Using SEO to support online fund raising

About me

• Creative technology director at

Yucca

• Founded Yucca 9 years ago

• Self confessed geek and lover of

technology

• Have met Tom Jones

The pace of changeT

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The time it takes for influential

websites to hit 100,000,000 users is falling.

Ebay took 7 years. YouTube took 6 months

1900 2009

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View original chart at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PPTParadigmShiftsFrr15Events.jpg

TIME

"The perfect search engine, would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.“

Larry Page, Google co-founderLarry Page, Google co-founder

Sorry what was that? Did you say ‘Golf’ or ‘Golf’?

It’s a little like a school disco…

is having a breakdown in the bathroom

is the cool kid

is having a breakdown in the bathroom

is still trying to pick an outfit

48% 48% of all of UK web visits in the UK are to Google

Source: Hitwise UK 2009

How users are using search

Many users are using ‘human’ phrasing

Google has replaced

bookmarks for many

Wireless broadband

has released the computer

from the study

Search length is increasing –4.1 words in

2008 from 2.4 in 2006*

Many will search your site using

Google, rather than your navigation

study

* Google UK

Why is SEO relevant to fundraising?

Defined ROI

• Using your web stats package, phone tracking and interfacing with your

CRM systems you can track exactly what your investment in SEO is doing

to your organisation

• It can also inform other activity

What to aim for with SEO

• Aim to create value

• Visitors over rankings; customers over traffic

• Prioritisation based on comprehensive reporting and analysis

• Focus on quality

• Innovative, high quality content engages visitors and attracts quality links• Innovative, high quality content engages visitors and attracts quality links

• Quality links confer long-lasting ranking benefits

• Make sure you understand your objectives

• Strategies appropriate to your site and your objectives

• Methods that leverage your existing strengths

• SEO is not a dark art, it’s common sense.

Case study

About Surfers Against Sewage

• www.sas.org

• UK-based non profit-making

• Founded in 1990 by a group of surfers

• Not just surfers, not just sewage

• Unusual (sometimes humorous) and

photogenic media-friendly tactics have

ensured that the campaign message of

pollution free recreational waters has

reached a wide audience

How is sas.org doing now?

• Homepage PageRank 5 – Good

• 16,300 inbound links – Good: Links come from a vast range of sites, from

commercial sites and national newspapers to personal blogs. All of them

are “natural” links – not paid for and probably not solicited for either.

• 1,020 Google indexed pages – Good

• This gives it a stronger ranking potential than most commercial sites

• Excellent content with real authority, SAS release academic papers

annually

• Synopsis: the site really has the potential to get lots of traffic.

A common story

• Same page title on all pages across the site: Cardinal sin of SEO. Sorting

this alone will have immediate benefits.

• Keyword meta tag stuffed – no need and potentially damaging

• Non-descriptive link anchor text

• Same page description across site – should be unique to each page

Site doesn’t feature in top 100 for searches

• [Surfing] – 1,000,000+ searches/month

• [Surf report] – 25,000+ searches/month

• [Surfing Holidays] – 5,000+ searches/month

• [Surfing UK] – 2,500+ searches/month

• [Surfing Videos] – 2,000+ searches/ month

What the Googlebot sees – www.sas.org

…. Headers and copy need optimising.

What the Googlebot sees – www.yucca.co.uk

Optimise video content

Optimise video content

Identify emerging content opportunities

Consider your target audience

Don’t do anything before considering target keywords and audience:

• What keywords does your audience use when searching? (run a test PPC

campaign to establish this if you have no PPC data)

• Remember these keywords may be very different from language used

internally

• What keywords are your competitors targeting? • What keywords are your competitors targeting?

• It might be very difficult to break into highly competitive keyword areas, stay

realistic

• Look for untapped potential, track slang and media terminology

Paid search (PPC) and organic search (SEO) how to leverage both strategically

Organic Paid Search

Click through rate (CTR) modelling

Removed

Google Grants

What is it?

• In-kind advertising for non-profit organisations

• Google Grants is a unique in-kind donation programme that awards free

AdWords advertising to selected charitable organisations

• Google support organisations that share Googles philosophy of community

service to help the world in areas such as science and technology,

education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy and the

arts

• More at www.google.co.uk/grants

What you should look for from an SEO project

• Site Analysis, in depth audit of the existing site – including measurements

for success (e.g. ‘goals’ or funnel analysis are set up correctly in Google

Analytics)

• Indicators of Ranking Potential, vital to manage expectations up front –

especially when dealing with non technically literate board member types

• Competitor Analysis, there is much to be gleaned from how your

competitors are setup

• Keyword Analysis, identify the keywords to chase

• Enhancing Content, rework existing and new press releases and ensure

they are syndicated effectively

• Link strategy, identify good quality links, quality not quantity

Resources

• Use Google alerts –

www.google.com/alerts

• Google Insights for Search -

www.google.com/insights/search

• Wordtracker –

www.wordtracker.com

• SEO for Firefox & Rank Checker,

both at http://tools.seobook.com

• Surf reports/webcams

www.magicseaweed.com

• Yucca blog:

www.yucca.co.uk/blog

Finally

• Presenting this presentation to SAS this month (surfing is compulsory)

• Yucca plan to work with SAS on the integration of SEO as part of their core

strategy going forward