4 Website Mistakes That Affect Your Nonprofit’s Search Engine Rankings

Time to read: 4 minutes

Google

Search engines are difficult to figure out as there are many aspects to consider before your website can appear on the first page of search engine rankings.

Did you know that Google owns 91.05% of the market, while Bing only has a 3.74% share? That means your website must comply with all Google Analytics rules to rank higher.

Let’s say you run a nonprofit. However, your website isn’t getting enough visitors. That means your website design, search engine optimization (SEO), or marketing isn’t right.

As of 2023, the United States had nearly 19,99,457 tax-exempt organizations. Among them, 73,467 were social welfare institutions. To stand out in this competition, you need to increase your website traffic and avoid making SEO mistakes.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss some ways nonprofits can optimize their websites to increase organic traffic.

Mistake #1: Not designing a dedicated website

Web design

According BizBolster Web SolutionsWebsites are more than just adding words and images to a template. They are about attracting visitors, engaging with potential customers, and facilitating conversion rates. Your nonprofit website will be the sole marketing hub and can become the primary tool for attracting people to your web pages.

To create an outstanding and functional website, you will need a unique and responsive web design. This will improve the user experience and positively affect the session duration of each web page. Take a look at some tips to increase visibility with a responsive web design:

  • Adapt website designs and narrative elements that resonate with your image.
  • Optimize videos and images regularly to improve loading times.
  • Implement fluid layouts and flexible grids to adapt to screen resolutions.
  • Make sure website elements, page titles, and images are understandable and clear.
  • Use a relaxing color palette that is neither too bright nor too washed out.
  • Strategically place promotional items and clear mission statements.
  • Use intuitive navigation, donor-friendly features, and impactful visuals.

For inspiration, you can visit the Girls Who Code website. This website ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) due to its clear mission statement, complementary images, vibrant colors, dedicated donation page, etc.

Mistake #2: Not optimizing for mobile devices

laptop

According StatesmanMobile devices account for half of the world’s web traffic. Last year, these devices generated 58.67% of global traffic. This statistic proves that ignoring mobile optimization can hurt a nonprofit’s online presence.

It goes without saying that the number of mobile users is increasing, which means your nonprofit needs to offer a positive user experience to reduce bounce rates and increase engagement. Mobile-friendliness means optimized web pages that your visitors can visit on their smartphones, tablets, etc.

Did you know that mobile-friendliness and responsive website design go hand in hand? When designing a responsive website, you optimize the site structure for different screen sizes.

Industry leaders have listed a few ways you can make your nonprofit website mobile-friendly:

  • Use Google Search Console tools to help measure a website’s search traffic, performance, etc.
  • Make donations user-centric to ensure that “giving” is easy from any device with different payment methods.
  • Regularly perform quality checks and fix any issues with your website’s text styling, images, and links on mobile devices.

Mistake #3: Lack of SEO friendliness

Search Engine Optimization: 4 Website Mistakes That Affect Your Nonprofit's Search Engine Ranking

Did you know that organic clicks accounted for over 45% of clicks on search results two years ago? What’s more, Google’s algorithm includes over two hundred factors that SEO experts must take into account.

If your nonprofit website is not ranking well, then you probably don’t have relevant keywords based on search intent to attract your target audience.

You will need to hire a website design and SEO service provider to help you solve this problem. They will optimize your website’s headings, content, and meta tags with relevant keywords to increase visibility in search results. Their SEO efforts will improve poorly structured URLs, add alt text for images, reduce slow page loading times, and so on.

To improve your nonprofit website’s search engine optimization (SEO), experts will follow these tips:

  • Content Keyword Research
  • Focus on local SEO tactics
  • Regular updates for faster loading
  • Incorporate internal links and fix broken links
  • Optimize meta descriptions
  • Post high-quality content to improve engagement

Mistake #4: Improper Backlink Building

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Your nonprofit’s online presence is probably declining due to poor off-page SEO tactics. Research suggests that 96.55% of content doesn’t get organic traffic from Google. To be in the other 3.45%, your website will need backlinks.

Ideally, a backlink or inbound link is a link building tactic that allows your nonprofit website to gain traffic from other sites. It can help you improve authority and increase visibility in search engines. To improve backlinks, you should follow these tips:

  • Create engaging, shareable content to encourage organic links.
  • Network with other nonprofits or influencers to collaborate.
  • Submit guest posts highlighting your services on authoritative websites.

With the help of these tips, your website can attract search engines. Crawlers for indexing pages and establish better search rankings. To do this, remember to make the website responsive, use a non-profit SEO strategy, offer mobile optimization, improve meta tags, etc.

With these tips, you’ll be one step closer to maximizing your digital marketing tactics. As a nonprofit, these website redesign tips can help raise awareness about your organization in local search results.