Free SEO Guide for Small Non-Profits (thanks Grassroots.org!)

Posted September 5, 2008

good stuffsmall1 Free SEO Guide for Small Non Profits (thanks Grassroots.org!) Grassroots.Org, a non-profit that makes cutting edge technology available to other non-profits, just posted their Search Engine Optimization Guide. Non profits are using this guide to increase their funding by improving their search engine rankings.

The guide covers 5 key SEO tactics:

1 – Keywords

The guide has a 3-step process for developing specific keywords to be used in your SEO strategy.

2 – Website Optimization

The guide then outlines 10-steps to incorporate these keywords into your website.

3 – Link Building

Search engine ranking can be improved by getting other websites to link to yours, which generates directly relevant traffic to your site. firefox1 300x300 Free SEO Guide for Small Non Profits (thanks Grassroots.org!)

Note: A short-sighted approach to link building can be viewed as spam, which will kill your non-profit’s brand. Build relationships before building links!

4 – Keep It Fresh

This is the best part! The guide goes into great detail about creating rich, useful content – and how to manage that content with blogging and CMS (content management systems). As stated in the guide: “…websites with fresh content are consistently more successful than those which remain static. Search engines recognize this, and websites which are constantly growing by adding fresh content achieve higher rankings than those which remain outdated”.

Note: Creating content that is overly-focused on keywords will end in failure. Long term success for your non-profit will be build on content that is substantive and genuinely useful to your readers.

5 – Analytics

Lastly, the guide includes a glossary for using tools (Like Google Analytics) to analyze hits, visits, pages views, referring websites and keywords. With this knowledge, you can adjust your SEO efforts. And as you fine-tune your SEO, you’ll get better and better rankings.

Warning: Don’t hire a consultant to do SEO!

Do not hire a consultant until you do a complete SEO Resource Assessment! As stated in the guide’s intro: “The benefits of a respectable Internet presence are immense and well-documented. What is less well-known is how easily nonprofit organizations can increase their visibility on the major search engines”.