CREATING A WEBSITE THAT’S A TRAFFIC MAGNET

Christina Inge, CNFPS, July 2011

What Makes a Site a “Traffic Magnet”?

Quality content that gives visitors something beneficial: Information on programs Education Entertainment Community

Good SEO = Being visible when people search for topics related to your activities and mission on Google, Bing, and Yahoo!

SEO Basics

Google, other search engines determine where to rank you when somebody searches on a topic based on a variety of factors How much fresh, interesting content on the topic your

site offers How many good sites link to you How relevant your site’s content is to a specific topic How often you add content to your site How well your page is tagged and structured in

specific ways that help the search engine’s web crawlers index your site, and identify what it’s about

Doing Basic SEO – Keyword Brainstorming

Determine what the key terms are that someone would use if they were looking for information on you, or topics related to your mission

Be specific: use your location, programs

Use keyword research tools to get suggestions, see how popular specific keywords are

•Conservation Boston•Environmental Organization Boston•Environmental Education Boston

Web Analytics

Where are your visitors coming from? Can you increase your visibility on your best sources of traffic?

What do your visitors like to see? Can you give them more of that content?

What terms do your best visitors search on to find you? Can you advertise on those terms? Create more content around those topics?

Getting People to Link to Your Site

Article postings Write informative articles,

not ads for your organization Mission-based informative How-to

Museum: History of a type of piece in your collection, biography of artist

Social action: Stories of programs’ impact Cultural: History of the region you serve Environmental: Profile of a species or ecosystem Professional: Useful knowledge for laypersons,

drawing on expertise of members

More Linking Strategies

Directories: General directories are less relevant

today than 10 years ago Find the ones in your discipline:

MuseumsUSA.org, etc Calendars of events

Quality article directories with editorial oversight are best—create content

Press release services have some SEO benefits. Don’t overspend, though

Avoid offers to sell you links to your site

Put Up “Little Drivers Everywhere” Make sure you have a listing in Google Places-not only drives

traffic to your site, but also makes it easier for people to find your location, especially with their phones

Guest blog for leading blogs Use social media frequently Include many links in your newsletter—guest post to other,

compatible nonprofits’ newsletters Encourage visitors to share your content, not just with buttons Use QR codes in visible locations for more information (for

instance, on labels for exhibits), make sure your web address is on all print collateral

Should We Advertise?

Can be effective, but hard to measure the impact

Determine exactly who your target audience is, and how you will reach them: Women 30+ Affluent Active

What content is your audience consuming? Publications Mobile sites Web sites

Getting The Most Out of Your Ad Dollar

Look for nonprofit rates, grants

Combine ads with neighboring orgs

Look for packages Remember, creative is

often 1/3 or more of your ad budget—budget accordingly, develop re-usable creative

Use a Content Management System

Interface that allows easy adding of text/images, includes SEO

WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, variety of niche systems

Why Use A CMS?

Benefits: Anyone in your organization you

provide an account to can add content, making it richer, more current

Control what people can and can’t do on your site. E.g., only admins can change the design

Add a feature that sutomatically prompts anyone adding content to add SEO components, such as a meta description

Easily categorize your content-make it easier for search engines to understand

Update Your Content Often

Visitors will keep coming back Great content types:

Blog posts on current topics, both at your organization and news stories relevant to your mission

Behind-the-scenes looks Useful knowledge-sharing: how-to’s, informative

stories, history, science knowledge

Thank you!

Find out more: Email: christina@oho.com Twitter: @christinainge, @oho Sign up for newsletter:www.oho.com