Proudly providing web design to charities, NGOs, social enterprises and other not for profit organisations since 1997.
DIY SEO
A question I get in almost every client meeting, old and new, is “how much do you charge for SEO?” Before you spend a penny, there are plenty of ways you can boost your search engine rankings yourself.
With a bit of hard work and asking the right questions, your site will climb up the organic search results. If you’ve hired the right web development company, their code should be optimised anyway, and you should be able to control keyword metadata in your content management system. The rest is up to you.
The three keys to good SEO are content, content, and content. Make the most of it by identifying keywords, getting them onto the relevant pages and in the right places on your page.
The right keywords
Know which key words your users are searching for, and think about what sorts of things people might type in to a search engine to find you. Your Analytics data which will show which search terms people have used to find your site – is this what you expected?
SEO companies might get you ranking first in the search results for a keyword, but if the keyword is not appropriate for what you’re saying, you’re going to increase your bounce rate too. You want to increase both the quantity and the quality of visits. Attracting visitors that will stay on your site and meet your goals.
Get your keywords into page titles and headings
Search engines rank your site on content via a hierarchy. This heirarchy of page title, heading one, heading two, etc. are incredibly important for boosting your results. Once you’ve identified your specific key words get them into the page titles and headings. For instance, “Drug and Alcohol Services in South London” is a much better page title or heading than “Our Services” which could apply to any charity or business.
Make your content relevant
You can load keywords onto a page and it will increase your page visits, but unless the content on that page is what that visitor actually wants and needs, it’s a pointless exercise.
Craft your pages for the people you envision landing there for the first time from a search engine. If I search for “adoption eligibility criteria”, I want to find out if I am eligible to adopt a child straight away. Put yourself in your user’s shoes, and write the content for them, including your keywords as you go.
Keep your content fresh
Don’t ignore your website! Monitor it regularly and change the content. Check your Analytics and learn how to interpret the data to help you identify the most important pages.
Take control
Google Analytics has great online tutorials, and we also offer training in Google Analytics to get you started. Once you’ve learned how to make the most of Analytics, you’ll know how to omptimise your content. Sometimes it may be worth having a consultant help you with your content, or with exposure on a certain campaign, or if there is a lot of competition over the keyword you need. But most of the time, you can make a huge difference all by yourself.