Auditing your existing content is the foundation of any strong on-page SEO strategy.
Understand your audience’s mindset to align content with their needs and search intent.
Incorporate authentic storytelling and showcase subject-matter expertise to boost engagement and credibility.
Use strategic internal and external linking to strengthen authority, improve navigation, and enhance search rankings.
On-page SEO tactics to improve nonprofit website visibility
If you're facing challenges ranking and converting for keywords meaningful to your nonprofit niche, you're not alone. But there are some strategic search engine optimization (SEO) tactics within your control to enhance your nonprofit website’s visibility in Google, Bing, and other search engines.
Our agency partners with some of the world’s most recognized nonprofits, and together, we optimize content to better support users, improve search visibility, and increase conversions. Several of our recent clients—including Action Against Hunger, Reading Is Fundamental, Covenant House, and Boulder Crest Foundation—are seeing impressive gains in organic traffic, keyword rankings, click-through rates, and website domain authority.
So, how do we do it, and how can you?
There are a lot of ways to improve your search engine optimization, but here are five key approaches for enhancing your on-page SEO in 2024:
1. Audit your content
You can't go forward without knowing where you sit in the digital space. An effective on-page SEO strategy begins with a thorough audit of your existing content. This process is essential to understand how your content currently performs, who your organic peers are, and how to identify opportunities for improvement.
Some take-away action items will be easy fixes like adding missing image alt tags (which improves accessibility) or rewriting H2 headers to be more keyword-rich and relevant (but never keyword-stuffed).
"To rank well organically, it's crucial to understand not only who your audience is and what they're searching for, but why they care about these topics in the first place."
2. Identify audience mindset
Google wants its search results to serve users. To rank well organically, it's crucial to understand not only who your audience is and what they're searching for, but why they care about these topics in the first place.
Identifying your audiences' mindset allows you to tailor your content strategy to meet their needs and interests, which can lead to improved page ranking and higher website engagement.
"Think of it this way: High-quality content provides value to your audience. Be informative, comprehensive, engaging, relevant. Infuse the mission of your organization throughout."
3. Start with story
At the heart of every successful nonprofit organization is a compelling story. Leveraging the history of your brand, the people behind it, and those positively impacted by your mission can captivate your digital users and significantly improve metrics.
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"In the new world of AI-driven informative search, being human matters. Authentic storytelling is an important part of making your website stand out."
A well-told story based on real-life experience can increase user engagement, time spent on page, and make your content more shareable—all of which are key factors in improving your organic search engine rankings. And in the new world of AI-driven informative search, being human matters. Authentic storytelling is an important part of making your website stand out.
4. Leverage expertise
Align your original content with Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) guidelines, and you signal to the bots and your key audiences that your nonprofit brand is a credible, valuable online resource.
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5. Implement a smart linking strategy
We want to make it easier for users and search engines to navigate and understand the relationships between different content pieces on your site. This is where strategic internal linking is key—and likely needs refinement.
We work with our clients to optimize relevant internal content links and enhance strategic anchor text phrasing and placement to help ensure that we're adding value and context for the audience in an accessibility-friendly way.
This internal linking approach enhances the user experience by encouraging further exploration and can boost pillar page rankings in your org's organic search, too—win, win.
Need more linking strategies for your nonprofit website? Reference authoritative external sources and internal links to bolster credibility. And, to boost high-quality backlink SEO juice and increase domain authority, talk with your team. Encourage your nonprofit experts to do guest posts, collaborations, article publications, and media interviews.
Insights
Insight
Microsoft Advertising for nonprofits: Benefits and best practices
We love compelling nonprofit statistics, but let's not forget there are real humans behind those powerful numbers. As a recent example, we learned that Post-Traumatic Growth training is 7-10x more effective than traditional approaches to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We worked with Boulder Crest Foundation to highlight the stories of active-duty military, veterans, and first responders who have transformed their lives through PTG vs. PTSD training programs. And not just in one section of the site—these stories are infused throughout the entire website experience through video testimonials, image carousels, and testimonial components.
With Boulder Crest Foundation, we not only comprehensively detailed what Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) is and isn't, but we also highlighted Boulder Crest Institute experts, who are pioneers in researching this field. Image: Boulder Crest Foundation's organic keyword ranking growth
To showcase expertise and authority on a topic, include detailed staff, board, and author information on your website—such as names, titles, and a bio with credentials—and weave in multi-media publications and relevant social media links (such as LinkedIn or X), name mentions, and nonprofit website page links from authoritative sites.
