Tips and hints to improve your SEO

The Charity Digital Skills Report 2024 flagged up that nearly a third of charities (30%) say their skills are poor at search engine optimisation (SEO). That means those charities are potentially missing out on attracting more supporters, volunteers, service users, and even new colleagues.

 

But back to basics. Why is SEO important? If you want people to find your website, you need to appear near the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Make it easy for people to find you online, then the higher you appear in searches, the more traffic you’re likely to get. In fact, research shows that the first result in Google gets approximately 27.6% of all clicks.  

 

There are lots of aspects to SEO as we explain in our in-depth – but super-simple – guide to SEO. And here are nine quick pointers to get that traffic flowing.

 

 

Create SEO content for your audience

 

If you’re working to improve your SEO, it can be tempting to create content purely for that reason. But ironically, to up your ratings, you need to focus on creating content that will appeal to your audience (not what you think Google will pick up on).

 

Think about what content your audience wants, or even better, ask them. Then use that as your starting point when planning new content. It needs to be useful, informative and high quality. As Google itself puts it, aim for your content to be: ‘helpful, reliable, and people-first: Be sure that you’re writing content that your readers will find helpful and reliable.’ 

 

 

Pick the right SEO keywords

 

SEO is about attracting the right people to your site, and to do that you’ll want to use the same vocabulary as your supporters.

 

There are some free SEO tools you can use to identify the most appropriate keywords. But one quick tip is to try out some keywords that your audience might use. For example, if you’ve written a blog about “How to manage MS symptoms”, type that into Google, and take a look at the ‘People also ask’ suggestions. This can give you an insight into other phrases you can include in your copy. Using them as sub-heads can be particularly helpful. 

 

 

Don’t stuff keywords

 

While keywords are important, don’t stuff them into every other sentence. It can be clunky and off-putting for readers (besides, keyword stuffing is against Google’s spam policies).

 

Use language that sounds natural.  

 

 

Update your content regularly

 

Optimising your site isn’t a one-off event. Producing new content regularly can help to up your ranking. Every time your website is updated, the search engine takes notice.

 

But remember to go for quality, not quantity. Sloppy content won’t do you any favours in terms of Google ratings and can put off your existing supporters.

 

So write a new blog, share photos of a recent event, or tell your audience about recent research. 

 

 

Alt text your images

 

Well-written alt text needs to describe the image, be specific and concise. Google shares advice on how to write good alt text, while Scope has alt text tips that will help your SEO as well as improve accessibility. It recommends using around 125 characters, not being overly descriptive, and editing any automatically generated alt text. 

 

 

Check your internal and external links

 

Broken links and missing pages (404 errors) can damage your ranking – and also make your site look unprofessional. Take some time to locate broken links. One way of doing this is through Google Search Console. Then either remove the link completely or replace it with one that works. The problem could be something as simple as a typo in the URL.

 

 

Keep title tags short

 

A title tag is the copy that pops up in a Google search listing. The ideal length for this is 60 characters (around 10 words). Make sure these are front-loaded so that the most important copy shows up first. For example, always include the name of your charity up front, so it’s not cropped off (particularly if it’s being read on a smaller screen).

 

 

Use longtail keywords

 

A longtail keyword is a phrase of usually three to five words. For example, instead of using a keyword of ‘homeless’, use a longtail keyword of ‘homeless young person in London’.

 

It’s way more specific and much more targeted to the audience you’re trying to reach.

 

 

Take it from Google

 

While Google isn’t the only search engine, it does have 91% of the market share. It’s a good idea to invest some time into understanding Google’s own SEO recommendations. To dive deeper, take a look at Google’s SEO starter guide, which was updated in February 2024.