The importance of ‘online authority’

Attracting online visitors is half the battle for charities. Once they arrive at webpages and apps, charities need to retain their visitors and ensure they visit time and again.

 

Online engagement is vital to attract and keep supporters, as well as promote charities’ work to the public, stakeholders, and policy makers.

 

But to achieve this, charities need to ensure they have ‘online authority’. This refers to the stature and reputation of a website among users.

 

Such authority can be best achieved by ensuring the charity’s voice is that of an expert, backed by strong content, which is being talked about in the media and policy makers.

 

Online authority can be achieved through ensuring technology is supporting this expert voice, by ensuring links to pages and posts work properly and take the user to quality content.

 

Here we focus on the latest research into what online authority is and how best it can be achieved. We look at who the sleeping giants among charities are in terms of achieving online authority in 2024.

 

 

Who has ‘online authority’?

 

Online authority has emerged as a key way for charities to ensure their websites and apps are effectively engaging with the public and stakeholders, according to research published in 2024 by marketing firm Saliance.

 

Its analysis has rated UK charities for the performance of their online content, in terms of viewers, search engine growth and their authority.

 

The charities that have done well in its rankings are those that offer users “high quality links gained through topical and brand relevant digital PR” rather than seek to attract them from
“spammy link building”.

 

According to Saliance, the top five charities in attracting users through authoritative content, which is easy to find on search engines and talked about by the media, are: The National Trust, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, RSPCA, and The Woodland Trust.

 

“Hats off to these guys,” said Saliance. “They’ve built their house right and have the search marketing strategy to expand.”

 

Saliance’s research found that over the last 12 months these charities had increased their profile in online searches over the last year.

 

The British Heart Foundation saw 50% growth in online searches for its websites. The Woodland Trust saw growth of 64% over the year.

 

The research is based on organic search traffic, using keywords for charities’ websites, URLs, and subfolders, to assess growth or decline.

 

“These brands are the ones to watch. They’re on the rise with the biggest growth in the market, says Saliance. “Whatever they’re doing, search engines are loving it and you’ll want to work out what that is and emulate their strategies, fast.”

 

 

Sleeping giants

 

Saliance’s research has also sought to find ‘sleeping giants’ who rank high for online authority but have relatively low traffic scores.

 

These sleeping giants include: NSPCC, drinkaware.co.uk, Breast Cancer Now, Samaritans, and Peta.

 

This research suggests they are producing authoritative content for visitors but need to do more work to attract more users, perhaps by improving “on-site” issues, says Saliance. 

 

Such issues could be around search engine optimisation (SEO), content, structure of websites or a technical reason.  

 

“These brands could benefit most from resolving their on-site tech and structural issues,” says Saliance. “Identification of those problems, and dealing with them in a priority order, should be their key objective.”  

 

 

How you can achieve ‘online authority’

 

As well as solving technical and structural issues, there are plenty of steps that charities can take to improve their online authority.

 

 

Produce regular, quality content.

 

Good ways to achieve this are by focusing on strong human interest case studies of the real lives being helped by the charity. Displaying easy to read expert evidence, including relevant figures, around the charity’s mission is also important. Charity websites should think like publishing editors with a clear schedule in place to ensure deadlines are met.

 

 

Ensure links are of high quality.

 

As well as ensuring links are picked up by search engines, charities should consider the benefits of establishing links with influencers and other charities to promote each other’s links.

 

At all times there needs to be a link to the charity’s cause to ensure it is relevant. Journalists should be encouraged to include a link to the charity in any articles they write.

 

Ensure these links are prominent in press releases.

 

 

Build a social following.

 

Charities’ social media teams need to ensure they are promoting online content on social media platforms. These need to be tailored to different audiences, such as LinkedIn’s professional users and Instagram’s younger visitors.

 

 

Get recognised

 

There are plenty of award schemes run by specialist media and sector bodies to recognised excellence in the charity sector. Ensure that any online content, from promotional videos to well-designed webpages, are being entered. When prizes are won proudly show them off online to further build ‘authority’ in the charity and its work.