During challenging economic times, charities can be hit especially hard. As regular donors tighten their monetary belts, their budget for making donations to charities may be cut significantly. During times like these, charities with websites often search for more ways to gain mindshare among new, would-be donors. Enter search engine optimization (SEO). By employing simple, straightforward techniques, even charities who are strapped for cash can take actions to boost their sites’ rankings for desirable keywords on top search engines like Google and Yahoo!. And, of course top rankings means better visibility and improved mindshare.

Here are 5 SEO tips for charities:

1. Determine the keywords for which you would like your website to rank well:

Most would-be donors are generally not going to be searching the Internet for keywords that include the name of your organization. Even if they are, those are not the people whom you want to target for your SEO activities: you can safely presume that they will be able to find you if they are looking for you. No, rather it is those more generic keywords that relate to your organization’s mission and goals for which you want your site to be ranking well. For example, an animal rescue charity may want to rank well for keywords such as “dog rescue,” “cat neutring,” or “dog pound.” So, start your SEO efforts by creating a list of your most desirable keywords.

2. Review your website for content optimization opportunities:

80% of good SEO involves a combination of the following two straightforward, no-frills practices:

a. getting other, high-quality sites to link to your site

b. having keyword-optimized content on your website

(note: the final 20% is the bag of tricks and techniques that seasoned Internet marketers learn over time).

And really, both of these practices boil down to one thing: good, relevant, keyword-optimized content. So, take a look at your current site and make sure you have keyword-optimized content - and lots of it!

3. Request backlinks directly from other sites:

Ask any hard-working Webmaster conducting SEO on a regular basis: building backlinks to one’s site is no trivial task. However, charities have a unique advantage over for-profit organizations such as companies in this department due to the fact that the former are presumably out to explictly perform some public service: a benefit to society, people, the environment or the world-at-large. In other words: they are often what people term “do-gooders.” And, for some unwritten reason, do-gooders can stand up tall and - with little justification or explanation - boldly request a backlink without flenching or hesitating. And, provided you are contacting the right kinds of sites, you have a better chance of your request being honored! Still, even though it is a simpler task for charities to request backlinks, your site still needs to feature compelling content on it if you want people to respond positively. Which brings us to our next point.

4. Build fresh, new content for your site regularly:

Search engines love fresh content. They eat it up, in fact. They are hungry for it and are always looking for it. For your site to get noticed by search engines, you need to update it regularly with new, interesting, keyword-optimized content. Create a blog. Write articles. Publish a regular newsletter. Post white papers about your organization. Host an online forum wherein people can discuss issues important to your organization. Remember, the lifeblood of your site is content, content, content. Never forget that and you will always be on the right track.

5. Be the expert:

There are sites on the Internet called expert sites where people post questions in hopes of getting answers from (self-proclaimed) experts. And, people in fact do post answers. Why? Not only to help others or to be in fact recognized as an expert; they also do it to build backlinks to their sites. A good place to start is LinkedIn Answers (http://www.linkedin.com/answers), but there are many other good ones, as well.

If you are interested in garnering more attention for your charity during challenging economic times like these, consider putting more effort into promoting your website to search engines. It is a smart way to gain better visibility and potentially increase donations. And the time and effort you spent now, if spent wisely, will pay off for months or years to come.

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