LawHelp/NY SEOM Project

www.LawHelp.org/NYwww.AyudaLegalNY.org

Wilneida NegrónLawHelp.org/NY

Why is it important? - Orgs see in fundraising (up to 40%), brand and social awareness, visits to

websites, etc. (Blackbaud 2011 Report, “Boost Event Fundraising with Social Media.”)

- More cost-effective than traditional forms of marketing; can fit into the budgets of most non-profits. (2009 International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising).

- Getting great search engine rankings is an extraordinarily competitive. There can only be one number one and a lot of people are working hard at achieving prime status.

FindLaw.com FreeAdvice.com

1. Increase visibility of LawHelp.org/ NY and AyudaLegalNY.org in search engines

2. Initiate a Spanish-language search engine optimization (SEO) and social marketing (SM) campaign to reach New York's large Spanish-speaking user base

3. Develop a model “dashboard” and toolkit so efforts can be replicated

StrategiesFocused on organic, free and low-cost strategies appropriate

for nonprofits:1. Keyword Research2. On-Page SEO (title and meta tags)3. Link Building4. Blogs and Social Media Optimization5. Directory Submission5. Website Banner Ads6. Forum Participation

Before you get started……Identify end users Used our English and Spanish User Survey to find:

Demographics•31-54 yrs old•Female•Spanish users identified as South American•Internet-savvy, found website via major search engines

Socio-economic Status•Self-Identified as low-income

Legal Situation •Looking for help as a result of the economic downturn•Top Topics:•Family and Juvenile: divorce, child neglect and abuse, child

support, custody and visitation. •Housing: eviction, Section 8, SRO Housing, and Jiggets/FEPS

rent.

Keyword Research

• Plug keywords in Title and Meta tags. • Website Navigation• Alt attributes of images• Content on the page• Blogs• Also use keyword research to find “hot topics” we can blog

about• Anchor text for link letters

Link Building = Relationship Building

• Use interchangeable anchor text

NO: “Hey Sarah, check out this website page with information on public benefit in New York, the link is http://www.publicbenefitsinfo.com/.

YES: “Hey Sarah, check out this website page with information on public benefits in New York.

• Prioritize your link requests. Keep in mind websites with .Gov or .Edu are SEO Gold! They have a strong impact in helping your website rank for targeted keywords.

• Be personable• Be patient-this should be an on-going part of your marketing

outreach.

Directory Submission

• Best: DMOZ and Yahoo• Look into community directories:• 1. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Google

Places,• 2. City and state governmental websites• 3. Chamber of Commerce links • 4. Niche associations directories • 5. The Better Business Bureau • 6. Local library's Web site

Website Banner Ads

Step 1 Identify your maximum budget.

Step 2 Identify your target audience. Geo-targeting means ad will appear on the website when visitors from designated zip codes view it.

Step 3 Lay out your goals. Are you looking for high impressions or high click-through

rates?

Step 4 Design the ad. If you don’t have Photoshop, download an excellent free alternative to Photoshop called GIMP. You can download GIMP here: http://www.gimp.org/ .

Step 5 Identify your approach. Cheap but time-consuming or $$ but fast and extensive? For our Spanish web banner ads we used, Hispanic Digital Network.

Geo-targeted ad in over 140 Latino news websites nation-wide

FaceBook Banner Ad: 10,508,399 impressions and 1,627 clicks

Measuring Results

Driving Traffic and Actions

Factors to MeasureSEO factors in bringing people to your site

Conversion

Referral traffic Page Views

Keyword Variation Completed Surveys

Visits Newsletter sign-up

Unique Visitors Length of Visit

Increase in visits (22%) and page views (59.7%) for www.LawHelp.org/NY.

Page views: 2,232,138 in 2009 to 3,565,942 in 2010.

Increased page views for www.AyudaLegalNY.org: For the past 3 years page views never exceeded 25,000. Now 47.6%.

Increase in conversions, measured by completed surveys and number of English and Spanish resources downloaded:

2008 2009 20100

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

3,473

4,031

5,735

Completed Surveys

Completed SurveysLinear (Completed Surveys)

Both sites now ranking (i.e. showing up in the first pages of search results) for more keywords phrases variation than before: Prior to SEO, LawHelp/NY was only ranking or showing up in the first or second page of search engine results for a small group of generic keywords which varied based on our name, for example NY Law Help, LawHelp NY, New York Law Help, etc.

Emails increased from 1,200 in 2009 to 3,218.

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asistencia legal nueva york

servicios legal de nueva york

ayuda legal en nueva york

servicios legal en nueva york

servicios legales para nueva york

Spanish Keywords Phrases with Highest Growth Across All Search Engines for AyudaLegalNY.org

Engaging Existing Constituents and Increasing Awareness and Information

Social Media Metrics

Blog Metrics• # of Blog comments and responses• # Links back to blog• # of times blog or social media posts were picked up by reputable thought leaders in your niche. Also, keep a

track of the topics which were picked up. • # of times media picked up any of your blog content Facebook Metrics• # of Facebook “likes” (previously fans)• Money raised through Facebook Causes • # of people who RSVPed to any events you posted on Facebook• # of Facebook “likes” on specific posts Twitter Metrics• # of times your organization is mentioned• # of Twitter retweets• # of Twitter followers over time• # of times your tweets were picked up by influencers• Money raised through Twitter-sourced donations

Social Media Tools UsedListening: TwitterParticipating: TwitterGenerating Buzz: Twitter, E-newslettersSharing Content: YouTube, English and Spanish Blog, Flickr, E-newslettersCommunity-Building: Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn

Toolkit and Measurement Dashboards available for download at:

www.LawHelp.org/NY/toolkit