How SEO can Boost your Fundraising Efforts

Posted by Omolade Bangudu on 1 February 2023

You’ve finally decided on the fundraising idea you want to go ahead with. You’ve chosen the cause or charity you’re raising money for, and you’ve even started telling family and friends about your upcoming challenge – cue the excited nerves starting to kick in!

Now it’s time to start thinking about how you will get donations for your amazing cause. There are lots of ways to achieve this, but for this article, we wanted to focus on how SEO can help you to raise those all-important funds.

Learn exactly what ‘SEO’ is, and how you can use it to your advantage in your fundraising campaign. We explain it simply, so no matter what your level of experience with websites is, you’ll be armed and ready to put your best page forward – so people can find your brilliant fundraising cause.

What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a way to help your website or fundraising page show up higher in search engines like Google, when people search for topics and keywords related to your website or page. It’s essentially a way of explaining to search engines what the page is about, so they can show your page to relevant searches.

For example, say your name’s Joanna and you’re doing a fancy dress fundraising walk in Brighton to raise money for Cancer Research. You may have secured coverage of your fundraising walk on a local radio show. Someone listening to the radio show may be inspired to donate, so when they search on Google using a phrase such as ‘Joanna’s fancy dress fundraising walk Brighton’ you want your page to feature high up in search results so they can find your donation page. You can use SEO to achieve this.

Why your fundraising event needs SEO

SEO is a powerful tool for fundraising because it helps more people to find your fundraising website or page, so that you can reach more donors, and ultimately, raise more money for your cause.

Additionally, having a strong online presence, achieved by using SEO techniques, can also help to establish trust and credibility with potential donors – making them more likely to donate.

You don’t need to be an SEO expert or even be super technically savvy to make use of this free tool, just follow the steps below and it will help you to feature more prominently in search results, boosting your fundraising efforts.

How to optimize your fundraising page for SEO: Your Fundraising SEO checklist

1. Start with your keywords

Before you do anything, start with keywords! 

The simplest place to start is with your fundraising event name. The more unique this is, the easier it will be to rank highly for, as there will be less competition on search engines. 

For example, say you’re running a battle of the bands fundraising event in New York for the American Diabetes Association. You’ve decided to call your event ‘Ultimate Rock Challenge New York 2023’. 

Your initial target keywords, which you’ll want to include on your page are:

• Ultimate Rock challenge New York 2023
• Ultimate Rock challenge New York
• Rock Challenge New York
• Rock Challenge New York 2023

Next: Identify your fundraising event’s main themes: Think about the purpose of your fundraising event, the cause it supports, and the main themes it covers. This will help you to discover the different phrases and keywords people could type in search engines to discover your fundraiser.

Using the example above, your theme keywords could include:

• Diabetes fundraiser 
• Diabetes fundraising event New York
• Battle of the bands fundraising event near me
• Battle of the bands fundraiser New York
• Rock concert for Diabetes New York 

The above are just an example selection of keywords, but you could also use a search engine such as Google, to see which other pages rank well and the words utilized within their organic listings.

2. Choose your main keywords

Whilst you’ll want a selection of keywords within your page content, to help rank for a variety of searches, you will need to tell search engines (such as Google) which keywords are most important to the page. These keywords will feature in your page titles and metadata, which we’ll come on to later.

Using the previous example above, your main keywords might be:

• Ultimate Rock challenge New York 2023
• Battle of the bands fundraiser New York
• Diabetes fundraising event New York

3. Write your (unique) content

Now you’ve established your keywords, it’s time to write your SEO optimized page copy.

For this you’ll need at least 250 words (ideally 500+), which includes:

• A title (using your main keywords)
• H tags (learn more about these below)
• Numbered or bulleted lists (such as reasons for fundraising for this cause)

The key thing is to make sure this copy is unique. Don’t copy and paste from a similar event, because search engines give more ranking power to original content. Use the first paragraphs to get across why you’re doing this event and why you need donations in a clear and concise way, then use the rest of the page content to go into further detail – giving you the opportunity to include your keyword list.

Just make sure you don’t include the same keyword too many times – as this is something search engines consider ‘spammy’, which means your page won’t rank as well. 

4. Make your H tags SEO friendly

H tags are used to format the text on a webpage and give structure to the content. They range from H1 to H6, with H1 being the most important and H6 the least.

In terms of SEO, using H tags can help improve the readability of your content and make it easier for search engines to understand the hierarchy of your content. Here are some tips on how to use SEO optimized H tags for your fundraising page:

• Use only one H1 tag per page: The H1 tag should be used for the main title of your page and should include your most important keyword.
• Use H2 and H3 tags for subheadings: Use H2 tags for subheadings within the main content, and H3 tags for further subheadings within the H2 sections. Again, your keywords identified in stage 1 should be used in H2 and H3’s. 
• Keep headings concise and descriptive – avoid using headings that are too vague or generic.
• Use headings to create a logical structure for your content and make it easy for both users and search engines to understand what your page is about.

By following these guidelines, you can use H tags to make your fundraising page more readable and search engine friendly. Using our battle of the bands example, an SEO optimized title tag (H1) for this fundraising page could be:

• Ultimate Rock Challenge New York 2023

And an optimized H2 tag could be

• American Diabetes Association Fundraising Event New York

5. Use SEO friendly metadata

Metadata is information about a web page that is not visible to the user but is used by search engines to understand the content and context of the page. Metadata includes elements such as the page title and page description.

To use metadata to improve your fundraising page’s search engine ranking potential, we recommend that you:

1. Use a unique and descriptive page title.

The page title should accurately reflect the content of the page and be no longer than 70 characters in total. Here at Givergy, we include our brand name at the end of each page title – this adds an element of brand trust and authority to the page. We therefore recommend your fundraising title should be no longer than 50 characters.

For example: Ultimate Rock Challenge New York 2023 | Powered by Givergy

2. Write a compelling meta description.

The meta description should be a brief summary of the page’s content and should entice users to click through to the page. Keep it under 155 characters.

For example: Join us for an incredible battle of the bands concert in New York as we raise money for American Diabetes Association. Get tickets now. 

6. Add optimized images

You should add images to your fundraising page since these also act as a useful SEO tool, which can help improve your page’s visibility and ranking.

Here’s some useful tips for adding SEO optimized images to your web page:

• Make the images unique! Avoid stock images if you can. Originality is key.
  
• Use descriptive file names which include your keywords in, to help search engines understand the context of the images.
  
• Use alt text: Alt text is used to describe the content of an image to search engines and users who are visually impaired. Use descriptive, keyword-rich alt text to help search engines understand the context of the images.
  
• Compress your images: Large, unoptimized images can slow down the loading time of a page, which can negatively impact search engine rankings. Use image compression tools to reduce the file size (but don’t go too far that you sacrifice on image quality!). 

7. Make your page indexable on search engines

Once you’ve created your page, it’s important Google can actually find it! To make your fundraising page indexable on search engines you should check the page isn’t being blocked. Sometimes blocking factors such as robots.txt files, password protection, or noindex tags can prevent a page from showing in Google. You may need a web developer or website specialist to check this for you as this is quite technical, but they should understand the request and be able to check this for you easily. Using Givergy’s platform, we ensure that your fundraising page is available to search engines and present in the organic search results.

8. Keep your page regularly updated

Search engines love content that is kept up to date, so keep refreshing your webpage weekly with updates about your fundraising campaign – just be sure to leave your keywords in there!

Start using SEO in your fundraising campaign today

We hope it’s clear the important role SEO can play in increasing the number of donations for your campaign, and ultimately its overall success. By following the steps outlined above, you can improve your page’s search engine rankings and ultimately boost your fundraising efforts. If you have any questions about setting up and optimizing your fundraising page, please contact our expert team for more information.