users to interact.
Whether you are working to engage your current audience, or whether you want more donations, it’s essential to keep these goals in mind as you update content, move buttons around, and refresh on-page content.
Create Effective Donor Funnels
If you are a non-profit organization that relies on donations, it is very important that you optimize the user experience of people who are coming to your website to donate. What does it mean to optimize website user-experience?
As a donor visits your website, you want them to be able to easily access your donation portal and information about where donations will be going. For this, I recommend using a tool like PayPal donations or a 3rd party donation platform. For non-profits who are small or have just started accepting donations, I recommend using PayPal donations because it is simple to use and implement.
Take a look at this screenshot from a donation platform that makes it really easy for donors. From having preset donations amounts to a clean and simple donation process, you want to remove any of the barriers that might be making it hard for people who are not computer-savvy.
As your non-profit grows and there are many donors to manage and interact with, using a platform like Funraise can greatly increase your team’s capability to manage donors. Once someone donates to your organization, you should automatically have a donor funnel for them that keep them engaged with your work and encourages them to donate in the future. Here are some simple ways to optimize your non-profit website for donations:
- Make donation buttons obvious and stick out
- Donation portal should require less than 5 clicks to donate
- Multi-payment options (credit card, PayPal)
Promote Links You Want to Push
For organizations that want to have conversations with people other than donors, you need to set up your website experience to cater to those people. Take a look at this non-profit website I built in 2020 to get some ideas for how you can accomplish this:
As you pass the homepage slider, you can see how our first link leads to grant opportunities for teachers. After several in-depth conversations with the client, we made this recommendation and worked with the client to optimize the website experience for teachers, not just donors.
Keep Your Donors & Audience Engaged
Along with optimizing your user experience for donors, you should make updates to your digital marketing strategy that involves keeping donors and your audience engaged. Here are the best ways we believe non-profits can stay engaged with their audience:
- Social Media
- Monthly newsletters
- Email Marketing Automation
- 3rd Party CRM Tools
Social Media Tips for Non-profits
Social media is a world created for millennials and Gen Z and can leave marketers who are older a bit lost. I have worked with many SEO experts who are much older than me to see that social media strategy does not click in their minds. What are the best ways for non-profits to market on social media?
- Promote your story through photos and video
- Create social media experiences that enhance your brand
- Run social media giveaways or special events
Newsletters for Non-profit
Newsletters are your way to enroll your audience in current events and projects your team is currently working on. Newsletters should work to generate traffic for your website, as well as reminding existing donors that you are still going at it and could use their donations still!
The biggest problem I’ve seen with non-profit newsletters is how lengthy and time consuming they are to create. We help non-profits create engaging and effective newsletters that keep your brand right at the front of your audience’s mind. From newsletter automation to assistance curating content, we can enable you and your team when it comes to sending out content.
Email Marketing for Non-profits
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep your audience engaged. From newsletters to promotions, email marketing is a great way to have conversations with your audience around what you and your team are doing.
Generate More Organic Keywords for SEO
Beyond user experience, non-profit SEO is generally completely overlooked by organizations that are younger than 10 years. Why do non-profits need SEO?
Creating an effective SEO strategy for non-profits can be really difficult, and it really comes down to the team you have working on it. Most of the time, non-profits do the majority of their marketing in-house.
This is great because you have people who understand the brand and mission really well, but they probably aren’t well-versed in the world of SEO and generating traffic.
That’s where boutique SEO consultants like me can be very effective for seeing outside of the box and creating new strategies. So how do I create effective SEO strategies for non-profits?
Great Content Will Make Great SEO
The best SEO strategies start with great content that is consistent. Whether it’s working with an in-house copywriter or writing articles yourself, I have helped many non-profit sets up and optimize ways they can generate newsletter and article content. Here are some tips for writing articles for non-profit websites:
- Write general articles that aren’t too specific
- Touch on key topics inside of your niche
- Create a “101” section of your website and add information articles
Use Google My Business
Google My Business is a marketing and SEO tool that almost all non-profits with a brick and mortar location can take advantage. Google my Business will work to connect you with organizations near you or help potential donors find your website and contact you.
Along with this, take advantage of free local directories that can generate free backlinks for your website. We will talk about this more in the next session.
Create a Strategy for SEO Backlinks
Backlinks are an essential way to grow your website SEO into something that is powerful and can generate leads and donors. What is a non-profit backlink? Backlinks are links from external websites that link to your website. These can increase your traffic as well as increase the number of keywords you’re domain is ranking for.
How do you create a backlink strategy? Every organization should have a strategy for generating backlinks to their website. Many non-profits rely on media sources and news to release information about their projects and impact. This will require a public relations team or a person dedicated to reaching out for potential backlinks.
I believe backlinks to be the most effective way for non-profits to generate SEO traction. Backlinks are also the hardest part of digital marketing management, and why a lot of organizations tend to skip these steps. Contact us, and we can work with your team to locate and create relationships with organizations that can provide effective backlinks.
