Non-Profit Web Design and Internet Marketing

Your nonprofit website is a great place to recruit volunteers for your cause, so in addition to asking for donations (cash or kind), you should also be asking for hands!

How will you ensure that the right people apply?

Here Are a Few Pointers for Your Volunteer Forms:

• State Your Terms (If any) - Depending on what your nonprofit does, you may have to take some precautions when recruiting volunteers. Briefly explain your terms and any peculiarities upfront.
• Be Specific - Your volunteer form should explain what you need help with, and when. If volunteers can set their own schedule, you may specify blocks of time (or shifts) and ask them to check all that apply. This helps you look organized.
• Collect Only the Necessary Information - Studies show that each additional field on a form can decrease its chances of being completed. If your potential volunteers are in a hurry, you don't want to discourage them with a long form. Ask for only the info you need upfront.

Hope these 3 can get you started. Have any more tips? Questions? Please comment below.

Your non-profit website must have content that is appealing to both humans and search engines. You may already know how to write for humans but what about search engines?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a term that refers to a series of techniques used to make a website search engine friendly. It is just as important for non-profit websites as any other site out there because 80% of web users use search engines to find information. Unlike commercial website owners, your organization may not have the funds to explore expensive search advertising - so SEO may be even more important to you. Keep in mind that search engines such as google, rank PAGES not SITES. That means each page on your site gets to have a rank of it's own among the sea of other sites.

-- Before You Begin: Keywords

Before you write a single word, you must first decide what the keywords (or phrases) for that page will be. Choose 1-2 words/phrases that adequately describe what you're trying to say on the page. We recommend that you choose a different set of keywords for every page on your site, but keywords can be repeated if relevant to other pages. Depending on your nonprofit's mission, there may or may not be a lot of competition for your chosen keywords. Whatever the case, you want to make sure that when someone searches for your keywords, they find you. You also want to make sure your homepage includes your most important keywords.

So if your nonprofit's mission is to help abandoned pets find homes, your keywords (or phrases) could be - pet adoption, save pets, free pet adoption information, adopt a dog, etc.

High rankings can usually be achieved by continuously abiding by certain rules every time you create or edit a page on your non-profit website. 5 of the most important rules are listed below:

1. Page Title:

   
   Once you've chosen keywords, make sure to include the most important ones in your page title. This should be 3-6 words long and be the only text enclosed in H1 tags on your page. All our non-profit website designs come with H1 title tags embedded in the code, so you don't have to do this yourself. Titles can be tricky because you have to make them attractive, compelling and include keywords. You may want to write a few titles and then choose the best one.
   
   

2. Content is King:

   
   Your page's content tells the search engines how relevant your page is to the keyword being searched. As you write, be sure to include your chosen keywords in a way that flows naturally and is readable. Typically, you want to include your main keyword in the first sentence, throughout the text, and in the last sentence on the page.
   
   Do not stuff your content with keywords, as this looks bad to readers and search engines. A good rule of thumb is to have each keyword appear about 1-2% of the time. So a 500 word page could have the keywords appear 5-7 times. Make sure your content is at least 250-1000 words long, so the page is perceived as useful and relevant.
   
   

3. Linking is Queen:

   
   The link structure of your website is almost as important as the content. You must have both internal links (pages within your website linking to each other) and external links (links to and from other websites) to rank highly in search engines. While editing content, you can link to another page of your site that contains relevant information. Be sure to have relevant keywords for the destination page as your linked text. So for instance, submitting your websites to directories is a great way to get external links to your site. In linking to a page on this site about directory submission, my sentence can read - We also provide directory submission services to nonprofits (note the linked text). Do not simply have "click here" as the link as this does not tell search engines what the destination page is about.
   
   

4. Include Alt tags in Images:

   
   "Alt" tags contain image descriptions that tell search engines what images are about. If relevant, you should include your keywords in this tag. Image title tags, contain text that you see when you mouseover an image. They can be used to provide more information about the image. Again, our non-profit websites include the ability to add "alt" tags with a few clicks, while you edit your page. For example, the image below shows a title tag that reads "Non-profit Websites" when you mouseover.
   
   
   
   

5. Meta Titles and Descriptions:

   
   These are tags included in the code of your webpage but are not visible on the page. The meta title can be seen at the very top of your browser window, above the file menu but the description is only visible by viewing the page's code. These tags are very important because they quickly tell the search engines what your page is about. They are also used in search results listings. Depending on how your site is built, your page title may be automatically assigned as your meta title. We use software that allows you to specify these tags manually if you choose (recommended). Be sure to include keywords!

In summary, SEO refers to several techniques that can be used to help your non-profit website rank higher in search results. The 5 tips above are among the most important, and should always be used on every page that you create or edit.

We're here to help. Contact us with questions about non-profit websites.