How to Get Your Nonprofit Website Noticed: A Primer
There are 3 ways people find your website:
- Direct traffic. The reader learns what your web address is and types it into her browser.
- Inbound links. The reader sees a hyperlink to your site somewhere online – whether on another site, in a blog, or in an email – and is interested in learning more. He clicks on the hyperlink and is led to your site.
- Organic traffic. The reader does a web search for a particular term. Your site comes up in the search engine results page (hopefully near the top – not buried on the sixth page – if your site is optimized). The reader sees the brief description about your site and clicks on your link.
If you want your website to get noticed, then do an excellent job of making all three of those options attractive to readers. Here are some basic steps to get started building online traffic to your site.
Ways to build direct traffic
- Include your web address on all printed matter (letterhead, brochures, newsletters, annual reports)
- Cite your web address on your organization’s voice mail message
- List your web address on every employee’s email signature
Ways to build numbers of inbound links
- Exchange links with like-minded organizations
- Post on topic-appropriate forums, message boards, and blogs about your topic and include your website address
- Publish online articles and cite your website address
- Start a social media page (on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn) and regularly post appropriate links to your website
Ways to build organic traffic
- Use resources like Google’s Keyword Tool and Wordtracker to find out what terms related to your cause are most-searched online. (These terms are called your “keywords.”)
- Strategically place your keywords on your site. Include them in your page titles, on navigation bars, in page headlines, in body content (especially in the first 80 characters), graphics ALT tags, and page descriptions. This will help “optimize” your site for the keywords important in your niche and boost your rankings on search engine results.
- Create internal text links within your site. Write into the body copy links from one page of your site to another using your keywords.
- Use a good copywriter skilled in SEO (search engine optimization) to help make your website attractive to the search engines.
- Check your website traffic data regularly to see how your site is performing. Use Google Analytics or your website’s statistical application to track how people find you on the web. Then, work to improve your results. For instance, if only a small percentage find you through inbound links, then start posting on topic-related forums or start a Facebook page to drive more traffic to your site.
There are dozens of ways for people to find you online when you understand how web search works. Get out there – and get noticed.
About the author
Kathy Widenhouse (www.kathywidenhouse.com) is a freelance development writer who specializes in producing materials for the faith-based, nonprofit market. She also provides strategic consultation to help nonprofits get their message out and get results. Kathy’s 90+ articles have appeared in more than 40 periodicals, and she has written 5 books.