The majority of all online experiences begin with an online search. Users hop onto their mobile phones, pull up Google or Bing, and type in something like “free health clinic near me,” expecting a highly relevant result. If your website isn’t optimised with the technical SEO aspects that will pull up your Not-for-Profit in the top 5 results, you will be out a client.
Many NFP owners and managers struggle because not everyone understands how SEO impacts web design. At Web 105, we work hard to ensure all our clients have the tools readily available for the best website experience. Here is some background information on SEO and how it relates to your updated or brand-new website design.
What is SEO?
Just a quick refresher for anyone new to SEO. The idea behind SEO, better known as Search Engine Optimisation, is to improve a website so you rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP).
For example, anytime you’re looking for a “fantastic Chinese food restaurant in Sydney,” you want keywords and a streamlined design to rank your local pop up higher than competitors. The higher you are in search results, the exponentially greater the volume of online visitors you receive.
Website Structure & Navigation
The first part of SEO you’ll see directly impacting your NFP’s website is the overall layout and navigation. You want visitors to find the information most related to their online inquiry instead of getting lost in a maze of confusing data and marketing.
Not only is clean navigation crucial for improved user experiences, but it is also how search engines “crawl” or understand your website. Your top navigation menu should have a simple directory of your most crucial information. You can always set up secondary or “child” pages to less requested info as much as you like, but those primary pages should be clear as day.
Always ask yourself if your website is easy to navigate and how logically everything is organised. Your users will appreciate the extra effort, and Google will take notice of it when it comes to ranking.
Page Speed & Performance
The quicker your page loads, the more likely your users will stay to read what you have to say. There are plenty of free tools to measure this metric and provide suggestions for areas that may require a little more attention.
Some quick ways to boost page speed for SEO include:
- Optimise the size of image files so they load faster.
- Remove unnecessary characters and spaces from code (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.).
- Use browser caching when available.
- Enable compression for large files.
- Reduce the number of redirects that occur when visiting your site.
- Use a CDN (content delivery network) to distribute speed across multiple servers.
- Upgrade your hosting provider if they are not responsive to slow load times.
Plenty of other techniques exist, but this is a good list to get you started. The web design team behind your site should understand all these tactics and be able to explain them to you during meetings.
On-Page SEO Elements
We cannot emphasise enough how crucial keyword research is to a website. If you want your site to rank high for your nonprofit’s mission, the words you place in important spaces must be optimised based on local searches. You want keywords that are high in demand, low to moderate in competition and make sense for your business.
Equally important is crafting highly engaging content using header tags, image alt tags, and a clean structure that Google and other search engines can understand. Insert your keywords into this content strategically without sacrificing readability and pepper in some multimedia elements like images, videos, and infographics to boost engagement.
Finally, don’t forget to provide internal links to your other website pages and offer high-quality external links to relatable sites in your industry.
Technical SEO Considerations
The real challenge of SEO for your nonprofit comes down to staying on top of technical tasks. That is why you want to hire an expert team like ours at Web 105. Regular SEO audits are crucial and can uncover issues like:
- Are your sitemaps up to date and properly working?
- Do all your URLs include keywords and descriptive, SEO-friendly text?
- Do you have canonical tags to avoid duplication issues?
- Are there any no-follow or broken links on your website?
While AI (artificial intelligence) can help automate many of these tasks, you still want a professional’s steady and experienced hand to help. When tools like Google Analytics 4 and CRM software for your nonprofit donor programs clash, you can run into serious online presence issues.
Accessibility
The last SEO related task we think every business needs to consider for website design and development is accessibility. It is crucial for any NFP to update the site with tags, transcripts, and mobile-friendly designs that help those with disabilities.
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) proposes guidelines that everyone should follow to ensure the Internet is more accessible to the general public. This matters because it demonstrates your commitment to accessibility and allows Google and other search engines to crawl and rank your web pages better.
Conclusion
SEO and web design go hand in hand. Users today want to search for what they need and then receive a welcoming, clean, and mobile-responsive design to find relative information as quickly as possible. You need an SEO-focused design if you wish for your NFP to make a more significant impact.
Our team at Web 105 can help you achieve that success. We work with Australian NFPs, government agencies, and healthcare providers of all sizes. Our years of experience are precisely why we are the best option for a streamlined, easy to understand website that will rank well on search engines. Call us today, and let’s schedule a time to discuss your online needs.
FAQs
What is SEO in web design?
SEO is the idea of improving and streamlining your website, so it is more visible to the search engines you’re targeting.
Do nonprofits need SEO?
If you hope to engage with more online users looking for your unique nonprofit services, you need an online presence that ranks well on most search engines. This is especially true if you’re offering local services.
When should you not use SEO?
The only time you don’t have to worry about SEO is if you have an organisation or website that doesn’t need ranking on Google. That is extremely rare.